EDC supports the development of engaging and safe educational programs for young children.
From birth to age eight, children take the first steps in a lifelong learning journey. EDC speeds them on their way by designing, studying, supporting, and scaling up programs that enhance school readiness and success. We have a special focus on meeting the needs of children from disadvantaged communities and dual language learners, engaging and supporting families, and building the capacity of educators and communities to sustain improvements.
In the United States, we work to create strong, coherent preK-Grade 3 systems and advance knowledge of how to improve early science, mathematics, and literacy learning. Around the world, we implement innovative early childhood programs that build literacy and numeracy skills, excite interest in learning, and help educators, volunteers, and parents enrich early learning.
Read "A Fair Start for Every Child" to learn more about EDC's work to support early childhood learning.
Learn about EDC’s work with Family STEM Communities.
Learn about EDC’s work to strengthen early childhood interventions with Continuous Quality Improvement.
Learn about the work of EDC’s Center for Children and Technology.
Related Content
A New Language for Mathematics
Young children often struggle to write down their mathematical ideas. Could computer programming be an easier language for them?
EDC Talks: Making Time for Family Math
What are some fun, easy activities that families can do to encourage math learning at home? (Hint: You are probably already doing some of them.)
Tapping, Swiping, and Learning Science
Research findings on The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!™ have implications for parents, educators, and educational media developers.
Helping All Children Learn and Thrive
EDC’s David Jacobson discusses his ideas for changing—and improving—early childhood services.
Tools to Support Preschool Learning
New resources support educators on integrating technology and working with emergent bilingual learners.
The Other Side of the Screen
As a researcher, Tiffany Maxon gets to help develop the next generation of children’s television shows.
Projects
Resources
Here are a few of our resources on early childhood development and learning. To see more, visit our Resources section.
This is the summary of a report that presents the results of a first-of-its-kind national survey of parents, who were asked about the types of early science educational activities they do with their young children.
This article explores the effects of EDC’s Tikichuela early childhood mathematics initiative, developed with the government of Paraguay.
This issue brief summarizes information from multiple sources to offer insight into three critical questions.
Authored by EDC and the National Institute for Early Education Research, this brief looks at state policies and regulations regarding pre-K expansion that have the potential to positively impact child care quality and access for low-income working families.
This study of Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI), written for the World Bank by EDC staff, shows that radio is an accessible and effective tool for active learning inside and outside of the classroom.
Through the Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (HV CoIIN), EDC guides Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program awardees in using continuous quality im
This study examines First 10 Schools and Communities—coordinated efforts to improve teaching, learning, and care during the first decade of children’s lives.
This case study walks through a town's response to developing an early childhood prevention program by walking through how they conducted a needs assessment and developed their capacity building plan.
This brief describes how EDC works with multi-sector partners to pioneer new ways to harness the power of digital tools to support families and enhance early teaching, learning, and health promotion.
This report presents findings from a study that examined whether child care providers that partnered with Head Start programs showed improvements in the quality of their services compared with similar child care providers that did not partner with Head Start. The authors report that partnership predicts improved classroom quality; partnership duration predicts observed quality; and partnership predicts some improvements in school readiness outcomes.