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.

Resources

Here are a few of our resources on early childhood development and learning. To see more, visit our Resources section.

White papers

In this paper, the authors discuss the purpose, design, and launch of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s first ever Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (HV CoIIN).

White papers

This EDC brief spotlights how important it is for new mothers to receive responsive and supportive postpartum care.

Reports

This report, intended for early childhood educators, identifies promising practices to support emergent bilinguals in a variety of early childcare settings.

White papers

The Learning Generation Initiative strategy is a comprehensive road map that outlines our vision and strategic initiatives.

Toolkits

This resource focuses on how distance education technology benefits teachers and teaching.

Resource libraries

The Children’s Safety Network (CSN) is a national resource center for the prevention of childhood injuries and violence.

Reports

This report summarizes the results of the Time to Learn project in Zambia, which was funded by the U.S.

Reports

As part of the 2015–2020 Ready To Learn Initiative, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) devised a new model of community partnerships called Comm

Reports

This brief describes EDC’s deep commitment to ensuring that all young children have the support they need during the critical early childhood window of time.

Reports

To better understand the implementation of prekindergarten legislation (Act 166) in Vermont, this study describes the relationship between the characteristics and location of prekindergarten childr