South Carolina First Steps (First Steps) has contracted Child Trends to conduct a series of four legislatively mandated evaluations of its county-based local partnerships and highest-funded program offerings over five years. The goal of these mixed-methods evaluations is to understand how First Steps is meeting its legislative goals to ensure that South Carolina’s youngest children are healthy and safe, actively supported by their families and communities, and ready to reach their highest potential when they enter school. Below, we list the focus of the four evaluations conducted as part of this project:
- Evaluation 1 (FY 2019-2023): First Steps local partnerships
- Evaluation 2 (FY 2020-2024): Parents as Teachers
- Evaluation 3 (FY 2021-2025): Child Care Technical Assistance and Coaching (previously Child Care Quality Enhancement)
- Evaluation 4 (FY 2022-2026): TBD
Child Trends will evaluate First Steps local partnerships and programs during a defined evaluation period (typically the past five fiscal years from the start of the evaluation). Each evaluation will answer whether the programs or services met their intended legislative objectives (i.e., objectives evaluation), whether and how programs were completed to fidelity (i.e., process or implementation evaluation), and the impact of the program on expected outcomes (i.e., outcomes evaluation). Child Trends also intentionally engages voices from across the early childhood system to inform evaluation findings and recommendations, including state administrators, local partnership executive directors, service providers and practitioners, and families.
Beyond the evaluation, Child Trends also provides a continuous quality improvement support to help key decision makers put evaluation findings and recommendations into action. This six-month follow-up support will be tailored to the audience and driven by how to implement the findings in context.
Background
Established in 1999, South Carolina First Steps is both a state agency and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports families with young children at risk for school readiness challenges. Governed by a Board of Trustees (a collaborative body representing nine member agencies providing services to young children) and supported by state office staff, the agency partners with 46 county-level local partnerships that deliver locally tailored programs. Each local partnership (led by an executive director and local board) manages operations, planning, and compliance. Together, they provide services across four areas—health, parenting, early care and education, and school transition—to ensure that children are healthy, safe, supported, and ready to learn. All programs are classified as evidence-based or evidence-informed and vary in service intensity.
Intended impacts of the evaluation
Provide information to South Carolina First Steps and the South Carolina General Assembly about how First Steps initiatives are meeting the following legislative goals, as described in the legislation to establish the initiatives:
- “Goal 1: Provide parents with access to the support they might seek and want to strengthen their families and to promote the optimal development of their preschool children
- Goal 2: Increase comprehensive services to reduce the risk of major physical, developmental, and learning problems in children
- Goal 3: Promote high-quality preschool programs that provide a healthy environment that will promote normal growth and development
- Goal 4: Provide services so all children receive the protection, nutrition, and health care needed to thrive in the early years of life, so they arrive at school ready to succeed
- Goal 5: Mobilize communities to focus efforts on providing enhanced services to support families and their young children so as to enable every child to reach school healthy and ready to succeed”
Research approach
Each year of the project, we tailor the research approach to match the research questions but consider a mixed methods design based on the evaluation type. We use both quantitative data (through administrative data and primary data collection) and qualitative data (through primary data collection) to answer defined evaluation questions. We consider the population involved with the program (e.g., staff leading the program, family recipients, state office staff) and invite them to share input on the process and outcomes.
Resources
- External Evaluation of South Carolina First Steps Local Partnerships - FY 2019-2023
- Executive Summary: External Evaluation of South Carolina First Steps Local Partnerships - FY 2019-2023
- Infographic: External Evaluation of South Carolina First Steps Local Partnerships - FY 2019-2023
Staff
Project Lead: Van-Kim Lin
Evaluation 1 Team: Van-Kim Lin (lead), Tracy Gebhart, Hannah Wodrich, and Elizabeth Villegas
Evaluation 2 Team: Sarah Crowne (lead), Tracy Gebart, Elizabeth Villegas, and Van-Kim Lin
Evaluation 3 Team: Van-Kim (lead), Tracy Gebhart, and Elizabeth Villegas
Evaluation 4 Team: TBD