Early Childhood Research Summit connects researchers, educators, policymakers

Early childhood educators, researchers and policymakers are finding ways to improve the field, starting with connecting with each other. The three groups came together at the Early Childhood Research Summit in Lincoln on Tuesday.

The Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools hosted the event in partnership with First Five Nebraska and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute. This is the seventh meeting of the biannual conference.

Attendees heard about a variety of research across the field, including findings with homeschool partnerships, ways to improve the workforce shortage and structures that benefit children.

Lisa Knoche, director of the Nebraska Academy of Early Childhood Research and an associate professor for the CYFS, said it’s essential to connect these groups to help families with their children’s education.

“We know that this is a critically important developmental period,” Knoche said. “We know that some of the best information can come from this intersection in active dialogue between research, practice and policy.”

Susan Sheridan, director for CYFS, said she hopes people walked away with strategies they can implement in their work — whether it’s in research, making laws or in the classroom.

“It's very action-oriented, so we're expecting that people will walk out of the sessions today with new ideas with tools that they can use and new relationships with practitioners and policymakers and researchers,” Sheridan said.

According to Sheridan, connecting these three groups will help with tackling the critical issues in early childhood education.