Latest News
Colorado Preschool Development Grant Cost Evaluation and Needs Assessment
Colorado’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG) provides $33.5 million to support Colorado’s vision that all children are ready for school when entering kindergarten. Colorado Shines Brighter, the state’s PDG B-5 initiative, works to maximize the number of high-quality early care and education options available to families, especially families identified as vulnerable and underserved such as those living in rural areas, families of infants and toddlers, and families of children with special needs.
Brodsky Research is partnering with the Butler Institute to conduct a cost evaluation of Colorado Shines Brighter. This work provides a picture of program expenses and is intended to help create financial efficiencies and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of program outcomes.

Strengthening Colorado’s Early Childhood Workforce

Presentation at the Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference
Each year, the Annual Conference of the Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors hosts one of the nation’s most dynamic conversations about the feasibility, research, and policy implications of Pay for Success programs. The conference is organized by the Institute for Child Success, Ready Nation, and Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah, with whom I partner as a Senior Research Fellow.
read more…
Presentation on Pay For Success at Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference
Last week I had the opportunity to present on the opportunities and challenges presented by Pay For Success programs in early childhood. Two early childhood PFS are already in progress in the U.S. – in Chicago and Utah — and another has just been launched in South Carolina. PFS programs have great potential to inject capital into effective social programs who sorely need it. However, they must be structured in such a way as to ensure program effectiveness and quality implementation; to minimize risk for investors; and to enable scaling and sustainability.
The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here.
Two Definitions of Child Care Quality
As I think about the conversations I heard about early childhood in the past year, I find people are usually speaking the same language. At conferences, in journals, and in legislative chambers, those of us who live within the early childhood realm generally agree that early childhood is a great public investment. We also agree that, in general, attention and resources ought to be focused on children who are traditionally underserved.
Amidst all of this agreement, there remains an central unanswered question: What is quality? This is a question that the field has not fully answered. In part that’s because there is not one “right” answer to the question. In many ways, the field is asking us to define our terms. read more…
Andrew Brodsky Partnering With Policy Innovation Lab On Pay For Success TA

The Five Warning Signs Of EAU (Evaluation As Usual)
Is your organization suffering from Evaluation As Usual (EAU)? Symptoms of EAU include overly enthusiastic language about successes, wish-washy discussion of potentially negative results, and a general lack of objective and critical data analysis and discussion.
Evaluation can be expensive, and billions of dollars are disbursed every year based on its results. With this kind of money at stake, it’s essential that funders are getting the most mileage possible out of their evaluation dollars. Unfortunately, however, much of this money is being directed to EAU. This is, perhaps, unsurprising: the central irony of program evaluation is that is usually funded by the very organizations who sponsored the program under inspection, posing a natural conflict of interest. With reputations and funding dollars at stake, challenging EAU is sometimes difficult. read more…
EC State Advisory Councils Final Report Highlights Colorado and New York Cost-Effectiveness Models
The final report from the Early Childhood State Advisory Councils, released in May, documents the $92 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to 45 states to help build higher-quality early childhood systems. The funding touched the lives of millions of children across the country and helped inform President Obama’s 2013 early learning plan.
Among the grant’s legislative requirements were to conduct periodic statewide needs analyses, to identify strategies for better collaboration, and to increase participation among underrepresented groups. In order to advance these goals, two states, Colorado and New York, built interactive early childhood cost-benefit models to measure the current scope of the state’s early childhood system and to estimate the costs and benefits of program improvement. I was excited to have the opportunity to help develop both of these models in partnership with APA Consulting and each state’s early childhood advisory council. read more…
Cool New Cost Effectiveness Tool From Center For Cost-Benefit Studies
Apart from the words “free ice cream”, there’s nothing more exciting in my mailbox than an e-mail that says “new web-based cost-effectiveness tool.” Given the approximately 550$ billion we spend on K-12 education alone in this country, understanding the impact of our investment is more important than ever – so the easier it is to create accurate and complete cost-effectiveness analyses, the better.
The Center for Benefit-Cost Studies (CBCS) at Columbia University has just released Cost Out, a web-based tool to facilitate the estimation of costs and benefits of public programs. The tool is based on the “ingredients” method, developed by CBCSE Director Henry Levin and Patrick McEwan, and described in detail in their 2001 book Cost-effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications.
The ingredients method involves tallying the individual components of a program’s cost. In the education context, these could include teacher salaries, classroom materials, or administrative costs. The ingredients method is often preferable to other cost-effectiveness approaches because it uses actual cost inputs rather than budget figures, and thus more accurately reflects actual expenditures for a program.
What Programs Are Appropriate For Pay For Success?
In April I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on Pay For Success (PFS) programs at the annual Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference in San Diego. Jointly sponsored by the Institute for Child Success and ReadyNation, the conference is the only one to focus specifically on early childhood PFS social impact financing.
Sessions at this year’s conference covered areas including investing, risk management, contracting, capacity building, early childhood program features, and global developments. My panel, titled “The Data You Need And How To Get It,” focused on the methodological aspects of Pay for Success. I was fortunate to present with two co-panelists, Mark Innocenti from Utah State University and Christina Altamayer of the Children & Families Commission of Orange County, who provided in-depth illustrations of the challenges associated with data collection and analysis for PFS programs. read more…
All Posts
Colorado Preschool Development Grant Cost Evaluation and Needs Assessment
Colorado’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG) provides $33.5 million to support Colorado’s vision that all children are ready for school when entering kindergarten. Colorado Shines Brighter, the state’s PDG B-5 initiative, works to maximize the number of high-quality early care and education options available to families, especially families identified as vulnerable and underserved such as those living in rural areas, families of infants and toddlers, and families of children with special needs.
Strengthening Colorado’s Early Childhood Workforce
BRC is partnering with the Butler Institute at the University of Denver to better understand the economic contribution of the child care sector, and to determine sustainable strategies for building a highly qualified workforce.
Presentation at the Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference
Each year, the Annual Conference of the Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors hosts one of the nation’s most dynamic conversations about the feasibility, research, and policy implications of Pay for Success programs. The conference is organized by the Institute for Child Success, Ready Nation, and Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah, with whom I partner as a Senior Research Fellow.
Presentation on Pay For Success at Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference
Last week I had the opportunity to present on the opportunities and challenges presented by Pay For Success programs in early childhood. Two early childhood PFS are already in progress in the U.S. – in Chicago and Utah — and another has just been launched in South Carolina.
Two Definitions of Child Care Quality
As I think about the conversations I heard about early childhood in the past year, I find people are usually speaking the same language. At conferences, in journals, and in legislative chambers, those of us who live within the early childhood realm generally agree...
Andrew Brodsky Partnering With Policy Innovation Lab On Pay For Success TA
I’m excited to be working with the Policy Innovation Lab at the University of Utah’s Sorensen Global Impact Investing Center to help develop Pay For Success programs across the Western U.S. The PIL works across sectors to develop innovative, data-driven...
The Five Warning Signs Of EAU (Evaluation As Usual)
Is your organization suffering from Evaluation As Usual (EAU)? Symptoms of EAU include overly enthusiastic language about successes, wish-washy discussion of potentially negative results, and a general lack of objective and critical data analysis and discussion....
EC State Advisory Councils Final Report Highlights Colorado and New York Cost-Effectiveness Models
The final report from the Early Childhood State Advisory Councils, released in May, documents the $92 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to 45 states to help build higher-quality early childhood systems. The funding touched the lives...
Cool New Cost Effectiveness Tool From Center For Cost-Benefit Studies
Apart from the words “free ice cream”, there’s nothing more exciting in my mailbox than an e-mail that says “new web-based cost-effectiveness tool.” Given the approximately 550$ billion we spend on K-12 education alone in this country, understanding the impact of...
What Programs Are Appropriate For Pay For Success?
In April I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on Pay For Success (PFS) programs at the annual Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference in San Diego. Jointly sponsored by the Institute for Child Success and ReadyNation, the conference...
The Promise of Pay For Success In Early Childhood
I contributed a post this week to What Works In America's Communities, a blog based on the recent book of the same name, which promotes innovative ideas that are helping to build stronger communities across the nation. Pay For Success financing structures fund social...
Child Care in Canada: The Child Care 2020 Conference
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Child Care 2020 Conference in Winnipeg. The conference is the fourth national child care conference in Canada's history and the first in a decade. Presenters from around the country and overseas talked about issues...
Improving Outcomes for Latino Kids
BRC is excited to be working with the Boulder Community Foundation to help evaluate an initiative aimed at improving outcomes for Latino families.
Three Lessons on Early Childhood Systems From Smart Start
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the annual Smart Start conference in Greensboro, N.C. The conference also draws a spectrum of early childhood policy, research, practitioners and advocates from around the nation, in addition to a good chunk of North...
Early Childhood Cost-Effectiveness in Colorado: RMECC Presentation
I had the opportunity to present some updated analyses of the cost-effectiveness of early childhood investments in Colorado at March's Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference. The RMECC itself is a blast as it draws an unusually diverse combination of folks from all...
Rallying Economic Support for Early Care and Education
State leaders who are trying to rally support for early education can use several strategies to make sure their message comes across loud and clear. In a new post on the Build Initiative's blog, I outline five messages that advocates and policymakers can use in their...
Why Is Preschool ‘Hot’?
Preschool is now “hot”, according to the New York Times. “If early childhood education were an actor, it would be Tom Cruise or Meryl Streep,” Gail Collins writes. “If it were a video game, it would be Candy Crush or Angry Birds.” It’s true that preschool...
Investor Returns in a Pay-For-Success Preschool Program in Colorado
There is increased buzz around the country for Pay For Success financing programs for early childhood initiatives. Sometimes referred to as Social Impact Bonds, these programs allow investors to underwrite the costs of social programs and then reap financial benefits...
Early Childhood Cost Estimation in Developing Nations – My Presentation at ARNEC
Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Asia Regional Early Childhood Network (ARNEC) conference in Singapore. It was remarkable to connect with engaged, passionate early childhood advocates from around the world. This week I report on my presentation at ARNEC...
Costing Out The New Preschool Proposal
Last week, Congress introduced the Strong Start for America’s Children Act, which would expand high-quality preschool, Early Head Start, and home visiting across the United States. The bill is similar to President Obama’s Preschool For All plan, though with some...
Early Education on the Ballot
As people go to the polls around the country, a number of early education initiatives are on this years’ ballots. Last week I wrote about Colorado’s Amendment 66, which would allot $950 million to education, of which $165 million would go to fund full-day...
Funding Preschool in Colorado Could Create Billions in Benefits
Next week Colorado will vote on a constitutional amendment to raise $950 million for education funding. Amendment 66, which Governor John Hickenlooper somewhat hubristically claims would be “one of the most comprehensive education-reform initiatives in the history of...
Evidence Base for Preschool: New Findings
A new study out this month sheds light on the evidence base for preschool education. The report, financed by the Foundation for Child Development and produced in collaboration with the society for Research in Child Development, concludes that high-quality preschool...
Preschool Testing: The False Dichotomy
As early childhood assessments and quality ratings systems become more sophisticated, it is interesting to see the testing and accountability issues percolating K-12 start filtering down to the preschool world. The same essential – and largely false – dichotomy seems...
Guess Who Suffers Most From the Government Shutdown?
As the government shutdown takes effect, programs for the neediest kids are the most vulnerable.
Naps Make Preschoolers Smarter
A new study reports what parents of preschoolers already knew: naps make you smarter. UMass-Amherst researcher Rebecca Spencer studied 40 preschoolers and found that naps help kids remember what they learned earlier. In the study, children completed a...
Public Overwhelmingly Supports ECE Investments – So Why Don’t They Pay For Them?
A new survey from the First Five Years Funds reports that Americans strongly support early childhood investments. For example, 70% of voters agree that we should be doing more to ensure kids enter kindergarten with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful,...
Cool Interactive Graphic About Economic Returns to Education
I just came across this cool graphic from OECD, which represents the economic returns to education in OECD countries. The graphic shows costs and benefits for both private and public sources. Returns include increased earnings, taxes, and public benefits, while...
Randomized intervention in Jamaica finds economic benefits
The World Bank has released a report detailing the effects of a psychosocial intervention for toddlers in Jamaica on personal earnings 20 years later. The intervention involved weekly one-hour visits over a two-year period for stunted Jamaican toddlers living in...
Denver Preschool Program Drives Gains, Study Says
My alma-mater Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates has released the first round of achievement results for students in the Denver Preschool Program (DPP). Sixty-four percent of third-graders reached proficient or advanced on third-grade state reading tests, compared...