New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research
What is the New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research?
The New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research (CECR) is a partnership between Tulane University’s Early Childhood Policy Research Lab, Agenda for Children, and New Orleans Public Schools to conduct research on early childhood programs and policies in New Orleans. CECR’s work examines access to critical early programs and supports, and the effects that these programs and policies have on children and families.
Check out our publications about parents’ experiences with coordinated enrollment in New Orleans!
Current Projects
1. Parent Experiences in the NOLA-PS Common Application Process (formerly OneApp)
From interviews with 100 parents who applied for early childhood or kindergarten seats in 2020, we summarize parents’ program preferences, application challenges, and information sources, and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their choices. (Funded by the Institute for Education Sciences)
2. Increasing Early Education Access through Parent Application Support
Through a social media campaign and text-message support, we worked to increase the rate of new families applying for early childhood seats in the New Orleans Common Application Process (NCAP) in 2021-22. Results will be released in fall 2022. (Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
3. Promoting Equitable Access to Family-Supporting Programs in Louisiana
Through a scan of policy documents and interviews with 40 New Orleans parents, we are working to understand all of the steps that low-income parents in Louisiana must complete in order to gain access to family-supporting programs like SNAP, Medicaid, and Head Start. A report of our findings will be released in 2023. (Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
CECR’s Directors
Dr. Lindsay Weixler, Tulane University
Lindsay Weixler is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Tulane University and founding co-Director of the New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research. Her current work examines ways to increase families’ access to early childhood education and other critical programs, and the effects of early education on children’s and families’ well-being. Her prior research includes studies on texting families about their early childhood OneApp, sending families information about New Orleans schools, the effects of school decentralization on pre-K offerings in New Orleans, students’ experiences in New Orleans schools, and teachers’ perceptions of post-Katrina changes in New Orleans schools.
Dr. Weixler holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology and Master’s Degree in Statistics from the University of Michigan. She previously worked at the U.S. Department of Education, where she was a Presidential Management Fellow in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, and the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, where she was Associate Director of Research. She taught middle school in New Orleans from 2005 to 2007.
Jen Roberts, CEO, Agenda for Children
Prior to her role as CEO, Jen Roberts served as the organization’s Founding Executive Director of NOEEN, a public/private partnership created by local early childhood practitioners, New Orleans Public Schools, and the LA Department of Education to increase access to quality early childhood education in Orleans Parish. In 2019, she created the Early Childhood Opportunity (ECHO) Fund, a multi-million dollar grantmaking program for childcare centers across Southeast Louisiana, and co-founded the New Orleans Early Education Research Alliance with Tulane University faculty.
She currently serves as a member of statewide advisory boards for the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Workforce Commission, several non-profit boards in the Greater New Orleans region, and was named a 2019 Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Fellow. A native of the Gulf Coast, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Bryn Mawr College and a Master’s degree in Education Policy and Management from Harvard University. She has called New Orleans home since 2002.
Rebecca Latham, Executive Director of Early Childhood Education, New Orleans Public Schools
Rebecca Latham, M.Ed., is Executive Director of Early Childhood Education at NOLA-PS. Prior to joining NOLA-PS she served as the Louisiana State Director of Special Education Policy. Her current work at NOLA-PS focuses on increasing family access to high quality early childhood care and education. She serves on the Tulane Special Education Advisory Board and as an adjunct professor in Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement.
Rebecca holds a Master’s degree in Special Education and an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Louisiana State University. Prior to her current work, she founded Speducation Evaluation Services, a New Orleans based company that supports schools and students with disabilities. She taught at both the elementary and middle school levels from 2005-2012.
History
CECR’s origins began in 2017 with a collaborative project between Dr. Weixler, the New Orleans Early Education Network, the Recovery School District, and New Orleans Public Schools, in which the partners worked to help families complete the application process for the district’s newly implemented Early Childhood OneApp (now called the New Orleans Common Application Process). Using text messages, we increased families’ success in completing their OneApp by more than 10% (see reports Increasing Access to Head Start Through Text Messages and Can Text Messages Help Families Applying for Early Childhood Education Programs?). With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, we formed our initial formal partnership, the New Orleans Early Education Research Alliance, in 2019, focusing on how families navigate the OneApp for early childhood and kindergarten seats. With recent funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study families’ access to a broader set of programs, and future plans to examine child and maternal health outcomes, we have adopted the new name “New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research” to reflect the broadening of our work to multiple domains of early childhood experiences.