Director’s Statement

Twenty-five years ago, I had the unforgettable experience of chairing a National Research Council/Institute of Medicine committee (in partnership with Study Director Deborah Phillips) that produced a widely cited report titled From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. This 500+ page document synthesized “an explosion of research in the neurobiological, behavioral, and social sciences” and identified significant gaps between what we knew and what we were doing to support the healthy development of young children.

In setting the context for its findings, the Committee concluded:

“This convergence of advancing knowledge and changing circumstances calls for a fundamental reexamination of the nation’s responses to the needs of young children and their families, many of which were formulated several decades ago and revised only incrementally since then. It demands that scientists, policy makers, business and community leaders, practitioners, and parents work together to identify and sustain policies and practices that are effective, generate new strategies to replace those that are not achieving their objectives, and consider new approaches to address new goals as needed… We have barely begun to use our growing research capabilities to help children and families negotiate the changing demands and possibilities of life in the 21^st century.”

While much has been accomplished since this call to action, the continuing need for new strategies to address persistent challenges remains. Early childhood policies in the United States have embraced the importance of nurturing neurons yet pay far less explicit attention to the critical influence of neighborhoods. Current policies typically focus on center-based programs for children to promote school readiness as well as home-visiting services and financial support for families living on low income. Extensive evaluation of these programs has documented benefits for millions of young children and families, yet a closer look shows that some children benefit greatly, some benefit less, and some not at all.

Advances in science suggest that this inconsistent effectiveness is related to multiple factors. These include:

• significant variation in staff education and training, compensation, and ongoing support to assure program capacity to address a wide range of behavioral and developmental needs;
• limited ability to measure short-term effects of interventions on health and development directly in young children; and
• a disproportionate focus by researchers on average program effects, which has constrained our capacity to learn what works best for whom, why, and in what contexts.

The critical question is: Why have we not made more progress in improving outcomes for more children and families, especially those facing significant adversity related to poverty, economic insecurity, and/or racism?

In addition to the vital importance of child- and family-focused programs that have sufficient resources to address a wide range of needs, another important part of the answer can be found in the following statement in From Neurons to Neighborhoods:

“As its knowledge base has matured, the field of early childhood intervention has evolved from its original focus on children to a growing appreciation of the extent to which family, community, and broader societal factors affect child health and development…. Thus, successful policies for children who live in adverse circumstances may have less to do with the impact of specific services and be more a matter of changing the larger environment in which children are reared. This growing awareness is likely to lead to further expansion of the concept of early childhood intervention to include such wide-ranging policy concerns as housing, employment practices, community policing, and taxation, among many others.”

Connecting Science + Community (CSC) has been created to respond to this critical insight. Our strategy is to catalyze fresh thinking and concrete action informed by continuing advances in the science of early childhood development (ECD) over the past 25 years—what we now call ECD 2.0—and the knowledge and experience that those working on community revitalization have generated over time. The expanded science of ECD 2.0 builds on previous research by connecting the brain to the rest of the body and demonstrating the impact of early experiences and exposures—starting prenatally—on lifelong physical and mental health as well as educational achievement. ECD 2.0 also helps us understand why and how individual children and parents respond differently to the same environment, highlighting the need for flexible, evidence-based services that have the capacity to measure and address inevitable variations in their effectiveness. Finally, ECD 2.0 explains why responsive relationships are not the only influences that matter for children—policies and investments that enhance assets and reduce threats to well-being in the communities where children live also strengthen the early foundations of healthy development.

CSC’s aim is to leverage this expanded knowledge base through strategic partnerships that have the potential to increase the pace of progress toward much larger impacts than programs focused solely on children, families, or communities can achieve separately. We celebrate the many positive effects of current best practices across sectors while expressing constructive dissatisfaction with the status quo. Our aim is to learn from state-of-the-art programs in the early childhood field and from leading-edge groups focused on community revitalization, social and economic mobility, health and wellness at all ages, and racial equity.

Finally, we view the well-being of all young children as both a moral responsibility and an essential prerequisite for a healthy and productive society. We aim to improve the lives of children and families today while laying the foundation for a stronger and more equitable society in the future. We acknowledge the progress made over the past 25 years while recognizing that we have much to learn from decades of experience gained at the community level about how to expand access to opportunities and protect families with young children from preventable hardships. We believe that setting a higher bar for success is the sign of a dynamic and healthy field. We are eager to move forward on a bold action agenda and welcome kindred spirits to join us on this learning journey.