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MSHS Research Practice Partnership

Advancing equitable access and use of research to promote improvements in educational policies and practices within the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start community

Summary

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers have been an irreplaceable part of the United States’ agricultural economy for decades. Ensuring that the young children of those workers will be ready to succeed in school has been an important part of Head Start since 1969. The Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) program provides early intervention services to more than 28,000 young vulnerable children living in poverty and their farmworker families. In 2017, a nationally-representative study was conducted to examine the strengths and needs of MSHS children, families, and providers. With a grant from the Spencer Foundation, NORC at the University of Chicago is co-leading a collaborative research-practice partnership ensuring the accessibility and impact of this data source.  In partnership with The Catholic University of America and the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association (NMSHSA), the project’s goals include working collaboratively with MSHS programs and families across the country to:

  1. Engage in secondary data analyses of the MSHS Study data
  2. Interpret and disseminate findings to inform program and policy decisions
  3. Develop an ongoing research agenda that is responsive to the strengths and needs of the migrant and seasonal farmworker families and programs 

Empowering Practitioners

To amplify the voice of the MSHS community and ensure that our work is as immediately impactful as possible, the project is structured as a collaborative research-practice partnership. MSHS providers, families, and policy makers will help shape the questions asked, the kinds of analyses conducted, and the dissemination methods deployed. 

Research capacity-building is an important part of our work, including the dissemination goals. To that end, the team will build a web-based interactive data portal that will support members of the MSHS community in conducting their own data analyses and developing reports and data visualizations using this rich data set. 

Driving Diversity

The MSHS research practice partnership project includes support for three emerging research scholars who are an active part of the project team and work under the mentorship of Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Michael López (NORC at the University of Chicago), Dr. Sandra Barrueco (The Catholic University of America) and Cleofas Rodriguez (our NMSHSA Executive Director). Together, these activities will contribute to training and mentoring the next generation of emerging scholars in research practice partnerships.

The Research Practice Partnership Team

Co-Principal Investigators

  • Michael López, Ph.D., Education and Child Development, NORC at the University of Chicago
  • Sandra Barrueco, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America,
  • Cleofas Rodriguez, Jr., Executive Director, NMSHSA

Project Director

  • Elizabeth Villegas, Ph.D., Education and Child Development, NORC at the University of Chicago

Research Scholars

  • Noe Erazo, Ph. D. student, University of South Florida’s Rightpath Research and Innovation Center
  • Haregnesh (Shay) Haile, Ph. D. student, The Catholic University of America
  • Natalia Rojas, Ph.D., Research Fellow, New York University School of Medicine 

Project Partnership Support

 

Research Team