Resources

The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) served California for the last few decades and (in more limited formats) 30 other states. This experimental study examines the effects of the PITC training intervention for child care providers serving children younger than three years old. Researchers conducted the study with two goals in mind:

• Estimate PITC’s impact on child development—particularly the language, cognitive, and social skills closely associated with school readiness
• Estimate the quality of child care in family child care homes and centers

The study, and this resulting report, is based on a sample of 251 child care centers and family child care homes in Southern California and Arizona, with close to 1,000 children served by these programs.

The Regional Educational Laboratory West at WestEd (REL West), contracted with Berkeley Policy Associates to conduct this third-party evaluation of the PITC. Berkeley Policy Associates and its subcontractors, the University of Texas, Austin, and Survey Research Management, conducted the evaluation independently of the WestEd staff that developed and implemented the intervention.

Additional information from REL West is available at http://relwest.wested.org.

Information about the REL system and other REL publications can be found at the national Regional Educational Laboratory Program website.