Participants in the Feeding Families program are also patients at Westside Family Health, a community-minded, non-partisan Federally Qualified Health Center located in Wilmington, DE. For some patients who are both food insecure and suffer from diet-related disease, finding food often takes priority over finding and preparing specifically healthy foods. As such, the Feeding Families program addresses food insecurity, expands access to fresh foods, provides routine nutrition counseling, and teaches participants how to better manage their chronic diseases. UD-CRESP conducted a rigorous evaluation of this program at both the six- and 12-month points in the program, showing that participation in Feeding Families resulted in improved health outcomes and decreased food insecurity.
Feeding Families
The current report takes a close look at 10 current trends in the ECE literature, including practice-oriented resources to support implementation, with an emphasis on areas of work which are particularly relevant for 4.0’s ventures. Our goal is to provide a brief review of these emerging themes and, wherever possible, links and resources for those interested in practice-oriented materials or program examples.
All 4.0 Publications
A goal of 4.0 is to invest in community-centered models of education by providing cash, curriculum, coaching, and community to individuals with innovative ideas that are rooted in equity. Early childhood education (ECE) is one of 4.0’s key investment areas due to its recognition of how uniquely powerful interventions made at this time can be for a child. This report explores the types of ECE ventures 4.0 has funded using both qualitative and quantitative measures, reflects on how these efforts align with trends in the field, and describes how 4.0 has contributed to ventures’ growth during and after 4.0’s fellowship programs.
All 4.0 Publications
This report is the second in a series of reports that serve to assist the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) in understanding the changes that occurred in Delaware Public Schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore the impact those changes had on Delaware students. Findings in this report draw upon the instructional, attendance, and technology findings from the first report and consider the achievement data (Delaware System of Student Assessment and SAT data) from the end of the 2020/21 academic year.
4.0 is the largest and earliest investor in education today. The organization focuses on building a pipeline of future innovators by making many early investments aligned with specific fellowship types. 4.0 fellowships provide limited funding ($600-$10,000) and training to a large number of projects, aware that not all ventures will succeed. Over the past 3 years, we have worked together to form a Research Practice partnership that informs ongoing program decisions, provides timely evaluation feedback, and takes deeper dives into exiting and needed data-driven questions. Below are reports completed to date:
All 4.0 Publications
In 2020, the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware (UD) entered into a formal research-practice partnership (RPP) with the 4.0 organization. Through funding from multiple organizations, 4.0 works to remove barriers to innovation by investing in community-centered education ideas. Fellowships offered through these investments are based on the Four-C model of coaching, curriculum, community, and cash.
The New Normal Wave (NNW) fellowship program was started in Spring 2020 by 4.0 to address problems stemming from or intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fellowship was created to support projects focused on social- emotional learning (SEL) and trauma/healing support. UD-CRESP was contracted to evaluate the NNW initiative. This report outlines evaluation findings from analyses of the NNWdata.
All 4.0 Publications
An intended goal of 4.0 is to foster equity and inclusion throughout the organization and its curriculum. This report seeks to explore how efforts to promote equity and inclusion are understood by alumni, as well as the extent to which these values are embodied and implemented during and after 4.0’s fellowship programs. The report is organized in three parts. First, we provide a brief review of several key findings from the literature that explore how design thinking is integrated with an equity framework. Second, we present high-level equity-related themes and key findings which emerged from a random sample of 4.0 alumni interviews. Finally, we provide recommendations and conclusions, stemming from interview feedback and the literature review.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, students in Delaware experienced significant changes
to the way they were educated both towards the end of the 2019–20 academic year and for the
duration of the 2020–21 academic year. To explore changes to (1) enrollment, (2) instructional
modalities, and (3) attendance policies/technology practice, the Center for Research in Education
and Social Policy (CRESP) gathered related data from Local Education Agencies (LEAs) across the
state of Delaware.
This report represents a partnership across University of Delaware departments, including the
Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) in the College of Education; the
Institute for Public Administration in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration; and,
Behavioral Health and Nutrition in the College of Health Sciences.
This report serves as an evaluative summary and offers lessons learned from the WeCare program, a
federally funded pilot partnership designed to support innovative health services to older adults
through the Administration for Community Living (ACL).
WeCare YEAR 2 Report Transition Lessons Learned and Intermediate Outcome.
WIC, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, helps to meet the nutrition needs of pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, and their children under the age of five, who live on low incomes by providing monthly
benefits that are used to purchase healthy foods. In 2019, a subgroup of the HER NOPREN WIC Learning Collaborative and liaisons from the National WIC Association
convened under the leadership of UD CRESP to develop a protocol for describing and comparing vendor criteria and policies across WIC administrative agencies. This brief provides the results of an analysis of WIC vendor selection and authorization criteria, and operations and management policies established by the 89 administrative agencies
in the United States. Full details and findings are reported elsewhere (Landry et al., 2021).
WIC Brief
