Resource Library

Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) Intermediate-Term Impact Report 

This report presents a proposed study design that would examine the feasibility and potential benefits of investing time in the We Grow Together Professional Development System for infant and toddler caregivers.

Running from 2015 to 2021, the second round of the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program (“HPOG 2.0”) funded grantees to provide support services and healthcare occupational training according to career pathways principles.  ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is administering a robust evaluation of the HPOG 2.0 effort: the National and Tribal Evaluation of the 2nd Generation of Health Profession Opportunity Grants.  The National Evaluation of 27 non-Tribal grantees is comparing outcomes and impacts for program applicants randomly assigned access to the grantees’ HPOG 2.0 programs (treatment group) versus those randomly assigned access only to services available elsewhere in the community (control group).

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, disrupting American lives, labor markets, and local HPOG 2.0 programs.  To better understand how COVID changed outcomes and impacts for HPOG 2.0 study members relative to the pre-COVID period, OPRE contracted with Abt Associates to conduct the HPOG 2.0 National Evaluation COVID-Cohort Study.

This Analysis Plan describes the methodology for answering the study’s key research questions.  The document also improves the transparency and replicability of study findings by committing the research team to make consequential decisions prior to inspecting estimates of program impacts.  Most methods and operationalizations of outcomes measures continue from earlier HPOG 2.0 impact analyses and are described in previous Analysis Plans.  This Analysis Plan therefore primarily focuses on specifying analytic methods and presentation strategies specific to this study’s understanding of how COVID shifted the HPOG 2.0 program.

Discover a conceptual model, synthesizes key lessons, and identifies areas for future research regarding the implementation of competency frameworks to improve the knowledge, skills, and attributes of infant/toddler teachers and caregivers, as well as outcomes for programs and systems.

Discover a brief and volume of profiles describing characteristics of a selection of online, competency-based professional development systems for teachers and caregivers of infants and toddlers.

This profile provides an overview of the CIRCLE Infant & Toddler Teacher Competencies, a competency framework developed in Texas to advance early childhood education by outlining the teacher and caregiver practices and behaviors that best promote infant and toddler development.

This profile provides an overview of the two competency frameworks Oregon is using—the state-developed Core Knowledge Categories and Standards and (2) the ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators.

This profile provides an overview of the Maine Infant Toddler Credential, a competency framework that Maine developed to support infant and toddler teachers and caregivers across setting types.

This profile provides an overview of the Gateways Infant Toddler Credential, a competency framework that Illinois developed to support early care and education professionals interested in focusing their professional development activities on the care and education of infants and toddlers across setting types.

This profile provides an overview of the California Early Childhood Educator Competencies, a competency framework that California developed to improve the quality of early care and education in the state and support the professional development of anyone responsible for the care and education of children ages birth to 5 years old across setting types.