This document serves as the Year 5 Annual report for the Building a High-Quality Early Childhood System of Leadership and Teaching Practice initiative ("the initiative"). Data summary reports with feedback on individual trainings throughout the year (e.g., Kindergarten Academy, trainings geared toward childcare providers and trainings related to COVID and better utilization ofthe OWL curriculum) are available in Appendix 1.
The University of Mississippi's Center for Research Evaluation (CERE) serves as the external evaluator for the initiative. CERE evaluated the first three-year cycle of the initiative (December 2016-November 2019) and is now evaluating the three-year continuation (December 2020- November 2023; thus, we are referring to this second year of the second three-year cycle as "Year 5"). The initiative aims to change the landscape of early childhood education across the state of Mississippi by training educators across all levels and roles about evidence-based teaching for early childhood. The initiative's focus is not only on educators gaining knowledge, but also on their implementation of what they have learned in their districts, schools, and classrooms. Thus, the evaluation aims to determine the extent to which (1) participants learned from the initiative's trainings and other activities, (2) participants implemented what they learned and (3) students' literacy increased. At a higher level, the evaluation considers what training or participant characteristics impact these outcomes.