Early Childhood Collaborations

Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP)

IHD has partnered with the Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP) for 100 years, making ECEP one of the longest-serving university-based early childhood centers in the country. Today, the Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP) at the University of California, Berkeley is a Lab School providing high-quality care and education for young children ages 3 months to 5 years. It started in 1927, when the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center was founded as one of the nation’s first “lab schools,” funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, through the Institute of Human Development (IHD). It aimed to advance science and improve family welfare, by providing university faculty with a living laboratory to conduct ground-breaking developmental science research. Currently, eight UC Berkeley labs conduct studies at the six ECEP sites that serve 260 diverse children and their families, comprising faculty, staff, students, and the community.

Today, ECEP is reinvigorating its lab school model, focused on child inquiry and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics), the intentional use of digital tools in early education classrooms, and supporting teachers as researchers. A new membership in the International Association of Laboratory Schools (IALS) aligns with ECEP’s mission: 1) Pre-Service educator training, 2) Dissemination of practice, 3) Commitment to research and professional inquiry, 4) Commitment to professional learning, and 5) Providing innovative education to children. ECEP embodies these efforts with Cub Lab, a researcher-teacher partnership, to advance classroom practice and the science of learning and development through collaboration.

Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood (E3C)

E3C is a public-impact alliance uniting researchers, educators, and public-sector changemakers to understand what’s working, reimagine what’s possible, and co-create solutions that deliver lasting impact for children, families, and communities.

Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP)

The Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) at the University of California, Berkeley, prepares students for careers in public leadership. IHD’s early childhood team collaborates with the GSPP to offer graduate students a certificate in Early Learning Science and Child Policy. Leveraging the wide-ranging expertise at Berkeley, this transdisciplinary early childhood policy program certificate offers innovative coursework and training experiences that build the essential knowledge and skills needed to connect science to policy.

The Berkeley School of Education (BSE)

The Berkeley School of Education (BSE) offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional training in education. IHD partners with the BSE to offer The Developing Child Summer Minor and Certificate, an undergraduate interdisciplinary, developmental science program focused on children from the prenatal period to age 8. Integrating research, practice, and policy with problem-solving and implementation skills for the real world, the innovative coursework and practicum enriches students’ work with or on behalf of young children.