The purpose of the Culture of Continuous Learning Project is to explore how child care and Head Start programs can improve the quality of services they provide to children and families and sustain a culture of ongoing quality improvement. This project uses a specific training approach—the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC)—designed to support learning and improvement among practitioners at all levels of an organization, from directors to teachers who work in a classroom with children. While the BSC was originally designed for health care settings, we assessed the feasibility of implementing a BSC in child care and Head Start settings to support children’s social and emotional learning during Phase I of this project (2016-2021). In the second phase (2021-2026), we studied whether a BSC could enhance existing Head Start and child care training and technical assistance activities to support social and emotional learning practices.
The project team included staff from Child Trends, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Mathematica, and JRA Consulting, Ltd. We would like to thank all the ECE center staff who participated in the various phases of the CCL project over the years. We are honored to have worked with you and to have your experiences with the BSC reflected in our evaluations.
What is the Breakthrough Series Collaborative?
Phase I Publications
Culture of Continuous Learning Project: Theory of Change
Culture of Continuous Learning Project: A Literature Review of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative
Promoting a Culture of Continuous Learning in Early Care and Education Settings: Full Report
Promoting a Culture of Continuous Learning in Early Care and Education Settings: A Summary for ECE Leaders
Field Guide for Implementation of Breakthrough Series Collaborative in Early Care and Education
Phase II Publications
Strengthening Continuous Quality Improvement Practices in Early Care and Education through a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (forthcoming)
Perspectives on Integrating the Breakthrough Series Collaborative Methodology into State Early Care and Education Quality Improvement Systems (forthcoming)
Coaching Teams for Quality Improvement in Early Care and Education Programs (forthcoming)
Lessons on Collaborative Learning and Improvement for Early Educators (forthcoming)
Partners
University of Massachusetts Boston
JRA Consulting, Ltd.
Mathematica
Staff
Co-principal investigator: Kathryn Tout, Tamara Halle, Anne Douglass
Project director: Jennifer Cleveland
Case study evaluation lead: Diana Gal-Szabo
Landscape survey lead: Mallory Warner
Other project staff: Rachel Abenavoli, Meg Bredeson, Erin Bultinck, Holly Keaton
September 2026