Located at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) conducts academic research to inform policy supporting high-quality early education for all young children. The Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) is a project of NIEER.

Founded in 2012, CEELO is a technical assistance center designed to increase the capacity of State Education Agencies to implement comprehensive and aligned early learning systems from birth through third grade in their states.

This grant supports CEELO’s efforts to cultivate diverse leaders via its leadership academy program, as well as to conduct an exploratory analysis of various approaches to governance of early childhood education systems. In addition, as part of this grant, CEELO will complete a professional development series focusing on systems thinking. The goal of the series is to enable alumni to transfer their knowledge to others, and thus help improve the overall early education field.