Other issues: New Connections Using Data to Drive Change Stepping Up Evaluation Training Promoting Diversity Among Evaluators	OMG VOICES In the Mix Project Director, Julie Tarr, describes her career path, explains how the OMG Center offers a unique opportunity to integrate her professional background, and offers a snapshot of an innovative initiative in early childhood education she is evaluating. You began your professional life as an urban planner. Mid-career, you returned to school and earned a doctorate in educational theory and administration. Do these two paths come together in your work? They do, and here's how: My interest in planning and education were motivated by a desire to fight urban poverty. After getting an urban planning degree, I worked in government for seven years, first for Chicago's Community Development Block Grant Program, and then in New York City for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The work was challenging and I enjoyed the dynamics of community and government policy work, but I came to believe that the most effective way to positively impact underserved communities was to provide quality education to kids. That's when I returned to school to pursue a doctorate. With a doctorate in education under your belt and a focus on disadvantaged children, how did you begin the second phase of your career? I entered education through the Center for Early Education Research at Rutgers University evaluating pre-school programs in New Jersey's 30 lowest-income school districts. I later worked through the Center to implement early childhood programs in these very same school districts including Newark, Camden, and Trenton. Here I led research to learn what types of programs the kids needed, and helped school districts respond to those needs. You then worked for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as a program director, and later as evaluation director for their National, Journalism, and Communities programs. Why evaluation? Well...evaluators can help foundations track the progress of programs and whether they are really making a difference. And they can help grantees build their capacity for evaluation so that they're looking at the right data. There are a lot of examples of program failure in the foundation world because people did not have good data soon enough. Foundations also need to facilitate conversations with staff and boards around "What did we learn?" and "How does this change strategy?" It's regarding evaluation as an ongoing source of guidance rather than a backend activity. When did you first become familiar with OMG's work? The OMG Center conducted several evaluations through my office at Knight. I liked the way the organization approached evaluation as collaborators and strategists. And, I liked their knowledge of systems work. OMG's approach paralleled the approach I developed at Knight: Rather than simply getting money out the door, I was concerned about program success and wanted an objective set of eyes at the table to help with program design and implementation. Why did you join the OMG staff? OMG understands big picture social change strategy, and also how each community's uniqueness impacts strategy outcomes. The team also understands the need for partnerships in large-scale systems change and how to build partnerships between nonprofits and government policy-makers at state and local levels. This matches my interest in tracking effective programs, monitoring outcomes, and replicating success while bringing programs to scale. You are currently working with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to implement what is arguably the most ambitious early childhood tracking system in the country. How will the system work? The Early Learning Network is a data system that will track every child who enters one of Pennsylvania's family and childhood programs in mental health, early education, healthcare and family services, or any other program that keeps a family together and functioning well. As evaluators for the initiative's implementation, OMG is looking at how teachers are being trained to collect child outcome data, if teachers are entering the appropriate information into the system and if that data is valid. We will also be looking at how the data is being used to communicate with parents, inform program development, and influence policy. What do you like about this project? It places me in the mix of innovators and policy-makers who want to close the gap between disadvantaged and wealthier children. Pennsylvania's early childhood initiative is at the forefront. Its leaders participate in a learning community with five other states that are also developing early childhood systems. We are excited about the potential of OMG's evaluation to help other states implement a comprehensive data system. For information about other OMG evaluation work in the fields of education and childhood development go to the Children, Youth & Families and Arts & Education areas of the Fields in Which We Work section of this website. For more information about other members of the OMG Staff, visit the OMG Staff section of this website. OMG Voices is produced by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning. Stepping Up is the fourth issue.