Jarrod Ventura Awarded $2,250 UROP Research Grant to Study Access to Quality Early Learning Programs

Undergraduate researcher Jarrod Ventura has been awarded a $2,250 UROP Research Grant for his study "Sociodemographic Disparities in Access to Quality Early Learning Programs: A Spatial Analysis." Jarrod conducted his research with UCI alumnus Misael Marquez (Education Sciences/Political Science) and was mentored by Assistant Professor Jade Jenkins.

For his research Jarrod looked at early child care centers ratings of quality (usually a scale of 1-5) to see if quality of the childcare program geographically was correlated with family income. Among the three locations studied - San Francisco, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Providence, Rhode Island -  the research team discovered the following:

• High-quality ECE (Early Childhood Education) programs in San Francisco appear evenly distributed between low- and middle-income communities.
• Providence has a high concentration of programs with low QRIS  (Quality Ratings and Improvement Systems) ratings.
• Pennsylvania has a high concentration of programs that are unrated, or not participating in QRIS.
• Not all centers participating in QRIS have high quality ratings.
• High quality ECE programs were not consistently concentrated in high income areas.

The research team recommended that the quality of ECE centers should be improved in all communities, regardless of average family income.

Jarrod is a senior double majoring in Education Sciences and Film & Media Studies. He currently is serving as President of the Teachers of Tomorrow (ToT) Club. He has been an active participant in club activities since his freshman year.  

October 2018 Spotlight: Jarrod Ventura