The Mississippi Initiatives of the Mississippi State University (MSU) Early Childhood Institute involve various types of research and interventions to promote improved child care quality, early literacy experiences, community involvement in early childhood education, or emergency preparedness of child care facilities. These interventions may take the form of brief or extended on-site technical assistance or coaching, workshops for professional development, new learning materials for teachers and children to use, or a combination of these.

Finding the perfect balance between intensity and effectiveness of a particular intervention is a complicated challenge in early childhood services. During Fiscal Year 2008, ECI completed a multi-year study of the effectiveness of two forms of professional development – workshops and on-the-job coaching – for incorporating seven "learning essentials" into early childhood learning environments. The study revealed that both approaches to training teachers and caregivers in the "learning essentials" produced gains in the quality of their programs, but the on-the-job coaching produced greater gains. (Sharon Ramey, Ph.D., and Craig Ramey, Ph.D., of Georgetown University were the principal investigators in this study, with funding by the federal Child Care Bureau. Cathy Grace, Ed.D., of the MSU Early Childhood Institute and Louise Davis, Ph.D., of the MSU Extension Service coordinated the study.)

In the years to come, a strategic challenge for the MSU Early Childhood Institute and for the early childhood sector in Mississippi will be to identify the most cost-effective methods for improving the quality and availability of early care and education in the state.