A Research-Practice Partnership to Advance Equitable Early Childhood Outcomes Through District-Wide Scaling of a Family-Centered, Evidence-Based Preventive Intervention.

Scaling evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in public education systems remains a persistent challenge in prevention science. Although many interventions demonstrate impact in efficacy trials, they are often underused or fail to achieve intended benefits when introduced in routine practice without sufficient implementation support. Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer a promising approach for bridging research, policy, and practice; however, few published examples describe how RPPs can support district-wide scale-up and sustainment of EBIs. This article describes an RPP formed to scale ParentCorps-a family-centered EBI developed through community-engaged research-within New York City's universal pre-kindergarten initiative, Pre-K for All. ParentCorps is designed to strengthen family-school partnerships and reduce racial and income disparities in children's educational and mental health outcomes. The partnership brought together the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development (the intervention developer), the NYC Public Schools Division of Early Childhood Education (the implementing system), and the Research Alliance for New York City Schools (a research intermediary). Guided by implementation science frameworks, partners co-designed a series of pragmatic, cluster randomized studies conducted under routine district conditions. We present findings from a pragmatic hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness trial that compares two levels of implementation support for ParentCorps. Primary outcomes included pre-K program family engagement practices, assessed using the district's annual system-wide survey; secondary outcomes included parent and child outcomes. We conclude by highlighting the RPP structures, processes, and design choices that enabled rigorous evaluation at scale and discussing implications for how RPPs can build implementation capacity to support district-wide scale-up and sustainment of family-centered EBIs in public education systems.