Vanderbilt University

2018-2022

The Policies for Action Research Hub at Vanderbilt is uniting a rich set of health and education data to better understand the challenges faced by children in Tennessee, especially those who are at risk of falling behind on key health and educational outcomes. With experts from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Department of Health Policy and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, the hub will combine longitudinal, statewide health and education data files to observe these relationships over time. An in-depth exploration of these data promises to illuminate ways current policies, processes, and program structures might be adapted to more effectively serve the needs of families. The research is designed to foster cross-sector collaborations between health and education systems and between researchers and practitioners, with considerable potential for devising new, low-cost strategies to improve program access and child well-being.