As a project name, Moving the Needle on Early Childhood Workforce Compensation was deliberately chosen as eight state teams set out to address what has been a decades old crisis in early care and education – to compensate the early childhood workforce commensurate with the work required of the job in order to ensure all young children have well qualified teachers who can afford to work in this field. The project expectation, to support state teams in making significant improvements in the states’ climate and policies to increase compensation, was based on the realization that these improvements would likely start with very small steps forward. As we evaluate the success of the project, it’s important to look both at the success of the project design and project implementation, as well as the ways states were able to move the needle and impact compensation policies, funding and the public’s awareness of the issue. In addition, we thoughtfully considered the evaluation comments of those participating in the project, and how future projects can benefit from what was learned. (author abstract)