Data Quality Campaign Early Childhood Data Collaborative

Overview of ECDC’s Inaugural State ECE Analysis

To measure states' progress toward building and using coordinated state ECE data systems, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC), in partnership with the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC), surveyed 48 states and the District of Columbia in fall 2010 to track state progress toward implementing the 10 Fundamentals of Coordinated State ECE Data Systems.

The Early Childhood Data Collaborative’s inaugural state analysis reveals that states collect a significant amount of data on individual children, early care and education (ECE) program sites, and individual members of the ECE workforce. However, the data are largely siloed by funding stream, incomplete, and therefore unable to help policymakers answer basic policy questions about their state's ECE systems, support continuous improvement and determine whether their investments put children on track to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.

States Collect Significant ECE Data by Funding Stream Export JPG

OrganizationChild-level dataProgram site-level dataEce workforce-level data
Subsidized Child Care464327
Licensed Child Care04239
Early Intervention474039
Early Childhood Special Education474336
State Pre-K*374036
State-Funded Head Start*121612

*Not every state administers state pre-K or state-funded Head Start/Early Head Start programs

States Cannot Link Appropriate Child-level, Program Site-level, and ECE Workforce-level data Export JPG

OrganizationStates
Child-level1
Program site-level1
ECE Workforce-level0

Other key findings include:

  • Every state collects ECE data on individual children, program sites, and/or members of the ECE workforce for at least some of the state’s ECE programs.
  • Data gaps remain as far fewer states collect individual ECE workforce-level data than child- and program site-level data, and no state collects child-level development data for all of the state’s ECE programs.
  • Data are uncoordinated as only one state (Pennsylvania) can link child- and program site-level data across all ECE programs, and no state can link individual ECE workforce-level data across all ECE programs.
  • Governance matters because data linkages between ECE and K-12 and other key state systems serving children are most likely to occur between data systems located within the same state agency.