Early Childhood Data
Early childhood is a critical time of growth for children. Each childhood experience influences the next: Much like building blocks, these experiences establish a foundation that becomes the launching point for the next stage of development. Professionals in the early childhood field—who seek to intervene at key stages to improve outcomes for children—need actionable, high-quality data to understand the outcomes of their interventions and services. Such high-quality early childhood data can help researchers and practitioners understand the developmental needs of young children; inform equitable implementation of instruction, programs, and policies; and identify areas where children and families are thriving or where they may need additional supports.
In leading the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, Child Trends’ early childhood team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in assessing the development and use of state early childhood data systems to inform policy. Through these efforts, we identity ways to support policymakers’ use of administrative data to address policy-relevant research questions, develop tools for child care and early education programs to support the use of—and linkages between—administrative data, and provide technical assistance to states on developing early childhood integrated data systems to connect data that currently exist but are often siloed across agencies.
