By Missy Coffey and Phil Sirinides
In recent years, America has seen a renaissance in early childhood data use. New tools have been built, new strategies have emerged, more states and stakeholders have realized the potential of a strong early childhood integrated data system (ECIDS).
The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has cast that work in a new light. Never before have we seen a clearer need to understand where our children are, how they’re faring at home and in their communities, and what supports they need to grow, thrive, and succeed in the coming years. Never before have we seen such a need for resilient, integrated early childhood data systems that producing useful analytics.
And, despite the recent progress, the pandemic has shown us that critical issues remain. Challenges like organizational change, staffing and funding shortfalls, shared leadership among state agencies – issues that have existed for so long they almost feel like part of the job description – continue to vex even the best ECIDS managers.
States have been working hard on these issues for over a decade, and their persistence, magnified by this ongoing pandemic, has been a sobering reality check. In many instances, these challenges are not things that can simply be solved. They are natural to the work. They’re context specific. They’re constantly evolving. And they often can’t be addressed by simply adopting a new tool or approach to data use.
They can, however, be effectively managed, by building what we call “resilient analytics.” Organizational learning – sharing knowledge among states and stakeholders – can be just as vital to the success of the field as new platforms or analytics dashboards.
How have other organizations and states responded to these critical issues? What systems or approaches have proven to be successful in the face of staff turnover, or budget changes? What have we learned about organizational design and shared leadership?
These questions – when answered by experienced colleagues and experts – can help states and organizations build resiliency factors into their ECIDS, and effectively drive the field forward.
Today, with support from the Heising-Simons Foundation, we launch a new multimedia initiative to help stakeholders build resilient analytics in their own organizations. Over the coming weeks we’ll be releasing a series blogs and podcasts featuring some of the nation’s leading voices in the early childhood data community.
Guests representing federal, state, and national nonprofit organizations will discuss the history and evolution of ECID systems in the U.S., share professional experiences, and provide targeted, real-world advice for those navigating one of the most challenging periods in American history.
We’ll sit down with them to discuss a wide range of important topics, including common challenges for ECIDS managers and staff, navigating organizational change, promoting stakeholder engagement, organizational design, shared leadership among state agencies, and much more to help propel the use of data to inform early childhood program and policy decisions by state leaders.
Guest will include:
- Albert Wat, Alliance for Early Success
- Anita Larson, Minnesota Department of Education
- Bentley Ponder, Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
- Howard Morrison, Texas Education Agency
- Jennifer Martinez, Texas Education Service Center, 20
- Jennifer Verbrugge, Minnesota Department of Education
- Rebecca Gomez, Heising-Simons Family Foundation
- Richard Gonzales, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care
- Stephen Matherly, Utah Department of Health
- Tate Gould, AnLar
Whether you’re new to the field and learning the ropes or an ECIDS leader seeking new approaches to long-standing challenges, we believe this series will offer you a valuable opportunity to learn, share, and help drive the ECIDS field forward.
To know where we’re going, however, we have to know where we’re coming from. So, in our first episode, we dive into the history and evolution of ECIDS systems here in the U.S., and some lessons learned by those who helped build the field into what it is today.
That episode – featuring interviews with Richard Gonzales, Preschool Development Grant project manager with the US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families; Albert Wat, senior policy director with the Alliance for Early Success; and Tate Gould, former senior program officer for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program – is live right now. You can find it here.
You’ll find all of our latest blogs and podcasts right here at ECDWcommunity.org, or you can subscribe to our podcast series by searching for ECDataWorks on your favorite podcast app. To keep up with new releases or to share your thoughts or questions with us, you can find us on Twitter @ECDataWorks
We sincerely hope you’ll join us in this important conversation.
Phil Sirinides and Missy Coffey are the principal investigators for ECDataWorks, a nationwide, nonprofit initiative dedicated to advancing early childhood policy and programs through the strategic use of integrated data.