Most States Ill-Equipped to Analyze Data on Early Childhood Development

column | Big Data

Most States Ill-Equipped to Analyze Data on Early Childhood Development

Feb 19, 2014

DATA DISCONNECT: Collecting data can be effective if you have access to--but what if that data is housed in several different agencies? That's the most recent problem in early childhood development efforts, according to the Early Childhood Data Collaborative's (ECDC) study entitled "2013 State of the States' Early Childhood Data Systems." The research findings include the reality that in 49 states and the District of Columbia, data across different early childhood education (ECE) programs is not linked. Only one state--Pennsylvania--links data across all ECE programs and to the state’s K-12 data system. Other key points to note:

  • Thirty states reported that early ECE data is linked to K-12 data;
  • Twenty states reported links between ECE data and social services data;
  • Only twelve states reported linking ECE data with their health data (though 22 said they were planning to in the future).
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