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Ready by Five & Fine by Nine: New Requirements, New Opportunities

NAEYCNovember 18, 2009

Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., M.Ed.Yale Child Study Center

[email protected]

…the story of a state (and a nation)

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For young children, these are the worst of times…

• Economic recovery to pre-recession levels at the state level will not occur until “late in the next decade.” (NGA, 2009)

• States will continue to face record fiscal deficits this year and, likely, through 2013. The risk of continued program cuts remains high.

• State early childhood programs will see increased demand from “at risk” children and families who are even more vulnerable due to the recession.

• Not all children who enter kindergarten now have the knowledge, skills and behaviors predictive the early school success.

• The achievement gap at grades 3 and 4 remains stubbornly intractable.

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…and the best of times

• New federal fiscal resources are targeted at improving child/student outcomes and the programs that serve them.

• Federal resources require states to collect information about children, programs and professionals AND assure the information is accessible, reported and used.

• The neuroscience of early development provides a clear roadmap for continued and expanding investment.

• We are not starting from scratch. Research continues to clarify the relationship of program quality to desired child outcomes. New models for systems development and the management of children’s programs and services are emerging. And, in each state, we have learned a lot in the past decade.

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To escape the ravages of fiscal cuts and to maximize the impact of these new opportunities,

we must transform our service, information and management systems, now.

The bottom line --- timing is everything.

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To have ready children, we need to design an early childhood service system that begins with mothers (prenatally), includes

fathers and continues seamlessly through at least the third grade….

Early Educationand Care

PK-3

Health, Oral Health and Mental

Health Care

Family Support, including

parental literacy & HS completion

Early Intervention

Ready Families

CommunitiesState =

Ready Children

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…an early childhood information system that can answer key statewide policy, planning and accountability questions for

many audiences…

Early Educationand Care

B-9

Health, Oral Health and Mental

Health Care

Family Support, including

parental literacy & HS completion

Early Intervention

Linkable data, pre-natal through

the elementarygrades

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…and new models of organizing our knowledge, our programs and our practice.

Early Education (B-9) and Care:

Shared Services & Management Models; P-20 ed information

Health -- Health care reform; e-health information

Family Support – Linked social service,

education and workforce supports; Parent

engagement investments

Early Intervention -- HIPPA & FERPA adjustments

The Goal:Better

knowledge and more effective

action

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And we need to embrace an emerging set of core principles…1. Science mattersUse the science of child development to guide policy decisions, practice and investment

2. Early Identification and Effective ActionIdentify early risks/stressors on the child and family and intervene with (a) early supports to buffer

the impact of stressors and (b) targeted interventions to remediate problems and strengthen development

3. Core Systems. Core Interactions. FidelityFocus on (a) core system components across sectors, (b) interactions between child and parent,

caregiver and/or teacher, and (c) implement with fidelity to proven models

4. Public-Private Partnerships & Co-Investment mattersNo one sector can solve the problems of un-readiness and the achievement gap alone. The best

partnership involves public-private, state- local stakeholders

5. Governance and accountability matters Responsibility for “systems building” must exist, and be accompanied by authority

6. Outcomes matter. Target. EvaluateDo not choose expansion over outcomes & quality. Evaluate progress regularly

7. Data mattersYou can’t know about outcomes, cost-effectiveness and Return on Investment (ROI) without data.

Focus on data development, interoperability and reporting

8. Sharing knowledge mattersFocus information dissemination on parents, providers and policy makers.

9. Celebrate, every now and then

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Some Policy Questions re B-51. How many very young children do we have each year with multiple risks? Who are they? How early can we identify them? How are they progressing?

2. Is there a relationship between characteristics of the service workforce and child outcomes?

3. What program characteristics result in age-appropriate development and school readiness?

Some Policy Questions at K1. How many young children enter K

with low readiness levels as identified by their teachers?

2. Were they the same “at risk birth cohort” five years earlier?

3. Will they constitute the achievement gap in 3rd grade?

Some Policy Questions at 3rd

1. What are the characteristics of educational programs and other services that led to high performing vs. achievement gap kids at the end of the 3rd grade?

2. Will these same students be “achievement gap” kids at 6th?

We have articulated an initial set of statewide policy questions

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Category A Sample of Key Questions at the Community Level

Health What is the prenatal experience of pregnant women across hospitals in our towns?

What do we know about health care coverage, dental care, obesity and behavioral health for our young children?

Are young children receiving recommended & required well-child visits with pediatricians in our community

For young children covered by government health programs, what do we know about access, quality and outcomes?

Early Ed & Care

Who needs, requests and attend child care and preschool in our towns?

What do we know about early care programs specific to infants and toddlers?

How can we get information about Head Start outcomes? Who is teaching in our early care and early education programs? How can we get description information on funding source, number

of children served & attendance for all ECE programs in out town?

Connecticut communities have also framed an initial set of policy questions

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To move forward in these turbulent and sometimes uncharted waters, we will need a set of clear goals for our young children…

All Connecticut children, beginning with those born in 2006 will:

• Reach age-appropriate developmental milestones each year, birth through five

• Enter kindergarten healthy and with the knowledge, skills and behaviors necessary for early school success, and

• Demonstrate reading mastery by the fourth grade.

CT Early Childhood Education Cabinet

“Ready by Five, Fine by Nine”

(July 2006)

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…and a longitudinal early childhood data system capable of providing timely, usable information

about what works and how

An Early Childhood Information System (ECIS) collects high-quality early childhood data on inputs and specific outcomes that can be analyzed and used to make decisions (within and beyond 0-5 system).***

*** Language proposed by the Early Childhood Data Collaborative National Governors Association National Conference of State Legislatures Data Quality Campaign Council of Chief State School Officers National Center on Children in Poverty PreK NOW/Pew Center on the States Center on the Child Care Workforce

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An effective Early Childhood Information System (ECIS) has at least three core components that provide linked data

Unique Child Identifiers

Child/student & familyinformation SASIDs or

SSN (deeply encrypted)

Unique Teacher/staffIdentifiers

Workforce information SSN (deeplyencrypted)

Unique Program Identifiers

Information on dosage, duration and quality

STATE (and federal?) Data and Use LOCAL, REGIONAL Data and Use

ECIS

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When we finally build the ECIS and connect up its core components, we will be able to better advocate

for the investment needed to improve our early childhood service sectors

Data are needed to answer:

What is the relationship between student outcomes and an early education and care sector in which wide disparities exist between programs that meet public school teacher qualifications (and compensation) and ECE programs funded through other state and federal resources?

What is the level of quality of the early education “instructional experience” in terms of teacher-child interactions, the use of curriculum standards, the nature of school-family interactions, and the exchange of information about children’s challenges and their progress?

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As a field, we face an age old problem…“Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink”***

– Agencies holding data on individual children and their families• Department of Education (Child ID, K-Inventory, Spec Ed)• Department of Public Health (Vital Records, WIC, other)• Department of Social Services (HUSKY)• Department of Developmental Services (B-3 Program)• Department of Children and Families (Child Welfare)

– Agencies holding data on individual teachers and assistant teachers• Department of Education (Staff File)• Workforce Registry (Qualifications, Experience, etc.)

– Agencies holding data on early childhood programs • Department of Education (Agency Location/ Vendor Info)• Department of Public Health (Licensing Info) • Department of Social Services (Vendor Info)• United Way of CT (211 Info)

***The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner (1798)

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The data are resident within a wide variety of programs and services…

Department of Social Services

State Department of Education

Department of Public Health

Department of Children & Families

S-Chip Health

TANF

CCDBG/Child Care Subsidies

Child Care Centers

Head Start Collaboration Off.

ECE Workforce Registry

State preschool

Preschool Spec Ed

Family Res. Ctrs

Child Nutrition

K-3 Curriculum & Instruction

HS Supplement $

Family Literacy

Even Start

Early Reading

GED

WIC

Birth Registry

Special HealthCare Needs

Child Care Licensing

School-based Health Centers

Child Welfare

Children’s MH

Parent Programs

Home Visiting

Foster Care

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Department of Social Services

Department of Labor

Healthy Start

Hartford Foundation

Other

Organizations /Providers

Connecticut Voices for

Children

Department of

Children and Families

Department of Public Health

Health Education Management and

Surveillance

Section

Infectious Diseases

Section

Environmental Health Section

Health Information Systems and Reporting

Division for Data

Collection and Analysis

Maternal and Child Health Programs

University of CT

William M . Mercer, Inc .

DPH Human Investigations

Committee

DPH Human Investigations

Committee

CT Adult Education (SDE

State Department of Education

Department of Developmental

Services

Department of Developmental

Services

Department of


Department of


40 State Agencies

United Way

Child Development

Infoline

Bureau of Rehabilitative

Services

And, in old and newer data systems that don’t talk well each other.

18Preschool K

Ready for K

3rdrd

Pass Mastery

Tests

Ready for PreK

Prenatal to Three

BornLearning

Early Childhood Longitudinal Data System

Because extant data reside within various agencies, the ECIS must work across them to define data elements related a common core of child, family and program outcomes

…a healthy birth

…annual, age-appropriate

growth

…ready for K

…academic mastery

by the end of3rd grade

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Since 2005, state education departments have been building K-12 data systems. These systems must now stretch to include early ed and higher ed. Similarly, the evolving ECIS must link with (and, may flow from) federally funded Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (P-20 SLDS)

19Preschool K3rd- 8th Grade

High School

Adult

Graduate HS

Prenatal to Three

Early Childhood Information System

P-20 Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems

College & Career

Ready for K

Pass Mastery

Tests

Ready for PreK

BornLearning

2020

Federal Requirements for a SLDS

Twelve elements are required, including the following PK-20 items: A unique student identifier Student-level enrollment, demographic and program participation

information Student-level information about the points at which students exit,

transfer in, transfer out, drop out or complete P-16 education Capacity to communicate with higher education systems A data audit system to assess data quality, validity and reliability Yearly test records of individual students Information about students not tested A teacher identifier system that can match teachers to students

For nearly all of these, there is an as-yet undefined or undeveloped early childhood data analog. This is one good place to start!!!!!

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ARRA Race to the Top SLDS (P-20) Requirements

1. There must be a P-20 statewide longitudinal data system

2. There must be a plan to ensure that SLDS data are accessible to and used to inform and engage key stakeholder, including parents, students, LEA personnel, community members…

3. SLDS data along with instructional data is available and accessible to researchers so that they can evaluate the effectiveness of instructional materials, strategies, and approaches for different types of students (e.g., students with disabilities, ELL, students whose achievement is well below or above grade level)

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FEDERAL FUNDS CAN HELP US CONTINUE TO INVEST…

ARRA and FFY 10 grants to/ through state government

ARRA State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (Education)ARRA Statewide Longitudinal Data SystemsARRA Race to the TopARRA Statewide Advisory Council for Early Education and CareARRA IDEA Part B and Part C ARRA CCDBG Grant ARRA Title I Funds

FFY10 Early Learning Challenge GrantsFFY10 Home Visiting Grants

ARRA and FFY 10 grants direct to local communities/LEAs

ARRA Head Start local program expansionARRA Early Head Start local expansionARRA Investment in Innovations (i-3) (LEA/community philanthropy partnerships for educational innovation)

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ARRA SLDS (SDE) Due to the feds 12.4.09Could provide some funding for next stage Early Childhood Information System (ECIS) as part of P-20 Statewide Longitudinal Data System

ARRA Statewide Advisory Council for Early Ed and

Care Submits its own grantDue to the feds by August 10, 2010

CT award: $582,000 one timeSAC grant application makes recommendations re: (a) Unified early childhood data system (b) Early care and ed quality improvement

FFY 10 Early Learning Challenge

Grants

Not clear who will submitLikely due in Spring 2010

US Total $8 billion over 8 years

Key components: (a) Early childhood data

system(b) (b) B-5 quality

improvement system (QRIS)

(c) ECE workforce plan

ARRA CCDBG (DSS)$1.8 m funds now in CT for Infant & Toddler quality, and ECE quality improvementCould support:: (a) ECIS and (b) Pilot required QRIS system (Early Care and Ed quality)

BUT TIMING IS EVERYTHING…..

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Statutory authorization can help: New Connecticut law in 2007

CT General StatutesSection 10-16s (d)(1-3)

Section 10-16s(d)(1)

The Cabinet will develop and implement anaccountability plan for early childhood servicesby Dec. 1, 2008

Identify and define population indicators, program and system measures re entry to K


The Cabinet will consider data sharing agreements between state agencies

Analyze whether data can be combined to assess children’s progress toward school readiness


State funded providers of early childhood education shall employ program measures in 10-16s(d)(1)to evaluate effectiveness of their services

Each provider reports results beginning July 1, 2009

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…More statutory help in 2009

PA 09-03Dept’s of Social Services,Education & Public Healthto develop single report form for ECE

PA 09-10Same dept’s to report byJan 1, 2010 to CGA onways to simplify ECE reporting

PA 09-06State Dept of Ed to assign unique child, staff and program IDs for preschool and child care programsthat receive any public funding in order to track(a) children’s health, safety and learning, (b) workforcecharacteristics, (c) programcharacteristics

PA 09-241State Dept of Ed to provide data requested by non-profits within 60 days. reasonable cost can be Assessed

PA 09-05Agencies within CT HealthInfo Network (CHIN) can transmit personally identifiable information for network development and analyses in response to network Inquiries

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There is a clear “cost of failure” if the early childhood field does not move now in the direction of transformative change…

• We will continue to perpetuate the “ultimate disconnect” between investment and return

• Disparities in development will continue to characterize the early lives of our most vulnerable children

• The intergenerational pattern of un-readiness and diminished educational success will continue unabated

• Too many children will continue to stand unready at the kindergarten door and too many schools will be unready for them, when we know and can do better…..

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The Ultimate Disconnect

Age

Brain's "Malleability"

Spending on Health,Education and Welfare

0 3 10 70

$$

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Disparities in Early Vocabulary Growth are Evident Early in Children’s Lives

16 mos. 24 mos. 36 mos.

Cu

mu

lati

ve V

ocab

ula

ry (

Word

s)

College Educated Parents

Working Class Parents

Welfare Parents

Child’s Age (Months)

200

600

1200

Source: Hart & Risley (1995)

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1. If infants and toddlers don’t get quality early learning, they enter preschool behind.

2. If preschoolers don’t have quality early learning experiences, they enter kindergarten behind.

3. When children enter school behind, they are more likely to be held back, need special education, fail state Mastery Tests, drop out of high school and become engaged with the welfare and corrections systems.

And then they have children.

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10% -- 40% of children born in 2006 are at risk41,789 Births18,279 @ 185% FPL (44%) 8,112 mothers w/inadequate prenatal care (19%)

14,132 have an unmarried mother (34%) 3,881 have a teenage mother (9.3%) 4,597 have a mother w/o HS degree (11%)

7,036 referred to B-3 for delays (16.8%) 4,150 accepted/enrolled B-3 as of 3.1.09 (10%)

The CT Headline:

TOO MANYUNREADY

K Teachers rate 23% - 30% of entering K’s at very low readiness levels in language and literacy2006No Teacher Rating Entry to K Inventory Scores by Student

2007: Total rated by K teachers: 38,67411,345 Lowest Literacy Skill Level (29%) 9,699 Lowest Language Level (25%)

2008: Total rated: 40,25810,111 Lowest Literacy Skill Level (25%) 9,263 Lowest Language Level (23%)

Nearly 1/3rd of CT’s exiting 3rd gradersdemonstrate very low level reading skills200612,760 Reading Basic/Below (30.8%)

Total tested: 41,460

200712,787 Reading Basic/Below (30.7%)


200812,998 Reading Basic/Below (31.6%)


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AECF defines the DATA DEFICIT

America’s “progress in harnessing the power of data to optimize outcomes for vulnerable children and families falls far short of what is possible, far

short of what is needed, and far short of what private industry has achieved in its efforts to maximize profits…

In particular, this data deficit remains glaring for two types of information essential to improved decision-making: (a) population data on the needs,characteristics, and well-being of vulnerable children and families and (b)

performance data measuring the outcomes of government-funded programs and services to support this population.

In addition to these data quality issues, human service systems alsolag behind in the use of sophisticated management information tools that can spur rigorous analysis and put usable information into the hands of

decision making practitioners.”

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In Connecticut, about 40,000 children will stand at the kindergarten door each year.

Will they be ready?

Will we?

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We MUST, because the future is now…