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Building a B-9 Early Childhood Outcomes & Tracking System

Massachusetts State Board of Early Education and Care

November 10, 2009

Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., M.Ed.

Consultant

Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care

Early Education and Care Legislative Language

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The department shall establish a comprehensive system for measuring the performance and effectiveness of programs providing early education and care and services.  This system shall include, but not be limited to, outcomes of the kindergarten readiness assessment system and additional educationally sound, evaluative tools or developmental screenings that are adopted by the department to assess developmental status, age-appropriate progress and school readiness of each child; outcomes of evidence-based intervention and prevention practices to reduce expulsion rates; and evaluations of overall program performance and compliance with applicable laws, standards and requirements. 

(b)  The department, with the approval of the board, shall adopt, and from time to time may revise, the rigorous, developmentally appropriate, and educationally sound kindergarten readiness assessment system required by this chapter, including additional tools that the department considers necessary in order to assess age-appropriate progress and school readiness of preschool-aged children.  This system shall recognize the unique challenges of assessing preschool-aged children, and shall utilize tools that are reliable, valid and culturally and linguistically appropriate.

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The MA Cabinet’s Vision for the Role of Data in a “Readiness” System

Information on a child should be tracked, integrated and shared from birth and continue through the child’s success in college or entry to the workforce

Information sharing should occur for all children, not only children who are identified as at-risk at any particular point in time

Information sharing should be respectful of a child and family’s privacy while providing key information that education, social services and other providers can use to improve children’s outcomes

Data should be used to create meaningful, coordinated prevention and intervention strategies and perform these early on and in a coordinated manner

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Of course, having successful college and workforce outcomes does not begin with young adults…

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It begins here, with babies and young children…

6Preschool K3rd- 8th Grade

High School

Adult

Graduate HS

Prenatal to Three

The “readiness” system that tracks risksand then intervenes – in a timely manner – to improve child, youth and family outcomes must begin as early in the lives of children as possible

College & Career

Ready for K

Pass Mastery

Tests

Ready for PreK

BornLearning

Pass HS Mastery

Test(s)

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. When infants and toddlers don’t have quality interactions with caring adults and access to health care, they enter preschool behind.

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

3. When children enter school behind, they are much more likely to be held back, need special education, fail MA’s Mastery Tests, drop out of high school and become engaged with the welfare and corrections systems. And, then they have children…

The Gnarly Cycle of Un-Readiness

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Policy Questions re B-5

1. How many very young children do we have each year with multiple risks? Who are they?

2. How can we target an appropriate level of early intervention services to them and their families?

3. What worked?4. Have quality improvements improved outcomes?

Policy Questions at School Entry

1. How many young children enter K with very low readiness levels at entry to K?

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

3. Will they be the same students who can’t read in 3rd grade?

Policy Questions at Third Grade

1. How many 3rd graders have are not successful in the MCAT ?

2. Could we have identified this problem earlier and prevented it?

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

There are some key policy questions we will need to answer

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Population Indicators (e.g.)#1: Birth data at risk children (State agencies within MA Health & Human Services)

#2: Well-child visits for low income children B-5 (MA health & Human Services & DEEC)

#3: Entry to K Readiness(DEEC, ESE)

#4. 3rd Grade Reading Mastery(ESE)

System Performance Measures (e.g.)

#1: Unique child, workforce and program IDs assigned:(DEEC)

#2. Cross agency agreements for data sharing and case coordination (State & local agencies)

#3: Funding Allocated (e.g., for program quality improvement (State & local agencies)

Agency and Program PerformanceMeasures –such as who is served and how --

drawn from the state agencies and the programs that they operate, regulate or fund

To answer these questions, we will need data about children, programs and the system that serves them

11Preschool K3rd- 8th Grade

High School

Adult

Graduate HS

Prenatal to Three

Early Childhood Information System

ESE has been building a K-12 data system that must now become a P-20 data system -- SLDS

P-20 Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems

College & Career

Ready for K

Pass Mastery

Tests

Ready for PreK

BornLearning

And, the proposed EEC Unified Data System must now stretch to become an early childhood informationsystem and link up with the ESE SLDS.

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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). **

**Developed by the Early Childhood Data Consortium

National Governors AssociationNational Conference of State LegislaturesData Quality CampaignCouncil of Chief State School OfficersNational Center on Children in PovertyPreK NOW/PewCenter on the Child Care Workforce

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…An ECIS has the following characteristics…

1. Ability to track children across ages and over time, encompassing data on home and community environments

2. Includes children’s demographic data (such as birth date, gender, race, ethnicity, language) and includes special populations (e.g., ELL, special needs) and children not in service systems

3. Encompasses child outputs in at least four developmental domains and data on children can be linked across sectors (e.g., ECE, health)

4. Includes program and fiscal data (e.g., teacher/workforce characteristics, program quality, and service costs)

5. Allows for analysis by geography

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…and the following core components

Unique Child Identifiers

SASIDs assignedas early in the life of a child

as possible

Unique Teacher/staffIdentifiersSSN deeply

encrypted and inESE system plus eventual

DEEC registry

Unique Program Identifiers

MA status unknown

STATE Data and Use LOCAL, REGIONAL Data and Use

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Federal Requirements for a SLDS

Twelve elements are required, including the following PK-20 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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So, what can Massachusettsdata now available tell us about the state’syoung children???

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Massachusetts Population (2008)

6,498,000 Total 457,131 under age six years 231,083 under age three years

Children Birth to Six Years (2008)

Race/ethnicity: 73% white; 12% latino; 14% other Low Income: 28% Federal Poverty Level: 17% Mother w/less than HS degree: 16% Enrolled in Food Stamps Program: 19% Risk of Developmental/Behavioral Problems: 22% Enrolled in B-3 early intervention: 9% (2005) Enrolled in preschool special ed: 15% (2006) Low birth weight babies: 7.9% (2007) Births to unmarried mothers: 33% (2007)

MA Data on the Characteristics of the State’s Young Children

2007 Births

~ 77,800

Between 8% and 30% of MA babies may be at risk

of school un-readiness.How many individual children

experience multiple risks?With no unique ID,

we won’t know.

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Attendance in High Quality EEC predicts School Readiness Total HS Slots, 3 and 4 year olds: 12,883 (2008 PIR) Total UPK Slots: 5,700 (EEC March 2009) Total UPK and HS Enrollment: 19,257 (NIEER 2008) EEC Subsidized Preschool Slots: 18,592 (EEC June 2009)

HS teachers with BA or more: 41% (PIR 2008) 21% of preschools serving subsidized children are of high quality across 3 domains: emotional support, classroom organization, instructional support

Kindergarten Enrollment Number of 5 year olds (2009): 80,281 Students enrolled in kindergarten (2009): 68,540 Of enrollees, 75% in fall day K; 25% part day K

MA Data on Children’s Readiness for Kindergarten

3 & 4 yr olds~155,600

Without a unique child IDacross EEC & ESE and

either Entry to K or Exit PreKreadiness measures tied to teachers and programs, we

can’t know about K readiness.

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MCAS Results: English and Language Arts 33% at Needs Improvement Level 11% at Warning/Failing Level

MCAS Results: Mathematics 25% at Needs Improvement Level 14% at Warning/Failing Level

MCAS Results: ELA for Low Income Students 69% at Warning/Failing Level

MCAS Results: Math for Low Income Students 70% at Warning/Failing Level

MA Achievement Gap Data: 3rd Grade English/Language Arts & Math

~70,3003rd graders

tookMCAS

MA has a significant 3rd grade achievement gap.

When did it begin? How could it have been

prevented?

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Next steps?

Ensure that the proposed EEC Unified Data System has (a) the three ECIS core components (child, staffing & program IDs), (b) can be linked across B-9 agencies, and (c) takes full advantage of ARRA and FFY 10 opportunities.

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Are there enhancements that should be made in the proposed EEC Unified Data System to assure

cross-agency B-5 linkages?

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Unified System Access Routes

Secure, Customized User Portal

Educator Functions

Public EEC Web Site

Intermediary Functions

Secure Web Services Exchanges

EEC StaffFunctions

Program Functions

Other entities such as CCR&Rs and CPCs that perform functions on behalf of EEC.

EEC staff including central office and regionally based staff.

Other agencies and systems including state

and federal agencies and offices (e.g., DCF, ESE,

DYS, DPH, MMARS, etc.)

All Individuals currently working with or interested in working with children from birth to 14 years (or 22 years for special needs).

All EEC licensed, exempt, and funded programs as well as non EEC licensable programs (e.g., public school programs) as well as their parent organizations or systems.

Any member of the public

Families and PublicPrograms

Educators

EEC Staff

Intermediaries Other Agencies

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ARRA SLDS (ESE)

Due to the feds by 11.19.09 Could provide some funding for next stage Early Childhood Information System (ECIS) development as part of P-20 Statewide Longitudinal Data System

ARRA Statewide Advisory Council for Early Ed and Care Submits its own grant Due to the feds by August 10, 2010

MA award: $1.4 million one time award over 2-3 years

SAC grant application makes recommendations re: (a) Unified early childhood data system (b) Early care and ed quality improvement

FFY 10 Early Learning Challenge Grants

Governor chooses agency that will submit

Likely due in later spring 2010

US Total $8 billion over 8 years

Key components: (a) Early childhood data

system(b) B-5 quality improvement

system (QRIS) (c) ECE workforce plan

ARRA CCDBG (EEC)

$2.7 m funds now in CT for Infant & Toddler quality, and ECE quality improvement

Could support:(a) Early childhood data system (b) Pilot required QRIS system (early care and Ed quality)

Are EEC and ESE ready and able to compete effectively for federal funds?

24Preschool K3rd- 8th Grade

High School

Adult

Graduate HS

Prenatal to Three

Early Childhood Information System

Are we ready to build a great team effort involving both EEC and ESE around a PreK-3 educational framework, anchored in timely,accessible, useful data on effective teaching and learning?

College & Career

Ready for K

Pass Mastery

Tests

Ready for PreK

BornLearning

P-20 Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems

                                             

We MUST be ready because they are waiting.