1. Ready by Five & Fine by Nine: New Requirements, New Opportunities NAEYC November 18, 2009 Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., M.Ed. Yale Child Study Center [email_address] … the story of a state (and a nation)

4. 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.

5. 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…. Ready Families Communities State = Ready Children Early Education and Care PK-3 Health, Oral Health and Mental Health Care Family Support, including parental literacy & HS completion Early Intervention

6. … an early childhood information system that can answer key statewide policy, planning and accountability questions for many audiences… Linkable data, pre-natal through the elementary grades Early Education and Care B-9 Health, Oral Health and Mental Health Care Family Support, including parental literacy & HS completion Early Intervention

7. … 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

13. An effective Early Childhood Information System (ECIS) has at least three core components that provide linked data Unique Child Identifiers Child/student & family information SASIDs or SSN (deeply encrypted) Unique Teacher/staff Identifiers Workforce information SSN (deeply encrypted) Unique Program Identifiers Information on dosage, duration and quality STATE (and federal?) Data and Use LOCAL, REGIONAL Data and Use ECIS

16. 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

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

18. Preschool K Ready for K 3rd rd Pass Mastery Tests Ready for PreK Prenatal to Three Born Learning 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 of 3 rd grade

19. 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) Preschool K 3rd - 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 Born Learning

24. Statutory authorization can help: New Connecticut law in 2007 CT General Statutes Section 10-16s (d)(1-3) Section 10-16s(d)(1) The Cabinet will develop and implement an accountability plan for early childhood services by Dec. 1, 2008 Identify and define population indicators, program and system measures re entry to K Section 10-16s(d)(2) The Cabinet will consider data sharing agreements between state agencies Analyze whether data can be combined to assess children’s progress toward school readiness Section 10-16s(d)(3) 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

25. … More statutory help in 2009 PA 09-03 Dept’s of Social Services, Education & Public Health to develop single report form for ECE PA 09-10 Same dept’s to report by Jan 1, 2010 to CGA on ways to simplify ECE reporting PA 09-06 State Dept of Ed to assign unique child, staff and program IDs for preschool and child care programs that receive any public funding in order to track (a) children’s health, safety and learning, (b) workforce characteristics, (c) program characteristics PA 09-241 State Dept of Ed to provide data requested by non- profits within 60 days . reasonable cost can be Assessed PA 09-05 Agencies within CT Health Info Network (CHIN) can transmit personally identifiable information for network development and analyses in response to network Inquiries

27. The Ultimate Disconnect Age Brain's "Malleability" Spending on Health, Education and Welfare 0 3 10 70 $$

28. Disparities in Early Vocabulary Growth are Evident Early in Children’s Lives 16 mos. 24 mos. 36 mos. Cumulative Vocabulary (Words) College Educated Parents Working Class Parents Welfare Parents Child’s Age (Months) 200 600 1200 Source: Hart & Risley (1995)

29. 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.

30. 10% -- 40% of children born in 2006 are at risk 41,789 Births 18,279 @ 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 MANY UNREADY K Teachers rate 23% - 30% of entering K’s at very low readiness levels in language and literacy 2006 No Teacher Rating Entry to K Inventory Scores by Student 2007: Total rated by K teachers: 38,674 11,345 Lowest Literacy Skill Level (29%) 9,699 Lowest Language Level (25%) 2008: Total rated: 40,258 10,111 Lowest Literacy Skill Level (25%) 9,263 Lowest Language Level (23%) Nearly 1/3 rd of CT’s exiting 3 rd graders demonstrate very low level reading skills 2006 12,760 Reading Basic/Below (30.8%) Total tested: 41,460 2007 12,787 Reading Basic/Below (30.7%) Total tested: 41,652 2008 12,998 Reading Basic/Below (31.6%) Total tested: 41,133

31. 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 also lag 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.”

32. In Connecticut, about 40,000 children will stand at the kindergarten door each year. Will they be ready? Will we?

33. We MUST, because the future is now…