Is Your State Receiving Federal Dollars for Data Systems? Check Our Map

At last week’s Early Education event here in Washington, D.C., attendees learned about states that have received grants from the federal government to build and improve the systems they are using to collect and use education data. In the last round, which was funded with 2009 stimulus money, 20 states received grants to link early childhood data to their statewide longitudinal data systems.

Which states were the winners? How are these states planning to use the money? These were among the questions that presenters Laura Bornfreund and Maggie Severns answered on Friday. If you missed the event, we’ve got a lot of material available online, including an interactive map of the United States that will show you which states have won federal grants over the past five years.

Above is a screen shot of how the map works. For example, by mousing over the state of Maryland (one of the states featured in last week’s event) you can see whether the state received grants and for which year. Click on the image to go to the summary page and scroll down to interact with the map. We’ve highlighted several states in our issue brief, Many Missing Pieces. For a chart that shows how much money each state received in the latest grant round, see this page at the U.S. Department of Education’s web site.

We have also posted the following materials:

• Slides by Bornfreud and Severns, along with the text of their remarks
• Slides by panelists Elizabeth Laird, Data Quality Campaign, and Jennifer Stedron, National Council of State Legislatures (both of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative)
• Video of the entire event, including the question-and-answer period.

It will be important to keep track of whether states are using these federal dollars wisely. The purpose of these statewide longitudinal data systems is to gather individual-level data on how their programs are meeting the needs of children starting at an early age. As Bornfreund and Severns pointed out, statewide systems will not present the full picture until high-quality longitudinal data is included on children from a diverse array of early childhood programs, including Head Start and subsidized childcare programs. The latest paper from the Early Childhood Data Collaborative is a good resource for states as they grapple with the challenges of making their systems more complete.