The Birth through Five Needs Assessment revealed the need for better data to measure North Carolina’s progress toward the Early Childhood Action Plan and Birth through Five Strategic Plan goals and to assist policymakers in early childhood education program planning and coordination. North Carolina proposes the following six activities to strengthen its capacity for data integration, management and data usewhile supporting overall grant evaluation and continuation quality improvement.
Activity 6.1: Enhance and Expand NC ECIDS
Continue ongoing work with the NC Department of Information Technology to establish data sharing agreements and integrate additional early childhood education data (including Head Start and NC Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program data) into the NC Early Childhood Integrated Data System (NC ECIDS). Additional strategies will be employed to improve NC ECIDS capacity for unduplicating/disaggregating data needed for tracking progress toward meeting goals and identifying gaps in services, including the development of up to 10 standard reports to address common early childhood education (ECE) data inquiries. As funding allows, the NC Department of Information Technology will partner with the NC Department of Public Instruction to integrate NC ECIDS data into the Education Longitudinal Data System.
Activity 6.3: Data Platform to Support Transitions from Preschool to Kindergarten
Provide NC Pre-K programs and families access to Teaching Strategies Learning Solutions including GOLD®, ReadyRosie™, and Creative Curriculum® to utilize learning resources, formative assessment process tools, and integrated family engagement activities to support the preparation of NC Pre-K children for kindergarten.
Activity 6.4: Data-Informed Local Strategic Planning
Identify a partner to provide technical assistance to local cross-sector human services leadership teams in 30 communities. These community leadership teams will increase their knowledge of best practices for using and interpreting quality data and receive support in developing data informed cross-sector early childhood improvement strategic plans.
Activity 6.5: NC Early Childhood Data Advisory Council
Partner with the NC Early Childhood Foundation to convene and support the work of the NC Early Childhood Data Advisory Council. Strategies executed through this activity inform state-level guidance on early childhood education data planning, improve the quality and scope of early childhood data collection, and continue to support data analysis and use by state policymakers and decision-makers.
Program Performance Evaluation (PPE) Plan
Partner with Child Trends to conduct a Program Performance Evaluation (PPE) of North Carolina’s Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) activities. Guided by the PPE Plan developed in partnership with Child Trends during the Planning Grant, this evaluation process will inform progress goals of the Birth through 5 Strategic Plan, contribute to continuous quality improvement by monitoring progress during the implementation of activities, and evaluate short- and long-term outcomes.