Below are resources for early childhood professionals and those serving the early childhood community.

Please Participate!  Preschool Program Absenteeism Survey The Northern Illinois P-20 Network is gathering information about preschool absenteeism. As part of that work, we are surveying preschool program directors throughout the state. We hope that you will participate in the survey to help us better understand preschool absenteeism. The survey should take 10 minutes and results will only be reported in the aggregate.  You should have attendance data from September 1-November 30, 2016, before starting the survey.

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment  The Ounce of Prevention Fund published its latest Ounce Policy Conversation, Uses and Misuses of Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Results. The paper provides an explanation of why kindergarten readiness is important and how it can benefit states, communities, and educators – but also to guard against misuse of the results.

Quality Early Childhood Programs  The Center for American Progress released Quality 101: Identify the Core Components of a High-Quality Early Childhood Program that offers a guide to what to look for when identifying quality programs.

Head Start Bellwether Education Partners released a new report highlighting lessons from Head Start over the last ten years, including improved teacher quality standards and state profiles.

Early Childhood Education  new study published in Child Development found that the high-quality, center-based early childhood education offered at Educare has a positive impact on the development of financially disadvantaged infants and toddlers. The randomized control trial (RCT) study found that Educare children after one year of enrollment, at approximately age 2, had significantly higher English language skills, fewer parent reports of problem behaviors and more positive parent-child interactions than children who did not attend Educare.

Early Childhood STEM  The report, STEM Starts Early: Grounding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education in Early Childhood, looks at research on early childhood and STEM and some of the common misconceptions about how to STEM learning at an early age. The report seeks to help educators, researchers, and policymakers reframe these issues to promote STEM learning.

Early Childhood Data Systems  States collect data from their early childhood systems, but in many cases their efforts are uncoordinated. This means data used to inform policy decisions and support the coordination of early learning services is often incomplete. That’s where integrated data systems come in. The Early Childhood Data Collaborative has just launched its newly updated website. The site includes an interactive map with profiles of state data systems, and other new features.