Most state education agencies use vendors in support of their education data projects. Establishing and maintaining successful state-vendor relationships are key in the cost effective creation of high quality products. In a call sponsored by the SLDS Grant Program, representatives from three states shared experiences and offered tips on establishing proactive communication, building strong relationships, and maintaining flexibility with vendors to ensure successful outcomes.

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Critical to the longevity and ultimate success of an SLDS is the acquisition of funding or other resources from multiple sources of support. This SLDS Best Practices Brief summarizes the tips and lessons learned shared by representatives from Arkansas, Colorado, and Texas on a monthly SLDS topical webinar facilitated by Corey Chatis of the SLDS State Support Team. Specific topics covered include supporter identification, relationship initiation, and effective communication to ensure engagement and sustained support.

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Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oregon participated in a discussion with Robin Taylor of the SLDS State Support Team around stakeholder communications. The SLDS Best Practices Brief captures the strategies, best practices, and lessons learned from these states’ experiences.

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An early warning system is a data-based tool that helps predict which students are on the right path towards eventual graduation or other grade-appropriate goals. Through such systems, stakeholders at the school and district levels can view data from a wide range of perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of student data. This SLDS Spotlight discusses the development and use of early warning systems in Maine, Massachusetts, and South Carolina and offers tips for states interested in implementing one.

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A regional service center (RSC) can be a significant link between state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs), by performing a wide range of duties such as organizing, cleaning, and analyzing data; and designing professional development programs. This SLDS Spotlight discusses the functions of RSCs in Iowa, Oregon, and New York, including the states’ relationships with the centers and the benefits that result.

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Nationwide, states are expanding K12 education data collection to include pre-kindergarten through higher education and workforce data, known as P-20W data. The state of Mississippi developed a P-20W data model to guide the development of an SLDS. In an SLDS Grant Program webinar, representatives from Mississippi State University’s National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (nSPARC) outlined a process for building a data model that integrates P-20W data for the purpose of tracking education outcomes.

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This webinar addressed innovative use of local early childhood data. The Director of Assessment and Accountability for the Tulsa Community Action Project (CAP) presented CAP’s efforts to gather classroom quality data, child outcomes, and health and workforce data, as well as CAP’s efforts to link these data to area public schools' data systems. The Early Childhood Director for Boston Public Schools presented Boston’s efforts to track school readiness assessment data, classroom quality data, workforce data, and child outcomes from pre-K to the K12 system, as well as how the district has used these data to influence policy and program development.

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The Head Start Reauthorization Act of 2007 called for states to create Early Childhood Advisory Councils (ECACs). This webinar focused how ECACs interface with the collection and publication of early childhood data. Rachel Demma from the National Governors Association discussed state activities around data and how these efforts align with State ECACs, Elliot Regenstein of EducationCounsel LLC talked about Illinois’s work with their State ECAC, and Debra Andersen of Smart Start Oklahoma discussed her state’s progress in incorporating health data into its data efforts.

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This webinar addressed what states need to know in order to implement legal solutions for sharing data across early childhood programs, and how states can implement a coordinated data system when commonality has not yet been sufficiently addressed. Speakers include a representative of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, who addressed "The State of States' Early Childhood Education Data Systems Efforts," and representatives from Pennsylvania, who shared their state's data sharing efforts through Pennsylvania's Enterprise to Link Information for Children Across Networks (PELICAN).

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This webinar focused on how states can collect preschool ("P") data when a state does not have a "P" or when a state’s "P" falls within many programs. Representatives from the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, the National Institute for Early Education Research, and Hawaii's Good Beginnings Alliance presented information to help guide states as they develop preschool data systems, which can then be integrated with K-12, postsecondary, and workforce data.

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Early childhood data are a key component in developing robust P-20W data systems. This webinar focused on how states can design early childhood data systems that a) address key issues, on the local, state, and national levels; b) are improvement-driven as opposed to compliance-driven; and c) can be coordinated with K-12 and other key program data. Elizabeth Laird spoke about the work of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC), and Elliot Regenstein of EducationCounsel LLC and the Illinois Early Learning Council reviewed the process of developing early childhood (EC) data systems in three states.

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