Early Childhood Data Collaborative

Dr. Lieny Jeon serves as the Director of Early Childhood Initiatives at Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC), leading the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC) housed within BERC.

ECDC is a partnership between BERC, Baltimore City Head Start, Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore City Public School System, Catholic Charities, Family League of Baltimore, Maryland Family Network, St. Vincent de Paul, the Y of Central Maryland.

The purpose of ECDC is to ensure that all Baltimore City children are ready for school by:

● linking data from organizations that serve families and children aged prenatal to 5 in Baltimore City and/or are committed to Baltimore City families and children;

● supporting data analytic and research efforts to address the needs of the ECDC members;

● using data to serve children and families more effectively; and

● assessing the extent to which children and families’ needs are being met.

Find out previous reports here.

research projects

Reducing Young Children’s Chronic Absenteeism: How to Maximize Collaboration across Early Childhood

Funded by the Administration for Children and Families, we investigate how to maximize collaboration across early childhood programs in order to reduce young children's chronic absenteeism.

Children’s regular attendance in early childhood programs is critical, in particular for those living in poverty, who are less likely to have resources for learning at home. Many cities in the U.S. devote considerable financial and human resources to early childhood programs to improve disadvantaged children’s school readiness. However, there is a lack of research investigating how barriers to access, coordination across programs, and effectiveness of collaboration associate with children’s long-term chronic absenteeism. This is essential, as chronic absenteeism is associated with long- and short-term detriments in and out of school, and is more common among disadvantaged children, who stand to gain the most from early childhood program attendance.

To address this gap, the goals of this project are (a) to understand children’s patterns of usage in various early childhood service programs from the prenatal period to age five, and (b) to explore how those experiences are related to children’s chronic absenteeism from early childhood through 6th grade using the ECDC data. The ECDC partners are committed to addressing early chronic absenteeism because they see it as a critical strategy to reduce the achievement gap between low-income and racially minoritized learners and their peers. The findings will be disseminated in multiple formats to help researchers, practitioners and policymakers understand how to maximize collaboration across early childhood programs and reduce chronic absenteeism in the short and long term.

Judy Centers in Baltimore City: Improving Data-Informed Decisions

Funded by the Sherman Center for Early Learning in Urban Communities at University of Maryland Baltimore County (PI: Dr. Jane Lincove), we investigate experiences of young children and families in Judy Centers in Baltimore City.

As part of the efforts to improve children’s school readiness, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) created “Judy Centers” (officially the Judith P. Hoyer Early Child Care and Family Education Centers, honoring advocate Judith P. Hoyer) that provide two-generational wraparound services for children from birth to age 5 and their families in low-resourced communities (MSDE, 2017).

We partner with Baltimore City Judy Centers to support them understanding the current data better, building a rigorous data system to track children and families, and making data-informed decisions.