A Population Health Approach to Early Childhood Development APHA 2014 Lisa Stanley, DrPH (310) Neal Halfon, MD MPH Director, Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities Transforming Early Childhood Community Systems 1

Transforming Early Childhood Community Systems (TECCS) A National Partnership between UCLA Center for Children, Families and Communities and United Way Worldwide Enhance the capacity of communities to improve early childhood development by  Establishing a community level indicator of children’s developmental outcomes using the Early Development Instrument (EDI)  Linking EDI data to local planning and improvement activities 2

National Partnership 3 EDI Data Engage Community around Informed Planning and Improvement Improved Developmental Outcomes Use of Evidence- Based Practices

Goals for TECCS Give communities tools to:  Create strong local coalitions  Understand their neighborhoods to make informed, strategic decisions  Work collaboratively across the state to release synergies and innovation  Develop early childhood comprehensive systems  Optimize school readiness for all children 4

5 TECCS - Four Key Strategies  Community Engagement  Measurement, Mapping and Analytics  Targeted System Improvement  Collaborative Learning Network 5

6 1. Community Engagement Mobilizing local early childhood coalitions around data collection, planning and improvement

7 2. Measurement and Mapping Children’s health, development and school readiness outcomes using the Early Development Instrument (EDI) to inform cross-sector planning & improvement UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, under license from McMaster University, is implementing the EDI with its sub licensees in the US. © McMaster University, The Offord Centre for Child Studies

3. Targeted Systems Improvement Work with communities to identify system-level barriers and test, refine and monitor success of improvement strategies Create a culture of ongoing testing and learning to facilitate innovation and improvement

4. National Shared Learning Network Help communities share experiences, tools, and lessons learned Make organizations more innovative & collaborative Make organizations more agile Infuse external knowledge into the organization

Measurement and Mapping Early Development Instrument

EDI Overview Developed at the Offord Center for Child Studies Population focus Provides a community-level measure of school readiness Data are reported by neighborhood for entire city/county Holistic measure Consistent with the NEGP Covers five key developmental domains Teachers find it easy to use Average minutes per EDI Observational assessment Good validity and reliability 11

What Does the EDI Measure? 12

Why Use a Population Approach? Delivers information about early childhood development for all children in a community Moves focus from the individual to the entire community to make a bigger impact Provides opportunity to “shift the curve” for the whole population Assesses over time how the community’s cumulative efforts are impacting children’s development 13

The EDI Does Not: Report on individual children Diagnose specific learning disabilities Recommend which children should be placed in special education categories, who should receive extra classroom assistance, whether children should be held back a grade, etc… Recommend teaching approaches for specific children Reflect the performance of the school or quality of the teaching 14

15 Reporting EDI Results Community Profile Results Public information consisting of EDI tables and maps Describes how children are doing by neighborhood Map set includes additional indicators by neighborhood Child level data file Provided to local lead agency Used to conduct additional analyses Confidential school report Provided to schools/districts only Tells schools how their children are doing developmentally Compares individual school EDI outcomes to those in entire district 15

Confidential School Report Template 16

17 Example EDI Summary Table 17

Using EDI maps The EDI data maps allow stakeholders to compare children’s development: By geography to identify areas of greatest need To socio-economic indicators, to help better understand community conditions that may be impacting children’s development To service data to identify where there are service gaps 18

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Recap on EDI Provides a community measure of child health, development and school readiness that can be used to  Look back and assess how the early childhood community can better prepare children for school  Look forward to inform how to address the needs of the incoming class of kindergarten students 22

Outcomes from TECCS Increase awareness about importance of early childhood development Facilitate collaborative relationships Foster shared accountability Assess impact of past investments & guide future ones Emphasize prevention & focus on the whole population Build the evidence base Gain public support and political will to attract & sustain resources dedicated to early childhood Wichita Falls  Attracted $1.2M to expand community engagement and data gathering Southeast Mississippi  Data on SE Development  Creative Discipline as QRIS  High school curricular changes Long Island, NY  Informing ES instruction and programming Calhoun, MI  ECE network mapping and service planning And more…

“We presented to the Superintendent and her cabinet this morning and they were blown away. Everyone couldn’t wait to get before the Board to explain what they’re going to do next.” Dana Fried man The Early Years Institute Long Island “TECCS is helping us bring together and energize the people who can make a difference for young children and their families. The specific data about where children need help and the nature of the risks they face helps us focus our efforts and agree on a unified plan of action.” Steven Dow Executive Director Community Action Project of Tulsa County 24