Founded in 2016, the New Mexico Public Education Department’s (NMPED) New Mexico Early Childhood Integrated Data SystemAn early childhood integrated data system (ECIDS) “collects, integrates, maintains, stores, and reports information from early childhood programs across multiple agencies.” Source: Institute of Education Sciences. (n.d.). functions as a warehouse for state early childhood programs and policies. The system stores and integrates demographic, program, workforce, and individual data across the three agencies of NMPED; Child, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD); and the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH). The system deidentifies individual data by providing a unique identifier to each child.
Starting in 2023, the New Mexico Department of Early Childhood Education and Care will be collaborating with three other state agencies to use this data to contribute to the state’s new P-20 integrated data systemA P-20 longitudinal data system (LDS) “integrates unit-level, high-quality student, staff, and program data that are linked across entities and over time” and spans sectors from multiple early childhood programs to higher education or beyond.
Source: Institute of Education Sciences. (n.d.)., Research Informing Success in Education (RISE) New Mexico.
The system has been funded by the federal Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant and Preschool Development Grant Birth Through 5 (PDG B-5).
The new RISE New Mexico system has been funded by $4.25 million from the 2022 legislative session (state appropriates), 2 million in federal omnibus spending bills, grants, public entities, and NGOs since its inception in 2021.
Other Sources:
New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department. (2021). Annual Outcomes Report.
Research Informing Success in Education NM (2023). RISE NM
Connections to Key Early Learning Study at Harvard (ELS@H) Findings:
Strong infrastructure and systems – including governance structures and data systems – are key aspects of high-quality early education and care. And research suggests there is a need for more accessible, affordable, and high-quality early education within a mixed-delivery system; strengthening infrastructure and systems is one important way states and cities can take action to address these needs and accomplish these goals.
Findings from the Early Learning Study at Harvard (ELS@H) that connect to the need for more robust infrastructure and systems, including data systems:
- Families rely on a range of formal (e.g., Head Start, center-based care, public pre-K) and more informal (e.g., home-based, relative care) early education settings; when choosing a setting for their child, families balance many logistical constraints and personal preferences.
- But for many families – and especially low- and middle-income families – early education choices remain tightly constrained due to issues of affordability and supply.
- No one early education setting type is inherently of higher quality than another; children develop and learn well in every setting type, and in the study, all setting types showed room to grow in quality.
- We have learned a great deal from this groundbreaking, large-scale study. Nevertheless, there is still much to learn about what children, families, and educators need, and about what “works” – for whom and under what circumstances – across all the diverse settings where young children learn and grow.