Technology to Support Early Childhood Educators

May 22

Despite budget cuts, data system silos, and a fragmented landscape of programs, the early care and education (ECE) field continues to make gains in supporting families with access to high-quality early learning opportunities for their children.

A number of initiatives exist across the nation. Head Start agencies partnered with family childcare providers operating home daycares to assist working parents with their children’s school readiness. Several of these partnership opportunities arose from the creation of the Early Head Start — Child Care Partnerships (EHS-CCP) program, a national effort established by the Administration for Children & Families to increase the availability and quality of ECE programs for infants and toddlers.

Other programs include Quality Rating & Improvement Systems (QRIS), the Family Child Care Home Education Network (FCCHEN), First 5, and various subsidized childcare programs. All aim to support the ECE workforce and children between the ages of 0 and 5.

As the ECE data management landscape evolved from paper to spreadsheets to rigid data systems, we realized a more flexible solution was needed. All too often, those siloed data tools meant that childcare providers or teachers could not view or update information about the children they served.

Hello, VerticalChange

VerticalChange was founded with the goal of bringing modern tech to early education, health, and human service organizations to help demonstrate positive change for the communities they serve.

Our team worked closely with a representative group of program providers to deliver a software solution that would address two fundamental issues:

Improve fragmented and inefficient data collection: Managing large amounts of data kept in spreadsheets, filing cabinets, and myriad small databases is ineffective and can compromise data quality.
Improve collaboration between agencies: Information silos create difficulties for providers collaborating with ECE agencies, and disparate systems mean that program administrators and staff are not always privy to the same or most up-to-date information.

Childcare providers and teachers now use VerticalChange for the purposes of administration, preparation, and communication in support of early childhood education.

That means while program staff and administrators use VerticalChange for day-to-day program management, program evaluation experts use the software to evaluate program efficacy and conduct outcomes research.

The power of evidence-based data.

ECE professionals often accumulate anecdotal evidence of their program’s impact, such as stories about individual children or families, the challenges common to early childhood education, and how they responded to challenges. While the stories and the descriptive data are valuable, funders also require data to demonstrate that the program being funded uses evidence-based practices.

In a time of budget constraints and a desire to replicate effective practices, an outcome evaluation can serve as an alternative to research studies while getting answers to key program questions.

Key components of a program evaluation include a process evaluation and an outcomes evaluation. Is the program being implemented as intended (implementation fidelity)? Is the equivalent amount of time being spent for professional development across all childcare providers (dosage)? Questions like these are answered with data.

Quality data in, quality data out.

Data quality is important. In research and program evaluation, the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” refers to low-quality data input, resulting in unreliable findings and conclusions. Additionally, acquiring and inputting data is a timely process. When online program forms and questionnaires are well-designed to facilitate entry of data, quality can be better controlled. When the task is shared across all program areas (i.e., administrators, staff, teachers, coaches, researchers), time is saved.

So far, so good, and there’s more to do.

Leveraging partnerships and sharing resources to creatively solve difficult problems is exactly what large early learning programs need. We are excited to continue work with leaders in the ECE field and look forward to identifying best ways to support the important work of early childhood educators.

How can VerticalChange help you?