Examining Child Outcomes and Well-being in Early Care and Education Settings

Instructor(s): Shawn Pelak, ICPSR, ICPSR; Julia Roach, ICPSR

This workshop is sponsored by the Child Care and Early Education Research Connections project, with support from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation and the Child Care Bureau, Office of Family Assistance, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The workshop is designed to introduce participants to key datasets that present a variety of indicators of children's well-being and influences on their early experiences, including family practices, teacher perspectives, and quality of early care and education.

The workshop will feature datasets from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), and the National Head Start/Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Study. In addition, participants will receive a preview of data that will be available from the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS).

Additional information about each of these datasets is available through the Research Connections Web site: http://www.researchconnections.org/. Participants will receive instruction about each dataset, including key research questions, study design and methodology, strengths and limitations, considerations when using the data, and key findings. The workshop will feature one dataset per day, meeting for eight hours each day, which will be divided between classroom lecture and discussion and computer lab work during which students may explore the data through hands-on computer exercises.