Maryland Cooperative Agreement: The Effect of Subsidy Programs on School Readiness (ICPSR 32621)

Version Date: Jun 8, 2017

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Principal Investigator(s):
Rolf Grafwallner, Maryland State Department of Education

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR32621.v2

Version V2

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Summary

This project allowed the Maryland State Department of Education to accomplish two objectives:

  1. Enhance, merge and expand existing databases on early childhood education and care.
  2. Use those databases to understand the effects of the child care subsidy program on children's school readiness at kindergarten entry in Maryland.

The first part of the project involved integrating existing state databases, including those of the child care subsidy program, licensing and credentialing programs, and the Maryland Model for School Readiness kindergarten assessment data as outcome measures. It also included negotiating to gain access to relevant additional databases, including those of the Resource and Referral agencies, Head Start organizations, public pre-K, etc. This was done under the advisement of a Research Advisory Group, composed of state staff, university and research partners, out-of-state advisors, and representatives of local provider groups.

In the second part of the project, as a result of the increased capability to study the connections between child care subsidies, licensing compliance, credentialing and accreditation, and school readiness, analysis of the merged data addressed such questions as:

  1. How are parents of four year old children using child care subsidies?
  2. Is there a significant association between child care subsidies and children's school readiness upon entering kindergarten?
  3. What is the availability of child care providers accepting subsidies in the state of Maryland?
  4. What are the associations between child care subsidies, type of child care arrangement used, and children's kindergarten readiness scores?

Citation

Grafwallner, Rolf. Maryland Cooperative Agreement: The Effect of Subsidy Programs on School Readiness. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-06-08. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR32621.v2

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (RCA 90YE0107/01, /02 and /03)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

county

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, the Maryland Cooperative Agreement Study data are restricted from general dissemination. Access to parts of this study requires a signed User Agreement. To obtain the file(s), researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of the Restricted Data Use Agreement, found via ICPSR's online Restricted Data Contracting System, by clicking the "apply online for access to the data" link above.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2007-06-25 -- 2010-12-05

Date of Collection

2008-01 -- 2010-03

Data Collection Notes

  1. Common identifiers can be used to link data, including Voucher_ID, CHILD_PARTY_ID and PROVIDER_CASE_ID. A complete description on merging these data is included in the User Guide which is provided with the data. The following is a list of ways to link the data:

    • MMSR Data file to Voucher Data files via CHILD_PARTY_ID
    • Voucher Data files to Voucher Longitudinal Data files via Voucher_ID
    • Voucher Data files to Provider Data files via PROVIDER_CASE_ID
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Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to merge existing data from a variety of sources, including the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University, and kindergarten readiness data using the Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR). The combined data was used to examine the associations between child care subsidies and the availability of care, parental use of high-quality care, and children's school readiness.

Study Design

The study data files contain subsidy and provider data from the state of Maryland, June 2007 through September 2010 and subsequent year kindergarten readiness data for school years 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011. The data collection is a customized merge of existing series, including:

  1. Child Care Subsidy data collected since May 2007 in the Child Care Administration Tracking System (CCATS) of the Maryland State Department of Education's (MSDE) Office of Child Care.
  2. Kindergarten readiness data collected since the 2001-2002 school year and held by MSDE
  3. Additional supporting data on all licensed providers in the state of Maryland, with associated compliance, workforce, accreditation, and other quality measures.

Sample

The sample includes all administrative records available within the following parameters:

  1. All 4 year old children enrolled in the Child Care Subsidy program in Maryland in the year before Kindergarten entry for the years 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, including their service history by week. Source is administrative data.
  2. All children entering kindergarten in the year following the above, with their kindergarten readiness scores and demographic characteristics.
  3. Additional supporting data on all licensed providers in the state of Maryland, with associated compliance, workforce, accreditation, and other quality measures. Source is kindergarten teacher assessments according to the Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR).

Time Method

Longitudinal: Cohort / Event-based

Universe

The universe includes all children enrolled in the Child Care Subsidy Program in Maryland in the year before they enter kindergarten, all children entering kindergarten in the subsequent year, and all licensed care providers in the state of Maryland.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual, Center/Family Child Care Providers

Data Source

Subsidy data was collected and entered into the Child Care Administration Tracking System (CCATS) by Department of Social Services personnel where it was further processed. Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR) data was collected from kindergarten teachers by the various LEAs (Local Education Agencies), and then transmitted to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE).

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Presence of Common Scales

The Maryland Model for School Readiness was a customized adaptation of the Work Sampling System TM, and is described on the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) Web site.

Other programs and measures used are particular to the State of Maryland.

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Original Release Date

2012-09-13

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Grafwallner, Rolf. Maryland Cooperative Agreement: The Effect of Subsidy Programs on School Readiness. ICPSR32621-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-05-17. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR32621.v2

2017-06-08 Variable search utility is now available for all datasets included in this collection.

2017-05-17

The collection has been updated to include question text for the Voucher Data, Provider Data, and MMSR Data datasets.

Voucher Longitudinal datasets have not been updated.

2012-09-13 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Standardized missing values.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

CFDA logo

This study is maintained and distributed by the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData). CFData hosts datasets about young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them. CFData is supported by Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), an office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.