This guest post comes to us from Rob Shotwell, chair of the Yuba County Children’s Council. If you have a data question or issue you’d like to express through a guest post on Data Points, e-mail us at [email protected].

We did a Children’s Report Card in 2007 for the first time.  It reflected what many other county report cards have reflected, and in most of the categories that kidsdata.org uses.  The frustrating thing that we experienced then was the age of the data. In 2007, we were forced to use data that was 2 to 4 years old.  Some data were current (previous year), but most were not.

This diminishes the usefulness for documents such as county Report Cards or this website. The data are interesting two or three years later, but not as useful for planning a timely response in areas where the data indicate a clear problem.  A local response to such a problem, of course, depends upon state and federal resources, but counties and school districts have less leverage when the data available are not current.

Obviously, the data are collected/recorded locally, and are compiled on a state and national level.  This system is ponderous and inefficient; however, I admit I don’t know the solution to the data dilemma.  Current data would have more of a punch when we approach our local Boards of Supervisors, county executive management, Offices of Education, county Superintendants of Education, city councils and even the state legislature.

It’s difficult to present this data, then explain why some of it is older and why current data was not available, THEN reach a conclusion or recommendation.

Our efforts on behalf of child health and safety I’m sure are comparable to what other counties are doing, given the current economy and state budget in California.  While kidsdata.org continues to be helpful in some of the areas because the data are current, some is interesting but less impactful because of its age.  Nonetheless, I and I’m sure my colleagues will continue to use Kids Data as a primary source of annual information for Yuba County.

Editor’s Comment: If you’ve experienced similar issues with the age of data you’re using, or if you know of a solution, please note it here.

Posted by Guest

Tags: Data Challenges

On kidsdata.org, we have millions of data points across hundreds of measures of child well being. So you’d think that we possess all the data that people in California ever could want. Yet whenever we’re in Los Angeles, we invariably get questions about data we don’t have. Preschool or afterschool enrollments, HIV among parents, media consumption among adolescents, art programs in schools, data for children 0-5 who have special health care needs, rates of 2nd teen births. The list literally goes on.

And at the opposite end of the state, in Redding, a similar craving for hard-to-find data emerged during some recent meetings. There in Shasta and neighboring counties, we heard about one of the more pressing issues affecting kids up there –drug abuse – and the resultant need for data on parental substance abuse and prenatal drug exposure, as well as fetal alcohol syndrome. People also expressed a desire for data on abuse of kids with special needs, child care waiting lists, maternal depression, and the numbers of children born to teen parents.

All of these, of course, are important issues affecting the physical and emotional health of kids. However, for some of these topics, we don’t know of sources that regularly collect quality data in a uniform way across California. Do you?

“We’ve got your numbers.” That’s what we say on the kidsdata home page. And in most cases when you visit kidsdata, you’ll find a measure that meets your needs.  But when you don’t, we want to hear from you. Send us an e-mail through our feedback page. Better yet, broaden the conversation by asking us publicly through Twitter or Facebook, or by posting your query on this blog’s Data Questions page.  More often than not, unfortunately, a quality data source simply may not exist for a desired issue. But even if it doesn’t, the more we communicate about the need for these data, the closer we’ll get to developing such sources. In some instances, of course, you may be able to point us to a source, in which case we can consider adding these data to kidsdata.

Let’s all start conversations about the data we need.  We hope the links noted above can help serve as a catalyst for such discussions, which, in turn, can lead to the creation of a data agenda on children’s issues. Ten years from now, we just may have developed sources of data for at least some of the issues noted above. What a gift that would be to the nearly 10 million kids we collectively serve here in California.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Tags: Data Challenges

On kidsdata.org, we offer data down to the city or school district level. But we often hear that, while useful, those data just aren’t local enough for some purposes.

Last week, we presented kidsdata.org at the 22nd annual Demographic Workshop at USC. This year’s conference focused  on the future of California’s children, and brought together key groups of demographers, economists, city planners, and children’s health experts from across the state.

At this conference — and during our many other trips to the Los Angeles area — we hear that LA in particular needs more local data. The vast diversity within the county — as well as it’s sheer geographic size — mean that information about particular  communities cannot be derived from data at the county level. Even within school districts or cities, socioeconomic diversity exists.

In LA County, we know that data would be valuable at the zip  code level, or by Service Planning Area (SPA). Trouble is, many of the most trusted and reliable data sources don’t offer data at that local a level. When those data are available, the resources needed to cut the data that way can be prohibitive.

But there are a couple of resources that may be helpful. Try HealthyCity, or AskCHIS for local data.

Do you face this issue in your work? If you know of data sources that offer zip code — or even more local — data, please note them here, and be a resource for your colleagues working on behalf of kids.

Posted by Felicity Simmons

Tags: Data Challenges

Several recent publications have discussed the importance of “positive indicators.”  What are positive indicators and why are they important? These indicators measure aspects of positive well being, such as the percentage of students who report that an adult at school cares about them, rather than measuring problems, such as juvenile arrests. In the last couple of decades, there has been an increasing focus on understanding how to support children’s positive development – the skills, attitudes, health, and opportunities that young people need to succeed. This is a major shift from the historical focus on understanding and reducing negative behaviors and problems.

While it is important for policymakers to continue monitoring and addressing the problems facing children, it also is critical for leaders to understand the extent to which children are developing in positive ways, so we can develop strategies to promote and sustain those benefits. This is particularly true when governments are faced with tough budget decisions.

A recent UNICEF report discussed the concern that positive indicators may not attract as much attention as negative indicators and suggested that “it is often not the tenor of the indicator, but whether the trend is good or bad, that attracts this attention.” For example, the good news about California’s declining teen birth rate and the not-so-good news about few students reporting meaningful opportunities to participate in school both are worthy of public attention. In the U.S., it certainly is true that programs and policies promoting the positive development of children and youth have received increased attention in recent years, and support seems to be growing for the notion that “problem free is not fully prepared.”

However, there also is wide agreement on the need for additional and improved measures of positive well being, particularly in the area of social and emotional health. The following reports discuss these needs in depth and offer recommendations to improve positive indicators:

Lippman, Laura, H., Kristin Anderson Moore and Hugh McIntosh (2009), “Positive Indicators of Child Well-Being: A Conceptual Framework, Measures and Methodological Issues.” Innocenti Working Paper No. 2009-21. Florence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.

Dukakis, K., London, R.A., McLaughlin, M., Williamson, D. (Oct. 2009). “Positive Youth Development: Individual, Setting and System Level Indicators.” John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities.

Posted by JoAnna Caywood

Tags: Data Challenges

A recent opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times — Why tracking chronic student absenteeism is key for California — points to a notable data gap that we’ve heard about elsewhere.

In the opinion piece, Hedy Cheng and Yolie Flores point out that California doesn’t have a systematic way to capture chronic student absences. Rates of chronic absence may be more significant than we realize – and affect children far younger than we may expect. Cheng and Flores, for example, point to a national study that estimates that as many as 1 in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students miss at least a month of school.

This issue of attendance in school was important enough for San Diego County to include these data in its report card on children’s well being, published by that county’s Children’s Initiative. According to 2007 data from that report card, about one in four kids in public schools in San Diego County missed at least 5 percent of school days (amounting to about 9 days a year).

However, collecting these data were not easy for San Diego County, requiring extensive collaboration from the county’s school districts. If this indicator is so key – the SD report card describes school attendance as “one of the strongest predictors of school success or failure” – how can we make these data easier to analyze? Fortunately, Cheng and Flores point to some possible improvements, noting that the state’s Board of Education is looking into the possibility of tapping federal sources to track school attendance.

Posted by Andy Krackov

Tags: Data Challenges