On October 1, 2010, the Early Education Initiative hosted an event to mark the release of an issue brief on early childhood data and what states are doing to link that data to statewide longitudinal systems of education data. The brief, "Many Missing Pieces: The Difficult Task of Linking Early Childhood Data and School-Based Data Systems,"sheds light on what's missing as states build data systems to analyze children's progress over time.

Laura Bornfreund, a policy analyst for the Early Education Initiative, and Maggie Severns, a program associate for the Education Policy program, presented highlights from the brief, which they co-authored.

Jennifer Stedron and Elizabeth Laird, members of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, also gave remarks and presented the latest information from several new reports by the Collaborative, a coalition of organizations dedicated to supporting state policymakers as they develop and coordinate early care and education data systems.

Accompanying the brief is a summary with an interactive map of the United States that shows which states have received grants from the federal government to improve their statewide longitudinal data systems.

To read the report, click here.