Through considerable trial and error, perseverance, and ingenuity, the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation’s community partners have traversed rich data sharing territory and compiled key lessons learned, generously sharing their insights here in the hopes of helping their peers along their own unique data sharing journeys.

Barrier:  Need for building trust for data-sharing purposes

Strategy [Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond]:

1. Start with sharing public data and then get some early adopters of private data sharing to encourage peers
2. Start at people’s current comfort level with data sharing and then compellingly convey the value in the risk they’re taking by sharing data

Barrier:  Maintaining integrity of data sharing

Strategy [Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond]: 

Provide support to sharers of data on how to do that effectively and appropriately

Barrier:  Establish data sharing agreements with 15 individual school divisions to access their PALS data, with socioeconomic (SES) data — specifically, race/ethnicity; Disadvantaged Status Flag; LEP; and disabled — matched to the PALS data for each child in a cohort, which proved to be a prohibitively onerous process for school divisions to execute, OR enlisting each individual school division to give permission to VDOE to share school division data with Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond each year, which also was an onerous process

Strategy [Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond]: 

As a workaround, establish a consistent format and process for requesting this data each year with VDOE to receive de-identified, cohort PALS data sets matched with SES data on an on-going basis for each school division, which does not require school division permission, since the data are de-identified and it is an allowable sharing of data given the early childhood community intervention purpose.

Sample Data Fields Request to VDOE for PALS-K data – a sample form for requesting Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening Assessment (PALS-K) data from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) for a data project with regional school divisions

Barrier:  Relying on school divisions as the source of data, based on the false assumption that all school divisions are well-versed with their data inventory (i.e., that they are aware of all of the many data elements they collect) or that they know how to use all of their data beyond the purpose of required reporting/compliance

Strategy [Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond]:  

Work with VDOE to gain access to the needed data (de-identified), conduct the data analysis, and provide the data back to schools after analysis in a useable format to help support school divisions’ stewardship of their data. 

Barrier:  Accessing data from VLDS and the financial barriers of individual VECF community partners working through a VLDS participating agency or partner university

Strategy [Smart Beginnings Greater Roanoke/VECF]:

Work through VECF, which is now a VLDS participating agency

Barrier:  Breaking down data silos between early childhood serving agencies to create a more systems-thinking approach to early childhood

Strategy [Smart Beginnings Thomas Jefferson Area]: 

Demonstrate win-win scenarios in collaborating around common goals using data.