ECDataWorks announces inaugural award winners for early childhood integrated data systems (ECIDS), including ‘Legacy Award’

In February, during the 2021 Building Resilient Data Analytics Conference, conference host ECDataWorks inaugurated the Awards for Excellence in Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) to recognized leaders and states who demonstrate great efforts to strengthen states’ longitudinal and early childhood integrated data systems. 

The ECIDS Legacy Award went to Anita Larson for her significant contributions to the Minnesota Department of Education longitudinal data system (SLDS). As Research, Planning and Evaluation Director, Larson worked tirelessly to build state team capacity, support mentoring, and secure funding to facilitate cross-state agency collaboration to successfully implement Minnesota’s first longitudinal data system to support early childhood education policy analysis. For nearly nine years, Larson served as a national leader and role model to help states to realize their vision. Larson took her work and lessons learned in Minnesota and shared them with the wider ECIDS community. Since 2016, Larson has also served on the advisory board for the University of Minnesota Children, Youth, and Family Consortium.

The Awards for Excellence in ECIDS recipients are as follows:

• The ECIDS Progress Award was presented to the Utah Department of Health Early Childhood Integrated Data System, an openly available data and resource portal.
• The Analytic Innovation Award went to Texas’ Frontline Child Care Availability Portal for open childcare operations.
• The Data in Action Award was presented to the Florida Office of Early Learning Sunshine State Early Childhood Information Portal (Sunshine Portal) that informs programs and families about quality services.

Supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation, ECDataWorks’ 2021 Building Resilient Data Analytics Conference is a field-building initiative featuring some of the nation’s leading voices in the early childhood data community. The conference was offered to state ECIDS teams at no cost and included speaker series, panel discussions, workshops, and state-led sessions that shared their experiences and frameworks for success in ECIDS.

Guest speakers included Della Jenkins, executive director of Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy at University of Pennsylvania School of Policy and Practice; Iheoma Iruka, director of Equity Research-Action Coalition at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute; and panel discussions featuring national representatives, philanthropic representatives, and state leaders.

The public can watch the 2021 Building Resilient Data Analytics Conference speaker series and panel discussion sessions via the ECDataWorks YouTube Channel.