Title: The Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute

Project Description:

This proposal seeks to maintain an existing relationship with the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University. The Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems (CARES) at the University of Missouri houses, maintains, updates, and analyzes data from the Early Childhood Institute regarding the Mississippi child care infrastructure and its practitioners.

Project Goals:

• Continue to maintain an integrated, spatially enabled database of core data about early childhood facilities and services of the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute
• Enter and merge data concerning professional qualifications and place of residence from employees of all child care providers participating in the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System (including monitors in the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System) and in all ECI programs and projects
• Prepare and merge lists of practitioners attending ECI workshops and Mississippi Child Care Resource & Referral Network (CCR&R) workshops
• Perform one annual strengths assessment of all licensed centers in the state to rank them by potential success in the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System
• Collaborate with ECI staff on up to five brief reports containing tables and/or maps of spatial data, not to include a major statewide assessment of early childhood services and quality initiatives in relation to child wellbeing indicators