Centering Community Experiences in Child Care through Mixed-Methods Research
by Gabe Samuels
A publication of the Local Data for Equitable Communities Resource Hub
Researchers seeking to use data to investigate systemic inequities in local communities can use mixed methods — a combination of quantitative and qualitative research — to develop holistic findings about community conditions that affect people’s wellbeing and opportunities. Quantitative data collection and analysis can help researchers understand conditions and trends across a large population. Qualitative methods allow researchers to document and understand individuals’ experiences in more depth, leading to higher-quality findings through methods like focus groups and interviews.
Research on access to early childhood education and childcare benefits from a mixed-methods approach because education is significantly affected by family decisions and circumstances. Families consider proximity, cost, and the availability of friends and relatives to provide childcare, among other factors. Personal perspectives and experiences are an important component of assessing the quality of childcare centers and education programs.
This year, the Local Data to Address Structural Racism grant program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and facilitated with the support of the Urban Institute, invested in local nonprofits that use mixed-methods approaches to better understand the drivers of structural racism in their communities. Here, we highlight three organizations — Together for Kids Coalition, CTData Collaborative, and Higher Expectations for Racine County — that used a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to examine the structural barriers that families of color in their communities experience when trying to access early education and child care. These organizations, along with members of their communities, plan to use their findings to inform policies and improve programs that better support families and their children.
Together for Kids Coalition
The Together for Kids Coalition (TFKC), a coalition of nonprofits in Worcester, MA, is working to develop a collaborative system that ensures a healthy start for every child in the city. As part of this work, they sought to better understand barriers to critical early education care in three Worcester neighborhoods.
The project built off of a previous quantitative analysis of the Child Opportunity Index, which measures and maps the quality of resources at the neighborhood level that affect child wellbeing. Three neighborhoods were selected because they had high concentrations of people of color and low Child Opportunity Index scores compared to other zip codes in the city. The team also found that these neighborhoods had the highest number of births and the largest waitlists for subsided early childhood care vouchers in Worcester.
TFKC supplemented these quantitative findings by interviewing 10 families in their three focus neighborhoods. These interviews informed further quantitative data collection and gave the research team a better grasp of what indicators to collect in these neighborhoods for their data dashboard. The TFKC team shared the results of the combined analysis through Data Walks with families and child care providers, which also allowed the team to identify gaps in their findings. The team plans to present the posters and discuss the implications of their research at a summit for elected and appointed decisionmakers.
CTData Collaborative
The CTData Collaborative (CTData) furthers the use of data to inform decisions that can improve policies, programs, and services across Connecticut. For this project, CTData worked with the City of Hartford’s Department of Families, Children, Youth, and Recreation to understand how the pandemic has affected Hartford’s young children and the systems supporting them.
To accomplish this, the team analyzed administrative data from the City of Hartford’s Early Learning Data System, which tracks child enrollment, attendance, developmental progress ratings, and more across all of Hartford’s state-funded child care centers, as well as data on child enrollment and attendance at family child care providers participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The team also analyzed administrative data from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood and United Way of Connecticut on child screenings, referrals, and receipt of early intervention services.
To contextualize their quantitative findings, CTData surveyed child care providers in the city and conducted focus groups with parents of young children. These vehicles captured valuable information that would otherwise not surface in administrative data. The provider survey asked questions about challenges that child care providers are facing. The survey also solicited ideas about the supports and policy changes that child care providers need to better serve Hartford’s children. In the parent focus groups, the team asked about challenges brought about by the pandemic and parents’ thoughts on how to improve child care access and equity in Hartford; the focus group also filled a notable gap in the administrative data by capturing the perspectives of parents whose children are not enrolled in child care. Finally, CTData will be hosting a series of Data Walks with the intention of cocreating solutions for an equitable pandemic recovery for Hartford’s young children and their families.
Higher Expectations
Higher Expectations for Racine County, part of the national StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, is bringing more attention to the barriers that families face as they try to access childhood services.
Higher Expectations’ quantitative research analyzed the proportion of eligible children enrolled in early childhood education programs within historically redlined neighborhoods. They also created an early childhood education affordability measure to better understand the role that cost plays in limiting access to quality education.
The research team, which includes a community member taking a leadership role, engaged neighbors to collect firsthand accounts of the barriers that families face. Higher Expectations took a mixed-methods approach by connecting these results to neighborhood conditions that could serve as limiting factors, such as transportation access or proximity to heavy industry.
The Value of Mixed Methods for Childhood Development
Research teams should thoughtfully consider all options when it comes to their methods. A mixed-methods approach may not be right for every project, but offers many benefits when it is. Mixed methods allow researchers to assemble comprehensive narratives and build more compelling stories with data about families and children. Recentering the experiences of communities of color in the research process ensures that the resultant findings and recommendations are more in line with the needs of the community, leading to stronger and more effective solutions.
