In recent years, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has implemented policies and program initiatives to improve and expand professional development training for the state's child care and early education workforce. One aspect of this process has been implementing Develop--The Minnesota Quality Improvement and Registry Tool. Develop…

Arizona's First Things First partners with other agencies to create a high-quality, family-centered, comprehensive, and collaborative early childhood system that supports the development, health, and early education of all Arizona's children through age 5, helping ensure they enter kindergarten healthy and ready to succeed. One of First Things…

The Tutoring Partnership was a Saint Paul and Minneapolis network of 28 community-based programs that provided academic interventions through tutoring. The common goal was improving students' academic outcomes. The Tutoring Partnership, operated by the Saint Paul Public Schools Foundation, supported participating programs by helping them improve…

In 2019, Child Trends partnered with the Institute for Health Research and Policy of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC-IHRP), EMT Associates, Inc., and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) to publish the first comprehensive policy analysis (see ED613844) to explore codified state statutes and regulations covering…

A healthy school is one that fully supports a student's academic, physical, emotional, and social well-being. Increasingly, state education policies are moving beyond a focus on academic mastery to include aspects of healthy schools. Despite a growing knowledge base that stresses important linkages among aspects of well-being, policies tend to…

Researchers reviewed existing research and conducted an original analysis of data from a large, nationally representative sample of Latino kindergartners with the aim of understanding what factors are associated with math achievement prior to and during the kindergarten year. This report begins by providing an overview of the research on the…

Youth must navigate various developmental tasks as they transition to adulthood, and during this period of "emerging adulthood," young people explore roles and relationships before committing to the ones they will fill as adults. This brief seeks to identify patterns and transitions during emerging adulthood to obtain a better…

Like all states, Nebraska faces distinct challenges in how it allocates resources to meet the most immediate needs of its citizens while investing responsibly in long-term social and economic growth. This report presents selected indicators that describe the status of infants and toddlers in Nebraska; Often comparable data for the U.S. as a whole…

This report presents a rich and nuanced statistical portrait of America's Latino children, drawn from the latest nationally-representative data. It is a complex picture. Some facets will be familiar, while others are less well known. All have important economic and social implications, particularly with respect to education as the pathway to…

The National Capital Region (NCR) is home to more than one-and-a-half million children and youth (ages birth through 24 years). Although the NCR is known as a place with a highly transient population, if history is any guide, many of these young people will remain in this region and fundamentally shape the quality of life--not only for themselves,…

When families make the news, it is often for negative reasons such as violence or abuse. Negative perceptions of low-income families tend to be especially strong. However, families are critical to the positive development of children and youth, as well as to problems that may affect that development. Thus, it is important to examine not just the…

Adolescents spend a large proportion of their day in school or pursuing school-related activities. While the primary purpose of school is the academic development of students, its effects on adolescents are far broader, also encompassing their physical and mental health, safety, civic engagement, and social development. Further, its effects on all…

Cognitive skills, engagement in school, social skills, and physical well being are all important for children's early success in school. However, some groups of children begin kindergarten less ready for school than others and, by the end of first grade, still haven't "caught up" with their more successful peers. This CrossCurrents brief reports…

By the end of third grade, children must develop foundational skills in reading, math, and behavioral predispositions that maximize their chances of future academic success and wellbeing. Results from the 2005 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) indicate that many children lack these foundational skills, and that low-income…

In January through April 2007, the Children's Trust sponsored a population-based survey of parents of children ages birth through 17 in Miami-Dade County to provide a baseline of data on child health and well-being, and to discern unmet needs for services in the Trust's primary impact areas and strategic investments. The survey was conducted by…