Guide to Datasets for Research and Policymaking in Child Care and Early Education

This Guide is an annotated bibliography of existing large-scale datasets that provide useful information to policymakers, researchers, and others in the field of child care and early education. The Guide follows an ecological approach to research and policy in the field: it brings attention not only to children, but also to the different contexts in which they grow and develop—the family, household, community, child care providers, schools, programs, and curricula. The aim is to promote research and decision making that take into account the interrelationships among these contexts and their impacts on children.

For each dataset, the Guide provides information on the design and specific data that measure these contexts, as well as a reference list of resources based on the dataset that are found on Research Connections. The first installment of this Guide describes eight datasets that are publicly available, have no fees, have a fairly comprehensive content, and are of value for policymakers and researchers. This Guide will be updated periodically to include profiles of more datasets.