Because university researchers often use different methods and measures, it can be difficult to compare results across studies.
Amanda Prokasky, MAP Academy senior research specialist, and Lorey Wheeler, MAP Academy director, are leading a project to address this challenge. In collaboration with five other universities, they are developing a data coordination center to support cross-site analyses and help share findings more effectively.
The Head Start University Partnership: Early Childhood Education Workforce Well-Being data coordination center project includes research teams from the University of Nebraska, Colorado at Denver, Oklahoma, Virginia and Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, as well as Georgetown University.
Each research team has conducted its own intervention, at their own sites, to improve the emotional, mental and physical well-being of early childhood teachers.
Funded by a one-year grant from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, Prokasky and Wheeler will build a large, combined dataset for the consortium to use to answer questions about how to support well-being among the early childhood workforce — questions that cannot be addressed by a single site’s data alone.
Prokasky and Wheeler are facilitating the development of cross-team research questions for all six sites using a large, shared dataset. They are also creating analytic plans, decision-making guidelines and universal file-sharing procedures for merged datasets.
Eventually, data will be combined into a master shared dataset, or multiple datasets focusing on different aspects to address the consortium’s analytic needs.
“One of our main tasks is to create variable harmonization across all six sites, renaming those variables so they’re the same so we can combine all the data,” Prokasky said.
Wheeler said an earlier Head Start University Partnership program led by CYFS Director Sue Sheridan and Co-Director Lisa Knoche — Building the Evidence Base for Infant/Toddler Center, also funded by ACF — helped pave the way for this project.
She also noted the project is further supported by the MAP Academy’s Applied Analytics and Data Infrastructure Research Core funding from the Office of Research and Innovation.
“The Nebraska Research Initiatives investment in the MAP Academy through AADI funds have helped us build and train staff with the data harmonization skills needed to do this work,” Wheeler said. “It highlights how the MAP Academy can push and support research agendas further through our analytics and data infrastructure expertise.”
In addition to highlighting the importance of the early childhood workforce, Prokasky said the project helps the MAP Academy establish itself as a leader in data infrastructure.
“Ultimately, the shared dataset will allow researchers to focus on how best to support the early childhood workforce,” she said. “A well-supported workforce ensures that young children can thrive in the best possible early childhood environment.”
Learn more about this project in the CYFS Research Network.