The Child Trends DataBank: History and Prospects

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• The Child Trends DataBank History and Prospects
• ISCI Conference Presentation
• July 26, 2007
• Brett Brown
• Director of Indicators Research
• Child Trends
• WWW.CHILDTRENDSDATABANK.ORG

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History

• Prior to the 1990s, national data on children
  scattered across many federal reports.
• Data hard to find (good libraries and a lot of
  research time)
• Access to the whole picture was effectively
  restricted to specialists
• Early efforts to pull the data together
• Occasional congressional reports
• Child Health USA (MCHB)
• Youth Indicators (Dept of Education)

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Rise of the National Reports

• Trends in the Well-Being of Americas Children
  and Youth (Child Trends and ASPE)
• Americas Children (Interagency Forum and Child
  Trends)

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Limits of the Printed Page

• Timeliness
• Access
• Size
• Connectivity

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The Promise of the World Wide Web

• Continuous updating
• Larger Capacity
• Growing ability to link to other content
• Growing audience

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Developing the Child Trends DataBank
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Content

• Why is this indicator important?
• What are the trends and disparities?
• What can be done? (NB not what should be done)
• Where to go for more information?

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Design

• Easy to incorporate into users work
• Easy to understand
• Easy to navigate

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Funding

• Multiple Private Foundations
• Foundation for Child Development
• William and Flora Hewlett
• David and Lucile Packard
• John S and James L Knight
• Edna McConnell Clark
• William T Grant
• Russell Sage

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www.childtrendsdatabank.org

• Content
• More than 100 Key Indicators of Well-being
• National Trends and Subgroup Comparisons
• Continuous Updating
• Design
• Plain Text Reporting
• Attractive and Downloadable Figures
• Online and PDF
• Connection
• State, Local, and International Estimates
• Current Research and Government Reports
• Original Source Documents
• National Goals

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(No Transcript)
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Plans for the Future

• Comprehensive mid-course review
• Likely Future Developments Include
• New Features
• Analyze-it-yourself, Measure-it-yourself
• Enhancements to Existing Content
• Expanded research links, make-your-own
  PowerPoint, Flashmedia tour
• Marketing, Marketing, Marketing