Shared Learning
Data Informed Futures
A nationwide network of advocates, allies and visionaries striving to transform children’s lives.
As revealing as our findings are, what’s critical is how our partners use them to create new and powerful narratives that facilitate change. Together, the advanced suite of measures, along with the Futures Team’s coaching and the national learning network help communities to meet existing and emerging challenges.
The National Learning Network is a network of individuals, organizations, agencies and policy makers who care about children’s wellbeing.
Our members are committed to creating a strong start for every child and believe that to do this, we need to measure how children are doing to identify where our systems are failing. We use population-level metrics of child wellbeing along with measures of community context and racial equity to support our work to address inequities and dismantle injustices in our system. We know that when the systems that support families are aligned and well-resourced, children can thrive. We come together to collaborate, learn, to co-create solutions that help our communities build environments where each and every child children can reach their potential.
Purpose of Learning Networks
Learn and Share
We come together to learn how we can use the data from the Early Development Instrument (EDI), the Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (CHEQ), and the Middle Years Instrument (MDI), the National Neighborhood Equity Index (NNEI) and other measures of community context to identify where and how we can better support children’s wellbeing. Our network is a forum to explore how we can each support local community conversations to identify unique strengths in our communities as well as highlight where systemic inequities remain. Our network values building a culture of learning that allows us to share what’s working in our local communities and how we’re using the data for advocacy and systems change.
Innovate
We come together to innovate and test new ideas with one another about the ways we can better engage our communities in using this mapped data on children’s health and development and school readiness to understand what the patterns of disparity are across neighborhoods, monitor trajectories over time, illuminate root causes, and hone in on racial and other demographic disparities. By coming together in shared space of learning, we can ask and formulate questions, explore new ideas and innovate on local solutions that support each and every child to reach their potential.