1-016 - Understanding Early Childhood Needs in Tribal Communities: Emerging Findings from National and Community Sources

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

To best support American Indian and Alaska Native children, families, and communities, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners have called for rich data from collaborative, culturally responsive research and evaluation efforts (Marks and Graham, 2004; Tribal Evaluation Workgroup, 2013). This symposium begins with an overview of building a framework that sets an agenda for understanding early childhood needs and services in tribal communities and how local communities identify and support needs for services. The symposium then features three efforts to establish a knowledge base, grounded in tribal cultural context and informed by tribal voices. The first paper describes a picture on how to understand tribal communities’ early childhood service needs through key indicators already available in national and administrative data, as a step toward a national AI/AN early childhood needs assessment. The second paper presents new findings from the first national study of tribal Head Start programs (AI/AN FACES) focusing on cultural and language connections (indicators often missing from national existing data). The third paper uses qualitative data to inform our understanding of the influence of culture and context on early development in tribal contexts, and the importance of maintaining this grounded view of development in needs assessment efforts with tribal communities moving forward. The discussant will draw upon existing evaluation efforts to guide implications for future research and evaluation by and with tribal communities. Taken together, this symposium aims to broaden understanding of child development and the community supports necessary for fostering development within a tribal context.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Lizabeth Malone, Mathematica Policy Research

Discussant

• Catherine C. Ayoub, Harvard Medical School, Brazelton Center at Boston Children’s Hospital

Individual Presentations

• Moving toward a National American Indian and Alaska Native Early Childhood Needs Assessment: New Findings about Existing Data - Presenting Author: Emily Knas, Mathematica Policy Research; Lindsay Read Feinberg, Mathematica Policy Research; Lizabeth Malone, Mathematica Policy Research; Meryl Yoches Barofsky, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

• Children’s Cultural and Language Connections in Head Start and Beyond: Evidence from a National Study of AI/AN Head Start - Presenting Author: Sara Bernstein, Mathematica Policy Research; Lizabeth Malone, Mathematica Policy Research; Charles Bush, Mathematica Policy Research

• Early Child Development and Service Needs from American Indian and Alaska Native Perspectives: Results of a Qualitative Study - Presenting Author: Caitlin Trucksess, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health; Michelle Sarche, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health, University of Colorado Denver; Nancy Rumbaugh Whitesell, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health