Needs Assessments
Needs assessments use a variety of data collection and analysis techniques to fully understand needs, resources, access to services, and costs within a community or target popualtion. Brodsky Research has extensive experience conducting Needs Assessments for Head Start programs, communities considering expanding early childhood services, and organizations wishing to effectively target resources where they are needed most.
Components of a needs assessment may include the following:
- Mapping where child care providers and other services exist within a community
- Determining the current and desired quality of existing services
- Surveying parents to determine what services they have most need for and what barriers to access exist
- Modeling to determine the cost to deliver high-quality services to a specific population
- Interviews and surveys with providers and community representatives
- Collection and analysis of complex administrative data, such as census data, child care licensing databases, and health outcome data
For more information, please see our Needs Assessment brochure.
Project Examples
Boulder Early Childhood Development Service District Needs Assessment
The Early Childhood Alliance, including residents from the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont, Colorado, and the Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colorado, seek to create an Early Childhood Development Service District. The District would provide...
Volunteers of America Southwest Community Needs Assessment
Volunteers of America Southwest (VOA Southwest) provides innovative, results-oriented programming using a therapeutic care and educational approach. VOA Southwest offers programs for vulnerable individuals and families including addiction recovery services, veterans’...
Toledo Pre-K Evaluation
Toledo, Ohio is engaged in a multi-year process to provide high-quality preschool to all children in Toledo. Brodsky Research is assisting with the evaluation and data component of the project. Andrew Brodsky has been involved in this process since late 2018, when a group of stakeholders in Toledo coalesced to bring preschool to the city. The project is currently in a demonstration phase, enrolling underserved children in high-quality providers in select neighborhoods in the city
Colorado Preschool Development Grant Cost Evaluation and Needs Assessment
Colorado’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG) provides $33.5 million to support Colorado’s vision that all children are ready for school when entering kindergarten. Colorado Shines Brighter, the state’s PDG B-5 initiative, works to maximize the number of high-quality early care and education options available to families, especially families identified as vulnerable and underserved such as those living in rural areas, families of infants and toddlers, and families of children with special needs.
Head Start Community Needs Assessment
Brodsky Research conducted a comprehensive community needs assessment for Adams County Head Start as part of a federally mandated requirement. This report evaluated needs among the Head Start-eligible population in Adams County, Colorado, and to determine what resources are currently available and what resources are needed to fill gaps
Denver Preschool Program Access and Capacity Study
BRC led a study to evaluate access and capacity for preschool in Denver. The study, which was sponsored by the Denver Preschool Program (DPP) examined availability of licensed preschool slots throughout the city, and yielded a need index which represented the ratio of preschool-age population to preschool slots in each census tract in Denver. In addition, the study used geo-coded data on provider locations to determine the number of high-quality preschool slots within walking distance of each of Denver’s public housing units.
Latest News
Colorado Preschool Development Grant Cost Evaluation and Needs Assessment
Colorado’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG) provides $33.5 million to support Colorado’s vision that all children are ready for school when entering kindergarten. Colorado Shines Brighter, the state’s PDG B-5 initiative, works to maximize the number of high-quality early care and education options available to families, especially families identified as vulnerable and underserved such as those living in rural areas, families of infants and toddlers, and families of children with special needs.
Strengthening Colorado’s Early Childhood Workforce
BRC is partnering with the Butler Institute at the University of Denver to better understand the economic contribution of the child care sector, and to determine sustainable strategies for building a highly qualified workforce.
Presentation at the Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference
Each year, the Annual Conference of the Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors hosts one of the nation’s most dynamic conversations about the feasibility, research, and policy implications of Pay for Success programs. The conference is organized by the Institute for Child Success, Ready Nation, and Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah, with whom I partner as a Senior Research Fellow.
Presentation on Pay For Success at Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference
Last week I had the opportunity to present on the opportunities and challenges presented by Pay For Success programs in early childhood. Two early childhood PFS are already in progress in the U.S. – in Chicago and Utah — and another has just been launched in South Carolina.
Two Definitions of Child Care Quality
As I think about the conversations I heard about early childhood in the past year, I find people are usually speaking the same language. At conferences, in journals, and in legislative chambers, those of us who live within the early childhood realm generally agree...
Andrew Brodsky Partnering With Policy Innovation Lab On Pay For Success TA
I’m excited to be working with the Policy Innovation Lab at the University of Utah’s Sorensen Global Impact Investing Center to help develop Pay For Success programs across the Western U.S. The PIL works across sectors to develop innovative, data-driven...
The Five Warning Signs Of EAU (Evaluation As Usual)
Is your organization suffering from Evaluation As Usual (EAU)? Symptoms of EAU include overly enthusiastic language about successes, wish-washy discussion of potentially negative results, and a general lack of objective and critical data analysis and discussion....
EC State Advisory Councils Final Report Highlights Colorado and New York Cost-Effectiveness Models
The final report from the Early Childhood State Advisory Councils, released in May, documents the $92 million awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to 45 states to help build higher-quality early childhood systems. The funding touched the lives...
Cool New Cost Effectiveness Tool From Center For Cost-Benefit Studies
Apart from the words “free ice cream”, there’s nothing more exciting in my mailbox than an e-mail that says “new web-based cost-effectiveness tool.” Given the approximately 550$ billion we spend on K-12 education alone in this country, understanding the impact of...
What Programs Are Appropriate For Pay For Success?
In April I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on Pay For Success (PFS) programs at the annual Early Childhood Social Impact Performance Advisors Conference in San Diego. Jointly sponsored by the Institute for Child Success and ReadyNation, the conference...