In a stimulating exchange of ideas, participants focused on the implications of a significant devolution of government--both in terms of research needs as well as research opportunities. Pia Divine, from the Child Care Bureau, called for federal assistance to help states create uniform definitions (e.g., coding children by birth date; coding hours of care) in order to allow meaningful comparisons of programs across states. She also suggested the establishment of "research consortia" as a cost-effective way to motivate states to include research as part of their policy agenda.
Martha Fields of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education cautioned that the promotion of successful community-designed programs depends, in part, on comparative analysis; and she encouraged the audience to look at ways in which we can measure the aggregation of data across cities. Barbara Allen-Hagen, of the Department of Justice, shared information on the Department's longitudinal study of the causes and correlations of delinquency in 70 Chicago neighborhoods. She called for agencies which are conducting neighborhood-focused projects on violence prevention in early childhood to share data among one another. Results, she reminded, are even more compelling when there is congruence across studies.
Merle McPherson of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and Carol Williams of the Children's Bureau expressed a view held by many: There is an overriding need to forge on the federal, state, and local levels a true partnership that will cut through the fragmentation, duplication, and "the terrible web that we have woven for families to try to hop through." We should put in its place more nourishing community delivery systems--systems that are coordinated and culturally competent, systems which truly operationalize the "best practices" of researchers--in order to effectively deliver services to the children and families who need them. This is a challenge--and an opportunity--for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike as we debate the possibility of great change.
