The Ear­ly Child­hood Data and Research Sum­mit is the launch of ERA-New Orleans’ new effort to under­stand and improve ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion in New Orleans. Dur­ing the meet­ing, par­tic­i­pants will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to talk with one anoth­er and with speak­ers about how to work togeth­er to improve research and data col­lec­tion in ear­ly child­hood pro­grams and ser­vices. We hope these con­ver­sa­tions will facil­i­tate cross-sec­tor col­lab­o­ra­tions and be the begin­ning of an ongo­ing dia­logue among researchers, prac­ti­tion­ers, and pol­i­cy­mak­ers. Reg­is­tra­tion is free and open to all com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who work with, admin­is­ter pro­grams for, or con­duct research with chil­dren under age five. Space is lim­it­ed, so please reg­is­ter soon to reserve your spot. Reg­is­tra­tion will close on July 14^th. The goal of the sum­mit is to exam­ine bar­ri­ers to our knowl­edge about Louisiana’s young chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly those from vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions. The speak­ers list­ed below will dis­cuss recent research on ear­ly child­hood pro­grams in Louisiana and present ways to col­lect and con­nect data on young chil­dren and the pro­grams that serve them. • Dr. Michael Rebar, Direc­tor of Sys­tems Inte­gra­tion for the Ore­gon Chief Edu­ca­tion Office, will dis­cuss Ore­gon’s Stu­dent Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Data Sys­tem, which incor­po­rates ear­ly child­hood pro­grams. • Dr. Faith Connolly, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Bal­ti­more Edu­ca­tion Research Con­sor­tium, will dis­cuss Baltimore’s new cross-sec­tor ear­ly child­hood data sys­tem. • Dr. Vir­ginia Vitiello, Research Sci­en­tist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Virginia’s Cur­ry School of Edu­ca­tion, will share ear­ly results from the pilot study of Louisiana’s new kinder­garten readi­ness sys­tem. •Teresa Falgoust, KIDS Count Coor­di­na­tor at Agen­da for Chil­dren, will pro­vide an overview of the well-being of New Orleans chil­dren and the sys­tems that serve them. • Elizabeth Kief, Asso­ciate Direc­tor of Ear­ly Care and Edu­ca­tion and Man­ag­er of the New Orleans Ear­ly Edu­ca­tion Net­work at Agen­da for Chil­dren, will pro­vide an overview of the well-being of New Orleans chil­dren. • Kristen Illarmo, Asso­ciate Direc­tor of Ear­ly Child­hood Enroll­ment at the Recov­ery School Dis­trict, will explain the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion land­scape and enroll­ment process in New Orleans. • Lauren Dunaway, Research and Eval­u­a­tion Pro­gram Man­ag­er at the Mary Amelia Women’s Cen­ter and Doc­tor­al Can­di­date at the Tulane School of Pub­lic Health, will share find­ings from her eval­u­a­tion of the Edu­care ear­ly child­hood cen­ter in New Orleans. • Dr. Lind­say Weixler, Senior Research Fel­low at the Edu­ca­tion Research Alliance, will present find­ings from a study of the declin­ing avail­abil­i­ty of school-based pre‑k in post-Kat­ri­na New Orleans.