Evaluation

Systems Assessment

In 2023, Rainbow Research was contracted to complete a systems assessment for the Minnesota Integrated Care for Early Childhood Initiative (MN–ICECI). The Minnesota Department of Health was clear that it was not interested, based on strong feedback from community members, on doing “another needs assessment” that looked at communities rather than looking at systems. We have disparate outcomes because structural racism and it’s characteristic monolithic multiculturalism  influence 100% of the social determinants of health. 

A systems assessment for MN-ICECI requires an examination of two distinct systems that are now expected to work in conjunction with each other to generate consistently good outcomes for Black children in families in Minnesota: an early childhood education system and an early childhood health care system. The assessment needs to examine how each system is currently failing to work as well for Black families as it is, in general, and to offer recommendations on how an integrated system can best nourish the health and brilliance of EVERY Black child.

The systems assessment methodology included interviews with MN-ICECI advisors, parents, and professionals in the early childhood education and health care systems. Interview data and analysis was supplemented by a literature review, and thematic analysis that braided sources of data into a coherent framework to support systems change.

The intent of this systems assessment to galvanize all participants in the elements of Minnesota’s early childcare education and health ecosystems to come together to drive mutually beneficial systems change. The well-known “elephant metaphor” is relevant here. People across all systems care deeply about the wellbeing of all children in Minnesota, but each person engaged in the caring ecology sees their own part of the system best, but not the whole. To facilitate systems change, we need to see and work with the whole system of systems, and the norms and patterns in the ecosystems of children and families—rooting out what is causing and reinforcing inequitable outcomes.

Key Questions the Assessment was designed to address:

• What do Black families and providers recognize as the most critical gaps in the early childhood care and education system?
• What, if anything, can families and providers indicate as the most beneficial gains in the system that are actively improving outcomes for Black children and families?
• What is the vision of the future ecosystem, and how do we get there?

 

Evaluation

Look for the final report, coming soon. Preliminary report.