What We Do | Collaborative Action | Early Literacy Data Dashboard
Early Literacy Data Dashboard
Which Community Partners drive this project?
Our Reading for the Future Strategy Team leads the work.
What is the Backbone Team role?
Our Backbone Team convenes, facilitates and supports the Strategy Team in all meetings and activities associated with this project. Our Data Manager provides technical expertise and will develop the dashboard. Our Communications Manager has hosted Community Input Sessions to inform the design of this project.
What Conditions of Systems Change does this work tackle?
- Practices
- Relationships and Connections
- Power Dynamics
- Mental Models
What Cradle-to-Career Outcome and Initiative does this work align with?
Early Grade Reading Outcome
“Reading for the Future Initiative“
Early Literacy Data Dashboard
Purpose
Currently there is no common data or framework in our community to understand if kids are on track with reading at grade level by the end of third grade. There are many indicators from birth through age 9 that can help us collectively track progress towards this—and we want to make sure we’re aligning on the ones that matter most.
This dashboard will serve as a shared resource for nonprofits, early childhood education providers, and community partners to align on what data to measure, what our community benchmarks are and how we can all come together and work together to ensure more kids are on track to read at grade level by the end of third grade.
Project Timeline
Early Literacy Dashboard Development
At Achieve Brown County, we are committed to building a community-driven Early Literacy Dashboard that reflects the needs and aspirations of our partners and families. The dashboard is being developed in six thoughtful phases, each rooted in collaboration, transparency, and data-driven decision-making.
Phase 1: Planning and Community Engagement
Complete
The first phase laid the foundation for this important initiative. We began by clarifying the purpose of the dashboard, identifying that it will serve as a tool to track early literacy conditions and support shared accountability toward the goal of all children reading at grade level by third grade. Our mission and result statement were defined in partnership with stakeholders to ground this work in a shared vision.
Next, we identified five key early childhood indicators that can help track progress from birth through third grade. These indicators were then presented to the community during three virtual input sessions held in June 2025.
To ensure the dashboard reflects real needs and insights, we actively engaged key community stakeholders. We identified three primary groups of partners:
- Early childhood educators and centers
- Organizations supporting early literacy, directly and indirectly
- Existing Achieve Brown County partners
Together, these partners provided valuable feedback and confirmed a collective commitment to early literacy.
Phase 2: Community Engagement Analysis
Completed
In this current phase, our Strategy Team and backbone staff are analyzing all the feedback gathered during the community input sessions. This analysis will help determine which indicators should be prioritized for the dashboard’s initial release.
Additionally, we’re identifying the partners who currently hold relevant data and with whom we’ll need to establish data-sharing agreements. This groundwork is essential to ensuring the dashboard is both accurate and sustainable.
Phase 3: Data Collection
In Progress
The third phase will focus on collecting the data needed to bring the dashboard to life. This work happens along two paths simultaneously:
- Public Data Collection: Gathering data that is already publicly available through trusted sources.
- Establishing Data Agreements: For data not publicly available, we’ll work with partners to identify relevant data holders, set up meetings, and negotiate data-sharing agreements. This includes defining how data will be shared, how often, how it will be stored, and identifying a point of contact for each data source.
Phase 4: Data Analysis & Dashboard Visualization
As data is collected—especially the key indicators prioritized in Phase 2—it will be cleaned, analyzed, and prepared for visualization. If any prioritized indicators are not yet available, we’ll move forward with analyzing other indicators while continuing to pursue those still in progress.
Phase 5: Dashboard Community Rollout
Once we have collected and analyzed five key performance indicators, we’ll publicly launch the initial version of the Early Literacy Dashboard. This release will serve as a dynamic community resource, helping organizations align their efforts and track progress toward our shared literacy goals.
Phase 6: Sustainability Planning
Long-term success requires more than just a successful launch. In this final phase, we will:
- Continue stewarding and expanding data-sharing agreements
- Evaluate the dashboard’s impact and usefulness to the community
- Develop a sustainability plan to ensure the dashboard can grow and evolve alongside our collective work
Recent Project News
Community Input Report: Brown County’s Early Literacy Dashboard
July 1, 2025
Building Together: What We Learned from the Community Input Sessions on Early Literacy
July 1, 2025
Building an Early Literacy Dashboard
April 28, 2025
This project is part of
Reading for the Future
a community wide initiative to ensure all kids are reading at grade level by third grade
Data Requests
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