Missy Coffey, PhD, a national expert in early childhood integrated data systems, has extensive technical assistance experience and specializes in research to understand how program and policy decisions are made to support children and their families. Coffey is the PDG B-5 Technical Assistance center director, a national center focused on supporting state implementation of mixed-delivery systems of care. She is also the co-principal investigator for ECDataWorks, a national project supporting the development of data analytics for state administrators. In addition, she provides technical assistance for the Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy Center), supporting states with integrating and using early intervention and early childhood special education data.

Before joining SRI, Coffey worked on numerous U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services early childhood data projects, providing states with technical assistance on integrating early childhood data and designing effective data analytics for use in continuous program quality improvement. As the early childhood data system lead for the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) program, she designed the Early Childhood Integrated Data Systems (ECIDS) toolkit. As the early childhood lead for the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), she facilitated the development of hundreds of standardized data elements for use in early childhood education data systems. In addition, Coffey supported state systems-building efforts on the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge and more recently on the Preschool Development Grants. On Head Start’s National Center on Development, Teaching, and Learning (NCECDTL), she developed training tools to support the use of data in making decisions related to the revised Head Start regulations.

Coffey specializes in using data from local, state, and federal agencies to inform decisions regarding early childhood programs and systems. Over the past decade, Coffey has helped more than 40 states plan and implement an early childhood integrated data system and has regularly presented her work at national practitioner and research conferences.

Coffey received her PhD in educational psychology from George Mason University and her master’s degree in public policy evaluation from Claremont Graduate University. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Coffey was an administrator for the Los Angeles County Office of Education Head Start-State Preschool program.

Key projects

1. The Preschool Development Grant B-5 Technical Assistance Center
2. ECDataWorks
3. Reducing Exclusionary Discipline in Arkansas Early Childhood Programs
4. DaSy Center