This NCHE publication provides a three-tiered approach to conducting comprehensive needs assessments and program evaluations to strengthen homeless education programs. It includes a comprehensive set of tools that will be useful not only in collecting state level data, but also in assisting LEAs in collecting the data needed to inform program decisions at the local level.

This report, compiled in June 2011, provides a summary and analysis of the 2009-2010 state data collection required by the U.S. Department of Education of the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youths program. The 2009-2010 data is also presented in comparison to the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 data collections.
Download Analysis of 2008-2009 Federal Data Collection and Three-Year Comparison.
Download Analysis of 2007-2008 Federal Data Collection and Three-Year Comparison.
Download Analysis of 2006-2007 Federal Data Collection and Three-Year Comparison.

This guide is designed to assist State Coordinators for Homeless Education in working with their local liaisons and state data managers to collect and report data accurately as stipulated in the McKinney-Vento section of the Consolidated State Performance Report (CSPR).

This NCHE guidebook will assist McKinney-Vento programs with the collection and reporting of outcome data. It will help program staff become familiar with the current set of McKinney-Vento standards and indicators, understand the purposes of these standards and indicators, assess the strengths and challenges associated with the collection of data on each of the standards, and develop strategies for implementing the standards and indicators at the program level.

McKinney-Vento Data Standards and Indicators - 2006 Revisions

This NCHE resource provides an updated version of the original five Standards and Indicators for Quality McKinney-Vento Programs developed in 2000. Reflecting provisions in the reauthorized McKinney-Vento Act and five years of effective practice, the revision includes 10 standards and proposed indicators that are comprehensive and quantifiable. Also included is a guide for developing program benchmarks.

Standards and Indicators for Quality McKinney-Vento Programs

This PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of the McKinney-Vento Standards and Indicators of Quality Programs and explains how they can be used to evaluate a local homeless education program.

This document is designed to assist State Coordinators for Homeless Education in the development and implementation of an effective monitoring process that includes all Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), those with and without McKinney-Vento subgrants. Based on the experiences of veteran State Coordinators and others with information to share about the monitoring process, this handbook discusses challenges and strategies related to monitoring LEAs for compliance with the legislative requirements of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. State Coordinators will also find sample tools for use in developing, adapting, and customizing their own monitoring process.

This guide, published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and revised in January 2008, describes recommended methods for collecting data on homeless persons residing in emergency shelter or transitional housing.

This guide, published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and revised in January 2008, describes several methods for identifying, counting, and learning about homeless people who are unlikely to be found in shelters or in other residential programs within a local homeless assistance network. Information about these approaches was gathered from communities throughout the country; examples of their methods are provided throughout the guide.

This guide, published in October 2010 by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), provides specific recommendations for how best to include unaccompanied homeless youth in the local Point in Time (PIT) counts that will be conducted in January 2011. It includes strategies on how to involve key stakeholders in the PIT count planning process, indicates locations where homeless youth may be found, and details ways to facilitate data collection, among other key action steps.

The American Association of School Administrators summarizes lessons learned from four districts with different approaches to using data to inform key decisions. Links to other articles and resources about data-driven decision making are provided.

Data.gov is the U.S. government's official government-wide online data source. Created as part of the President Obama's commitment to open government and democratizing information, Data.gov will open up the workings of government by making economic, healthcare, environmental, educational, and other government information available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and transform it in innovative ways.

The Data Quality Campaign, managed by the National Center for Educational Achievement, is a national, collaborative effort to encourage and support state policymakers to improve the collection, availability and use of high-quality education data and to implement state longitudinal data systems to improve student achievement.

This article, published in August 2004 as part of the Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshot series from the Harvard Family Research Project, describes the common data collection methods used by current out-of-school time programs to evaluate their implementation and outcomes. It provides detailed information about using surveys and questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, observations, tests and assessments, and secondary sources and data reviews.
Read the article online.
Download the article in PDF format.

This June 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) addresses (1) the availability, completeness, and usefulness of federal data on homelessness, (2) the extent to which research identifies factors associated with experiencing homelessness, and (3) how differences in definitions and other factors impact the effectiveness of programs serving those experiencing homelessness. GAO reviewed laws, agency regulations, performance and planning documents, data, and literature on homelessness; and spoke with stakeholders, such as government officials and service providers, about potential barriers.

HUD's Homeless Management Information Strategies (HMIS) page provides communities with valuable direction and technical assistance resources on strategies to collect information on people experiencing homelessness.

This updated brief, released in November 2010 by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), provides a basic explanation of what a Point-in-Time (PIT) count is. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that communities receiving federal funds from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program conduct a point-in-time count at least every other year.