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- How are indicators organized?
- What supportive documentation is provided
for an indicator?
- What geographical areas are available for
the indicators?
- What is an Indicator Profile?
- What type of data are presented for an indicator?
- Do all indicators share the same time period?
- Do all indicators span the same time periods
(e.g., 1993 through 2000)?
- Can cross-tabulations or individual level
computations be conducted on KWIC data?
- Will new indicators be added to KWIC?
- What criteria are used in selecting Touchstones
indicators?
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1. How are indicators organized?
Indicators are organized and displayed by Touchstones’
six major life areas. Each life area has a set of goals and
objectives—representing expectations about the future,
and a set of indicators—reflecting the status of children
and families. Indicators are not simple presented in an alphabetical
list.
2. What supportive documentation
is provided for an indicator?
Definitions, significance and recent findings are provided
for each indicator as well as data sources that detail the
“who, what, when, where and how” data are collected.
3. What geographical areas are available for the
indicators?
Most indicators provide data for 65 regions:
New York State, New York City, Rest of State (NYS minus NYC)
and each of New York State’s 62 counties. If data are
not available an N/A is presented.
4. What is an Indicator Profile?
An indicator profile provides a table of all regions for
a selected indicator. The most current data available and
an arbitrary comparison year data are automatically displayed
and users have the ability to change those years.
5. What type of data are presented
for an indicator?
Number and rates or percents are presented for each region.
6. Do all indicators share the same
time period?
While the majority of indicators in KWIC use the annual calendar
year, January 1 through December 31, for their timeframe,
there are two exceptions: (1) the State Education Department
generally collects data for the school year, July 1 through
June 30 and (2) the rates for indicators with relatively rare
events in many counties are presented as three-year averages.
Three-year averaging is necessary to improve the reliability
(or stability) of the data.
7. Do all indicators span the same
time periods (e.g., 1993 through 2000)?
No, all indicators do not span the same time periods. This
is especially noticeable for the most current year available.
8. Can cross-tabulations or individual
level computations be conducted on KWIC data?
Cross-tabulations and individual level computations cannot
be conducted at this point since all KWIC data are aggregate
data-presenting the total number of occurrences within a geographic
area, not individual data.
9. Will new indicators be added
to KWIC?
Yes, once KWIC is up and running new indicators will be added.
That is definitely one of the advantages of having a web-based
system.
10. What criteria are used in selecting
Touchstones indicators?
There are four major criteria for indicator selection:
- The measure has to focus on the characteristics of children
and families, not on the characteristics of programs or
services;
- The measure has to be population-based;
- The data has to be available annually for counties; and
- The measure has to be reliable.
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