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Using a Provider Cluster Sampling Design to Study the Supply and Demand of Early Care and Education

Keywords: sampling, provider cluster, National Survey of Early Care and Education

The National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) is an integrated set of surveys with households with young children, institutions and individuals providing care for young children. The objective of the NSECE is to document the nation’s current utilization and availability of early care and education (including school-age care), and to deepen our understanding of the extent to which families’ needs and preferences coordinate well with providers’ offerings and constraints. The requirement to study the relationship between the needs of families and providers' offerings as well as the local nature of ECE/SA usage underscore the importance of collecting and analyzing data from both sides in matched geographic areas. As a result, we have devised a “provider cluster” sampling approach. This approach allows providers to be selected from a small geographic area surrounding the locations of sampled households. This paper describes the “provider cluster” sampling approach in detail and discusses the challenges, complications, and advantages of this sampling approach.