The Early Childhood
Outcomes Center

In this essay, former Secretary of Human Services for the state of Vermont, Cornelius Hogan, asserts that the lack of coordination between federal, state, and local government and programs has hindered the progress of our national education system, and poses ways in which government agencies can work together to improve results for children and families. He writes that programs should employ an outcome and indicator approach which focuses on long-term responsibility and accountability, rather than the traditional activity, productivity,and effectiveness model, and discusses how by focusing on outcomes, programs can improve the well being of children and families.

In this article from the PACER Center newsletter, the purpose of early childhood intervention services and the importance of the family's partnership with early intervention and preschool special education professionals is explained. The newsletter also includes other resources, including an FAQ, for families.

This paper presents a summary of findings from a research study examining processes, methods, and barriers to collecting high-quality child outcomes data. Results are based on a survey of 42 Part C and 619 representatives. The paper presents general findings and recommendations for practice.

The Brookings Institution and First Focus have published a new report which provides up-to-date evidence on the effectiveness of several early childhood programs and their impact on children and families. It includes a series of concise summary briefs for policy-makers on State Pre-K, Early Head Start, Head Start, Model Early Childhood Programs, and the Nurse Family Partnership.

National Research Council's guidance on how to identify important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and how best to assess them in preschools, child care, and other early childhood programs.

This paper is a companion document to "Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation - Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth Through Age 8", a joint position statement created by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE). The document is targeted to administrators and personnel working with young children with disabilities; teacher educators, family members, and policy makers will also benefit. The webinar gives participants an overview of the paper and its alignment with other recommendations for children with and without disabilities.

A report from The National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force that details their final set of recommendations for state early childhood accountability systems, and for linking such efforts to standards-based assessment efforts in kindergarten and the primary grades.

The CCSSO state Collaborative on Student Standards and Assessments for Young Children has developed a number of useful tools for state policy makers and early childhood experts to guide their thinking and practice on appropriate assessment for young children.

High-stakes accountability testing has become a major focus of our educational system with the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act . However, Meisels argues that this approach, which was developed for middle- and high-school children, is problematic when applied to early childhood programs. Citing current research, Meisels points out four reasons for not using high-stakes tests to determine the quality of early childcare, and illustrates how these factors contributed to the failure of the Head-Start National Reporting System. Alternative methods for determining program quality are recommended including assessing: program characteristics, demographic variables, and program impact on children

This paper asserts that through the process of observation, documentation, and interpretation of children's goals, strategies, and theories, teachers gain insight into children's thinking. As a result of this process, teachers are better able to engage children in conversations and investigations that have the potential to extend their learning in both depth and breadth. Utilizing brief video clips of both children and adults to support its premise, the paper outlines and discusses relevant aspects of observation for understanding and introducing the concept of the videative as a powerful resource for revisiting and analyzing documented observations.

1,093K PDF

DIBELS online: http://dibels.uoregon.edu/

IGDIs for Infants and Toddlers online: http://www.igdi.ku.edu/

IGDIs for Preschoolers online: http://ggg.umn.edu/

This article illustrates the concept of General Outcome Measurement (GOM) as it relates to the use of Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI). IGDIs are specialized skills which when measured provide an indication of a child's overall ability in a particular developmental domain. The authors provide a rational for the use of IGDIs to measure outcomes for children birth to age 8, as well as an example which illustrates how indicators are measured, where one may put them into practice, the interpretation of the resulting data to make decisions, and how this data can be used to measure the effectiveness of interventions and special education programs.

224K PDF

IGDIs for Infants and Toddlers online: http://www.igdi.ku.edu/

IGDIs for Preschoolers online: http://ggg.umn.edu/

Starting Strong III: A Quality Toolkit home page
Policy lever: Advancing data collection, research and monitoring
Sample Brief: Internatinoal Strategies addressing collection of data on child development

Presenters from the Early Childhood Data Collaborative, the National Governors Association, Maine, Missouri, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and OSEP discussed building early childhood data systems.

This brief from the New America Foundation finds that many states are missing key pieces of data about young children before they enter Kindergarten.  Therefore, current efforts to track children's education progress from PreK through High School face serious challenges.