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Partnerships with States to Develop Early Childhood Outcome Measurement Systems (Colorado, Florida, Hawaii)

In recent years, the move to measure and report child outcomes has extended downward from the K-12 education system to incorporate accountability for outcomes of early childhood programs. The need for outcome data for children birth to age 5, including those with disabilities and other special needs, and for their families is critical in order to document and justify the effectiveness of intervention programs and to support continued program improvement. However, there are numerous challenges to effectively measuring outcomes among infants, toddlers, and young children.

To help address the many challenges in developing an effective outcome measurement system for young children, a number of states have sought assistance from the Early Childhood Outcomes (ECO) Center at SRI. The ECO Center staff have considerable expertise confronting the complex issues involved in evaluating outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families, while maintaining a focus on supporting practice that promotes high-quality intervention and care for young children. Our work in this area focuses on building systems that incorporate best practices for young children, including those with disabilities and other special needs, and that ultimately will enable states to use outcome data to improve programs in an ongoing way. The work of developing outcome measurement systems has emphasized the identification of formats for analyzing, sharing, and using data in meaningful ways so that the systems can effectively support the needs of different audiences (e.g., parents, providers, program administrators, community planners, state-level planners, funders, and state and federal legislators).

Center activities with or on behalf of state personnel include:

• Writing grant proposals to support state work
• Convening meetings and facilitating communication with key stakeholders
• Presenting to large and small groups in the state on outcome measurement system issues
• Translating federal information about requirements and recommendations for workgroups to use in decisionmaking about outcome measurement system development
• Documenting project progress through reports for different audiences
• Providing technical assistance by developing presentations to identify core issues and potential approaches for specific audiences
• Using networks to identify and seek expert consultation on challenging state issues
• Facilitating information sharing across multiple state projects confronting similar challenges
• Summarizing feedback from individuals shared in focus groups and other formats
• Reviewing implications of decisions for training requirements and developing materials for training sessions and associated follow-up support
• Helping plan data systems to handle outcome information from diverse locations efficiently and effectively
• Pilot-testing potential approaches to determine feasibility and ways to improve.

Our work is tailored to the individual needs of a state in a variety of ways. Each partnership may involve a small subset or a wide range of these activities to achieve project aims. SRI has served as the lead entity for General Supervision Enhancement Grants (GSEGs) from the U.S. Department of Education to support outcome measurement work in Colorado, Florida, and Hawaii. We also have provided more limited levels of support to other states as they develop early childhood outcome measurement systems (Alaska, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Utah, and Virginia).

(U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, 2004-2009)

Key Staff

Lauren Barton, Kathleen Hebbeler, Kathryn Morrison, Donna Spiker, Cornelia Taylor