Prepared by: Child Trends
Project Coordinators: Daniel J. Berry, Lisa J. Bridges, and Martha J. Zaslow
Authors of Early Childhood Measures Profiles: Lisa J. Bridges, Daniel J. Berry, Rosalind Johnson, Julia Calkins, Nancy Geyelin Margie, Stephanie W. Cochran, Thomson J. Ling, and Martha J. Zaslow Child Trends
Authors of Early Head Start Measures Section: Allison Sidle Fuligni and Cristy Brady-Smith Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University
As part of ASPE's ongoing support for federal collaboration on early childhood research through the Science and Ecology of Early Development (SEED) initiative, ASPE and the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) contracted with Child Trends to develop profiles of early childhood measures. This project produced a compendium of early childhood assessments commonly used to measure domains of development, including language and literacy, cognition, mathematics, social-emotional competency, and approaches to learning. Various types of ongoing observational assessments were also included. A profile of each assessment includes the purpose of the measure, key constructs, administration, and reliability information. These profiles were developed as a resource for a workshop funded by ASPE, ACYF, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, designed to bring together a multidisciplinary group of experts to advise the federal partners on the measurement and assessment of learning and development in early childhood. This compendium was not intended to be an exhaustive inventory of measures, nor an endorsement of particular approaches to measurement, rather, the purpose was to provide information on the current state of the field in the assessment of child outcomes, particularly in large-scale and intervention studies. [PDF - 404 pages]
This project was made possible by support from the SEED Consortium of federal agencies to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Family and Child Well-being Research Network (Grant 1U101 HD 37558-01). The SEED Consortium (Science and the Ecology of Early Development) involves federal agencies working together to lay the groundwork for and fund research on issues pertaining to the development of young children, and especially how specific environments (ecologies) can best suport early development. The SEED Consortium agencies that sponsored the present project include the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation of the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the Head Start Bureau and the Child Care Bureau.
The authors thank the following Child Trends staff members for their input into and work on this project: Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Kevin Cleveland, Michelle McNamara, LaShaunda Gayden, and Laura Wandner.