Open Discussion Forum

  • 1.  Formal Assessment Tool Used By Families

    Posted 09-24-2021 10:48 AM
    I am creating a list of formal assessment tools (published, reliable, and valid measures) used by families to evaluate an early care and education program, please let me know if you know of any. Thanks!

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    Jill Bella
    Director of Professional Learning
    McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership
    Wheeling IL
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  • 2.  RE: Formal Assessment Tool Used By Families

    Posted 09-25-2021 01:44 AM
    These may help get you started. Good luck! 
    Berry, D. J., Bridges, L. J., & Zaslow, M. J. (2004). Early Childhood Measures Profiles.
    Washington, D.C.: Prepared by Child Trends for The SEED Consortium of federal
    agencies which include the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
    of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 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.

    Kisker, E. E., Boller, K., Nagatoshi, C., Sciarrino, C., Jethwani, V., Zavitsky, T., Ford, M., &
    Love, J. M. (2003). Resources for Measuring Services and Outcomes in Head Start
    Programs Serving Infants and Toddlers. Washington, D.C.: Prepared by Mathematica
    Policy Research, Inc. for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation of the
    Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
    Services.

    Yohalem, N. & Wilson-Ahlstrom, A, with Fischer, S., & Shinn, M. (2009, January). Measuring
    Youth Program Quality: A Guide to Assessment Tools, Second Edition. Washington,
    D.C.: The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies.

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    Victoria Long-Coleman
    Early Care and Education Specialist
    Quality Care for Children
    Dacula GA
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  • 3.  RE: Formal Assessment Tool Used By Families

    Posted 09-30-2021 09:32 PM
    Thanks Victoria, Scott, and Melinda! I appreciate your assistance.

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    Jill Bella, Ed.D.
    Director of Professional Learning
    McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership
    Wheeling IL
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  • 4.  RE: Formal Assessment Tool Used By Families

    Posted 09-25-2021 09:21 AM
    Jill,

    Bravo for your effort. I find your question really interesting. The underlying motivation I hear is how parents can evaluate centers. A tool is an interesting approach, perhaps a survey of questions for parents to ask to ensure the center is of high qualify? As a parent I would welcome the idea of a tool, although maybe the tool would not have all the questions and possibly miss something important.

    Another approach is to use online reviews and ratings. We live in the survey economy now. There's lots of reviews for restaurants and hotels. However, there are very few ratings of day care centers. A search near me reveals only a handful of reviews from google. 

    I see a parent need to evaluate early childhood settings and I believe online reviews/ratings could be a good solution. Perhaps NAEYC or DEC or another similar organization might be interested in developing this (very short and with availability for comments). 

    Another solution I see is Awards. I agree that many parents undervalue our work and see us as babysitters. However, others do value us. I believe we need qualify awards like in other fields that would combine the use of surveys with other evaluation measures and serve to identify and celebrate awesome programs. It's just a matter of time before this happens. When surveys first popped up online the hotels didn't want people doing them for fear of bad reviews. Now they encourage reviews and are focused on how they can continually improve as we're now at a point where hotels get booked or not due to ratings....

    Thanks for your efforts. Best with it.

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    Scott Mesh, PhD, CEO
    Los Niños Services (NYC) www.losninos.com
    Young Child Expo & Conference www.youngchildexpo.com
    scott.mesh@losninos.com
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmeshnyc/
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