Facts In Action

Associated Early Care and Education, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts manages nine early education programs and three networks of family child care homes. With support from the local United Way, Associated recently decided that they would like to update and standardize the tools they were using to assess the developmental progress of the children in their programs. Associated assembled an Outcomes Task Force to work on developing these tools and to get input and feedback from program directors and child care providers.

For their initial Task Force meeting, all of the program directors were invited to attend. Associated then sent a letter to all of the directors asking them to nominate one or two teachers or providers in their programs who they felt would be active participants and could represent the perspectives of the caregivers who would actually be using the assessment tools. In addition, individuals from Associated’s Research and Policy department and Quality Assurance department were invited to participate. The Outcomes Task Force then hired an independent consultant to assist them in determining what professionally prepared assessment tools were already out there and how to tailor their own assessment tool to better serve their needs.

The Outcomes Task Force has proven to be a very productive group for Associated. Involving teachers in the Task Force has provided an opportunity to develop leaders and a commitment to the new system in individual programs. In addition, while they have primarily been working on the development of assessment tools, there is the potential that this group could continue to work on other aspects of outcome measurement for the agency.

While the Outcomes Task Force does not include all of the stakeholders, it is one example of whom to include in an outcome measurement working group. Making sure you have individuals who represent all of the stakeholders is a good way to ensure that you are taking into account multiple perspectives.

For more information:
about Associated Early Care and Education, Inc.’ Outcomes Task Force,
contact Carol Campbell at (617) 695-0700 X236 or by email at ccampbell@ AssociatedEarlyCareAndEducation.org

Facts in Action, May 2000