Idaho’s Early Childhood Outcomes System (Idaho ECOS)

1. Measuring Early Childhood Outcomes Idaho Infant Toddler Program Idaho Early Childhood Special Education Program Idaho’s Early Childhood Outcomes System (Idaho ECOS)

2. Agenda • Measuring Child Outcomes: • Why, What, When, Where, • Who & How • Review Child Outcome Summary Form, Tools & Resources • Practice Exercises

3. Federal Accountability and Early Childhood Outcomes

4. Training Objectives Participants will be able to : • Demonstrate the ability to accurately identify, record, and report a child’s outcome data using the Idaho Child Outcome Summary Form (Idaho COSF)

5. Idaho’s goal Document our program’s impact for children with IFSPs or IEPs

6. Measuring outcomes make sense for Idaho • Support DEC/NAEYC best practice guidelines • Examine and refine current assessment practices • Demonstrate value of • Early Intervention (Part C), • Early Childhood Special Ed (Part B) programs • Meet Federal Reporting Requirements

7. What are the OSEP’s Early Childhood Outcomes?

8. OSEP’s outcomes focus on measuring the results of our service system

9. OSEP’s 3 Child Outcomes • Children have positive social-emotional skills (including positive social relationships) • Children acquire and use knowledge and skills (including early language /communication) • Children use appropriate behaviors to meet their needs

10. OSEP’s 3 Child Outcomes • Children have positive social-emotional skills (including positive social relationships) • Such as: responding to others, expressing emotions, turn-taking, using appropriate social greetings, play skills or having friendships with same-age peers, etc.

11. OSEP’s 3 Child Outcomes 2. Children acquire and use knowledge and skills (including early language /communication) • Such as: expressing thoughts and ideas, listening to and enjoying stories and books, or learning new ways to do things, etc.

12. OSEP’s 3 Child Outcomes 3. Children use appropriate behaviors to meet their needs • Such as getting from place to place, using tools like forks or crayon, and feeding or dressing, etc.

13. The Child Outcome Areas… Represent critical functional outcomes necessary in every day activities and routines Not domains based – not trying to separate child development into discrete areas (communication, gross motor, etc.) Emphasize how the child is able to integrate across domains to carry out complex meaningful behaviors

14. Outcomes are Functional • Meaningful to the child in the context of everyday living • Integrated series of behaviors or skills that allow the child to achieve the outcomes. • Not • a single behavior • the sum of a series of discrete behaviors

15. Functional Outcomes • What does a child typically do? • Actual performance across settings and situations • How child uses his/her skills to accomplish tasks • Not the child’s capacity to function under ideal circumstances

16. So…how do we demonstrate that our programs produce good outcomes for children?…

17. Demonstrate that… • Children have positive outcomes given who they are, their delays, disabilities, functioning when they entered, etc. • Outcomes are better than they would have been without the program

18. Complicating Issues • Many children progress with no intervention (maturing with age) • Children with disabilities’ show diverse progress and under the best of programs, will experience different outcomes

19. Solution Document the number of children for whom the program has changed their developmental trajectories

20. Thinking about how children are doing with regard to each outcome. Movement away from age-expected Age-expected skills & behavior Movement toward age-expected

21. OSEP Indicators – categories of progress • a. % of children who maintain functioning at a level comparable to same-age peers • b. % of children who reach functioning at a level comparable to same-age peers • c. % of children who improved functioning but did not achieve functioning comparable to same-age peers • d. % of children who did not improve functioning.

22. OSEP Indicators & Measurement Categories 5 year oldlevel Group a: maintained or reached typical 2 year old level Entry Exit

23. Indicators & Measurement Categories 5 year old level Group b: made progress but… 2 year old level Entry Exit

24. 5 year old level Group c: did not make progress 2 year old level Indicators & Measurement Categories Exit Entry

25. Indicators & Measurement Categories Group a: maintained or reached typical 5 year old level Group b: made progress but.. Group c: did not make progress 2 year old level Enry Exit

26. How do we document change in developmental trajectories while in services ? Obtain and compare a child’s assessment data at program entry and exit.

27. Quality Assessment  Quality Service  Better Outcomes

28. “Much of developmental psychology (early childhood testing) as it now exists is the science of the strange behavior of children with strange adults in strange settings for the briefest possible periods of time.” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)

29. What is assessment? “Early childhood assessment is flexible, collaborative decision-making process in which teams of parents and professionals repeatedly revise their judgments and reach consensus about the changing developmental, educational, medical, and mental health services needs of young children and their families.” Bagnato and Neisworth, 1991 Quoted in DEC Recommended Practices, 2005

30. DEC Recommended Practices for Assessment • Involves multiple sources (e.g., families, professional team members, service providers, caregivers) • Involves multiple measures (e.g., observations, criterion-curriculum-based instruments, interviews, curriculum-compatible norm-referenced scales, informed clinical opinion, work samples)

31. What information is gathered? Norm-referenced, criterion-referenced or curriculum-based assessments Multiple sources of data are used to rate a child’s functioning Informed Professional Judgment & Observation Parent Input

32. Which anchor assessment tools will we use in Idaho? The following tools have been adopted for completing the outcome rating scale. • BDI – II (Battelle) • HELP (Hawaii) • Creative Curriculum • AEPS • Carolina • OUNCE • Work Sampling • High Scope (COR) • Brigance • Bayley III (ITP program only)

33. Information to gather… Informed professional judgment • Teachers, paraprofessionals, related service providers • Anecdotal records, documented observations and data, progress reports, work samples, portfolios Parental input • Best practice • Information from caregivers provide critical information to determine how child is doing across a variety of settings

34. So…our challenge How do we take what we know about assessment and apply it to measuring the 3 outcomes… …when there is no one assessment tool that assesses all 3 outcomes directly.

35. And through our assessment lens… • Each child is a collection of numerous behaviors, skills, traits, capabilities, interests, strengths, and needs • What an individual “tunes into” depends on his/her orientation • Individual professional training has provided an “organizing framework” for how one sees the child

36. How do assessment tools fit with the three Child Outcome Areas? • CROSSWALKS CAN HELP! • A national center, the ECO Center is crosswalking the most common assessments to the 3 child outcomes • Crosswalks give a visual indication of how items on an assessment tool covers the 3 outcomes • Crosswalks show which areas/subareas map to which outcome

37. Sample Crosswalk

38. What will the process look like in Idaho?.... • Parents will be well informed and contribute information to the process • An anchor assessment will be completed to assess the child in the three outcome areas • Information will be collected, compiled and documented using anchor assessments, parent information, and informed professional observation and judgment. • A rating decision regarding a child’s level of functioning will be made by the team utilizing all the information gathered

39. The Specifics:Who, What, and When

40. Target Population for Entry (Part C) • Entry baseline data is required for: • all children entering services on or after July 1, 2006 will have COSF completed within 45 days of IFSP development. • except premature infants less than 6 months adjusted age • Includes children receiving only a single related-service (i.e. Speech only or OT only)

41. Target Population for Exit (Part C) • Exit data is required for all children in services for at least 6-months as of January 1, 2007. • Unanticipated exits– use best information available to complete form following exit. • Assessment (with anchor tool) recommended for all exiting children • If necessary, those receiving only one related-service can use ASQ and ASQ-SE in lieu of full developmental evaluation as one data source in determining exit outcome rating

42. Time Lines at Exit (Part C) • COSF completed near exit or transition meeting with Part B • Anchor assessment completed between 2.6 IFSP meeting and child’s 3rd birthday • Outcome data is due to Data-Tot system (and if appropriate, Part B system): • no later than 30 days after child’s exit from Part C, or • no later than 30 days after child’s 3rd birthday (whichever comes first).

43. Additional information about child indicators (Part C) • Child must be in program at least 6 months for EXIT data to be counted • Data must be collected near entry and near exit • Collection of Entry data begins: • for ITP July 1, 2006 • for SDE September 1, 2006

44. Roles and Responsibilities (Part C) • Child information compiled from multiple sources – Service Coordinator • Scoring/completion of COS Form – Primary Therapist or Multi-disciplinary Team • Outcome Ratings transferred to Data-Tot Entry form – Service Coordinator • Data entered into Data-Tot – Data Entry operator

45. Difference of Opinion? (Part C) • If therapists or other team members can not agree on a rating… • Review data at MDT, seek consensus • If no resolution, provide Child Team supervisor with all data • Child Team Supervisor will assign final rating • Note different perspectives on form

46. Summary Steps in COS Process (Part C) • Gather information from multiple sources (complete anchor assessment if necessary) • Synthesize data and complete COS Form • Update Data-Tot enrollment form and submit for entry • Share data with Part B if appropriate

48. Data Collection Process for Part B Target populations and Entry data • All children enrolled in early childhood special education on September 1, 2006 or later must have entry data (baseline) collected within 45 calendar days of initial consent for placement. • Children transitioning from Part C -Exit from Part C may be used for Part B entry if an approved anchor tool was administered

49. Exit data will be collected Part B • EC Outcome Exit data will be collected within 30 days of the end of the school year (including ESY) for all children who are 5 years old on or before Sept 1st of the current school year (cut-off date for kindergarten entry) no matter if they are staying in a preschool setting or going into kindergarten. • If moves to another preschool, transfer outcome entry data and information with eligibility report and student file.

50. Exit data will be collected Part B (cont’d) • If determined no longer eligible before 5, exit outcome data is collected on all three outcomes within 30 days of no longer meeting eligibility criteria. • Prior to a move out of state, collect data 30 days prior to leaving the program • If child leaves before 5 without notice and prior to administering the anchor assessment, complete the COSF with the information you have.