Washington State's Early Childhood Education: Outcome Analysis

Evaluation is a process that is used to look at the project, policy or program critically. It includes the collection and analyzing information that is related to the program or policy and that of its outcome. The Main purpose is to improve the policy or the program effectiveness. This will also help to identify any of the weak areas and changes that need to be made in the policy.

First, would look at my measurement method to make sure that it is reliable and valid. Making sure that the measurements are representing the people and the program accurately, enough sample size is use to represent the program, and make sure there is no participants contamination. Second, the time from when the program started and when the evaluation process starts can also show that the program have no impact. It takes a long time for programs to work out the kink and bumps along the way and sometimes having an evaluation conducted within a year will not show the program at its full potential. There is also the sleeper effect where the program will not show impact until a much later time. Having an open and clear communication with the stakeholders will let me know what they are looking in the program evaluation so that I can focus on those aspects to make sure I use accurate

To help program directors meet these challenges, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families developed a series of evaluations that explain program evaluation-where the teacher evaluates each child that enters into the Head Start. Good program evaluations help to improve program operations, measure program performance and effects and document important lessons for other programs. With this information, program managers are better able to direct limited resources to where they are most needed and most effective.

In order to implement a program evaluation to determine client gains, there will be a team consisting of myself as the lead consultant, 3-4 program evaluation support staff members who will assist in the evaluation process and one staff member from the center being included to provide relevant center information. Key staff from the center will be asked to form an advisory group where all evaluation measures, outcomes and processes will be discussed, approved and presented.

The outcome evaluation process consists of a six stage model. The first stage is to build agency commitment and to clarify expectations. The second stage is to build agency capacity to measure the outcomes. The third stage is to identify the outcomes, indicators, and data collection methods. The fourth stage is to collect and analyze the outcome data. The fifth stage consists of improving the outcome measurement system. The sixth and final stage consists of using and communicating the outcome information.

The current state of California’s state-level preschool program (the California State Preschool Program, or CSPP) is currently underperforming, given the population they are serving. Despite California having the 9th highest per-capita income of all states (and being home to some of the highest income counties in the U.S.), the CSPP only manages to achieve six out of the ten outcomes for preschool effectiveness as outlined by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). In addition, the newly established California Transitional Kindergarten program achieves a mere two out of ten, which ranks it as one of the lowest early education programs in the entire country. The CSPP achieves fewer outcomes than much (on average)

A program evaluation offers a way to determine if adjustments are needed to improve upon the project in order for it to remain successful. Furthermore, the project evaluation team will analyze and measure each component of the outcome, input, and process in order to clarify the program’s objectives and goals. Thus creating a framework of evaluation methods and questions in addition to setting up a timeline for the evaluation activities will assist in the evaluation (CDC, 2011; HRSA, n.d.; McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). The goal of outcome measures is to describe the overall performance of the process; therefore, outcome measurement will determine the program cost-effectiveness, attribution, and efficiency (CDC, 2012; HRSA, n.d.; McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). There will be additional evaluation concerning the input measures, which are the resources that were put into the process. Lastly, the appraisal of process measures will provide data regarding the performance each course of action involved in the implantation of the project (HRSA, n.d.). After a thorough evaluation of the project, recommendations and the dissemination of results will be prepared and

Purpose of the evaluation: What aspect of the program would you assess? How does this complement the larger group evaluation? (5 points)

Evaluation of the program should be ongoing, in the best effort to target issues within the program as efficiently as possible. Evaluation should be built into the program, making it effortless for those involved to provide the necessary information to create useful evaluations. Additionally, any evaluation should be cost effective, so as to not hinder the program as a whole. Any evaluations must also be done ethically and conducted competently. It is also important to disseminate the results of evaluations to interested and appropriate audiences.

The Heritage Foundation report noted that 45 early childhood education programs already existed, costing an estimated $45 million each year, and that many of the programs are “duplicative and ineffective, failing to serve the needs of children from low-income families” (Burke and Sheffield, 2013). In addition, the evidence showing that the public sector is a good provider of early childhood education is lacking. The 2001 Gilliam study reviewed state-run preschool programs and found that “less than half of the current state-funded preschool programs have, or are currently conducting, impact evaluations of the effectiveness of their programs” and that “of these

Program evaluators have to make a determination in the planning of their evaluations as to what success means or looks like. They also have to be ready for data gathered that was not intended or expected. Each of the evaluation models discussed help to paint a picture of the worth of a program whether subjectively or objectively using qualitative and quantitative methods of data gathering. The result is the review of program efficiency, effectiveness, and impact and that all wraps up into whether the program did what it said it would all while showing a return on the investment both in non-exorbitant spending and sustained behavior change that positively moves the needle toward an organizational

H. Stanley Judd once quoted, “A good plan is like a road map: it shows the destination and usually the best way to get there.” Since evaluation is judge on the uses of its findings it is important to know where to start and where to end. The goal is to help the readers understand how evaluation is judge, how to utilize the findings and the lasting impact on those who were part of the evaluation.

I enjoyed reading your post. As we have learned during this discussion board through our classmates, there are a plethora of different ways that can be used to evaluate programs. You gave numerous examples as to why program evaluations are important in early childhood education and why they are conducted in the first place. Another reason that program evaluations are conducted are to see if the program is working (Gilliam & Leiter, 2003). For instance, the Head Start Program at my school constantly makes changes to their program due to their yearly evaluation. If they see that something is not working, the head of the program tries to come up with different ways to change what is not working to try and make the program better for the students.

The Head Start program contributes to early successful learning and contributes to overcoming youth’s educational setbacks. It prepares children from low-income families for elementary school and beyond. The children enrolled in this program are giving a better opportunity to succeed in school. In order to prepare a child for success in school, the program has to meet educational, health, social needs for every pupil. In addition, the program includes special services for those who qualify. In this specific study, researchers try and find out if former Head Start students that received special education in preschool transferred to kindergarten with the same services.

The developmental years before children reach the age of kindergarten are very critical in affecting lasting cognitive and social-emotional growth. The occurrences the children have during this time period help structure their futures and have lasting effects on the contributions they make to society later in life. Many children during this time period do not experience quality cognitive and social- emotional occurrences due to poverty or other conditions detrimental to healthy development. Since high quality early child development programs have shown that they can and do make a difference in how children learn and are able to prepare for and proceed in school, it is essential that children in high-risk groups for failure participate in these programs. In this paper, I will discuss the characteristics that make up a high quality early educational program, the benefits of early childhood and a federally funded program called Head Start.