These resources offer examples of program evaluations and provide information on evaluating the effectiveness of early childhood programs, including State and local examples.
Early Childhood Education
RAND Corporation
Provides reports and essays on early childhood education program evaluations, such as on the benefit of high-quality preschool programs and a ten-year study on the benefits and economic returns of early childhood programs.
Early Childhood Profiles
National Center for Children in Poverty
Highlights States' policy choices that promote health, education, and strong families in addition to other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
Early Childhood State Advisory Councils: Final Report (PDF - 8,223 KB)
Administration for Children and Families (2015)
Discusses the status of the State Advisory Councils on Early Childhood Education and Care grant program that enables States to lead the development and enhancement of high-quality, comprehensive early childhood systems that optimize childhood service delivery so that children arrive at school ready to learn and prepared to excel.
Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement in Early Childhood Systems
ZERO to THREE (2016)
Details the strategies and accountability legislation for evaluating and monitoring early childhood systems across the States.
Family Voices: Piloting a New Qualitative Measure of Family Engagement for Head Start and Early Head Start Staff and Families
Aikens, Bandel, Akers, Lyskawa, & Jerald (2014)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation & Mathematica Policy Research
Focuses on the development of qualitative instruments designed to better understand family engagement in Head Start and Early Head Start; draws on pilot data collected during the 2012-2013 program year; and provides information about the performance of the piloted interview protocols, revisions made to instruments based on their performance, and the best methods for gathering qualitative information about family engagement experiences from families and staff in future studies. An instrument package with the revised set of interview protocols is included.
It's Not as Simple as it Sounds: Problems and Solutions in Accessing and Using Administrative Child Welfare Data for Evaluating the Impact of Early Childhood Interventions
Ayoub, Bartlett, Chazan-Cohen, Ende, Furrer, Green, Klevens, & Nygren (2015)
Presents the processes of accessing child welfare records in six States and using the information to evaluate the impact of the Early Head Start programs on child welfare involvement. The study concludes with implications for the field.
Measuring the Impact of Early Childhood Systems: Learning Lab Report (PDF - 3,410 KB)
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2016)
Identifies indicators of effective early childhood systems, including family life, community infrastructure, resources, and service providers, and examples of evaluation experiences and challenges from different communities.
State and local examples
Early Childhood Program Evaluation Report (PDF - 1,802 KB)
Arlington Public Schools (2016)
Provides an overview of Arlington, VA, early childhood programs, program goals and objectives, success measures, and evaluation findings.
Program Quality Evaluation and Assessment (CLASS Pre-K)
DC.gov, Office of the State Superintendent of Education
Provides information and resources on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System assessment tool that measures the quality of education children are receiving in early childhood programs.