Overview
Who we are
Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in October 2003, the Early Childhood Outcomes (ECO) Center is a collaborative partnership between SRI International, FPG Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, Juniper Gardens Children's Project at the University of Kansas, the University of Connecticut Health Center, and Research Triangle Institute.
Goals
The ECO Center seeks to promote the development and implementation of child and family outcome measures for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities to be used in local, state, and national accountability systems.
Activities
The ECO Center is working to achieve our goals through..
- Collaboration with stakeholders and other groups concerned with outcomes measurement.
- Research on issues related to the development and implementation of outcome measures.
- Providing technical assistance to support states in the development and implementation of outcome measurement systems.
Work to Date
The ECO Center has worked to continually to provide technical assistance and conduct research to support states in the development of quality outcome measurement systems which provide valid and reliable data for federal reporting and program improvement.
In 2004, ECO solicited input from many different stakeholder groups on issues related to designing and building state and national outcome measurement systems. After reviewing recommendations from the ECO stakeholder process, OSEP adopted 3 child outcome indicators, 3 family indicators for early intervention (Part C) programs, and 1 family indicator for preschool special education (Part B/619) programs that states are required to report on their Annual Performance Reports (APR).
The ECO Center has produced papers outlining the needs for child and family outcomes as well as technical assistance documents, and ECO Center staff have been giving presentations on child and family outcomes measurement at local and national meetings and conferences all over the United States. The ECO Center has also developed a number of tools to support states in their efforts to develop outcome measurement systems such as: the Child Outcomes Summary Form (COSF) and COSF training materials, Instrument Crosswalks, and the ECO Family Outcomes Survey. Additionally, the ECO web site was developed as a repository for information on child and family outcomes measurement including: information on the OSEP reporting requirements, state developed resources, state activities, and related resource documents.
Expected Outcomes
The ECO Center measures the success of our activities through achievement of the following outcomes:
- Development of data on outcomes for young children with disabilities that can be aggregated at the national level.
- Regular use of outcome data for documenting program effects and improving programs at the local and state levels.
