Outcome Measures for IECMHC
States, tribes, and communities are building the evidence that IECMHC works in early care and education. A common question is which tools to use to measure impact.
Use this Choose and Use tool to plan how you'll measure IECMHC outcomes. It summarizes 22 measures used in two or more IECMHC program evaluations, covering impact on children, teachers, teacher-child relationships, and classrooms or programs.
Choose a domain
Start with what you want to see change: the child, the teacher, the relationship between them, or the classroom as a whole.
10 measuresChild
How a child is doing: expulsion risk, challenging behaviors, and social-emotional competence.
2 measuresTeacher-Child
The quality of the relationship between caregivers and the children in their care.
7 measuresClassroom
The room as a whole: climate, quality, interactions, and Pyramid Model practices.
Disclaimers
Don't limit your data collection to these measures. They are outcome measures: they show how IECMHC affects children, classrooms, and programs. Also collect implementation data (how IECMHC is delivered) and process data (the near-term changes that lead to those outcomes).
Many families who use IECMHC face wide racial and ethnic disparities in access to opportunity. Programs and systems leaders should always collect demographic data, and always break down outcome, process, and implementation data by race/ethnicity, income, language, and disability status.
Make evaluation decisions in light of your program's theory of change, setting, and the people you serve. Where you can, choose measures normed on the populations you serve and available in a language families understand.
In addition to using the Choose and Use Guide, we recommend you also contact the CoE to request technical assistance to refine your decisions about which tools to select.
Need help choosing?
Request technical assistance from the Center of Excellence to help you decide which tools to use.