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.

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Classroom · Measure

Teaching Pyramid Tools (TPOT, TPI-TOS)

Trained observer/trained raterDetailsClose

Level: Classroom
Type of Tool: Measure
Construct: Fidelity of Pyramid Model implementation
Respondent: Trained observer/trained rater
Language(s): English
Length: 2 hours for the classroom observation, 15 to 20 minutes for the interview with the teacher, and 30 to 45 minutes for scoring
Description: This observational measure assesses implementation of classroom practices that promote young children’s social and emotional competence and address challenging behavior in the infant/toddler or preschool classroom. Specifically, it measures how well teachers are implementing the three tiers of the Pyramid Model for Promoting Social Emotional Competence of Infants and Young Children.
Subscales: N/A
Published Psychometrics?: Yes See for example: Snyder, P. A., Hemmeter, M. L., Fox, L., Bishop, C. C., & Miller, M. D. (2013). Developing and gathering psychometric evidence for a fidelity instrument: The Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool–Pilot version. Journal of Early Intervention, 35(2), 150-172.
Citation for Tool: Fox, L., Hemmeter, M. L., & Snyder, P. (2009). Teaching pyramid observation tool for preschool classrooms: Pilot version. Unpublished instrument and manual. Hemmeter, M. L., Carta, J., Hunter, A., & Strain, P. (2009). The pyramid infant toddler observation scale (TPITOS). Unpublished assessment. Hemmeter, M. L., Fox, L., & Snyder, P. (2014). Teaching pyramid observation tool for preschool classrooms: Research edition. Baltimore: Brookes.
In the Public Domain?: No - Available through Brookes Publishing

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.

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