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Research for Program Improvement
ENHANCE is a research project to help early intervention and early childhood special education programs measure children’s progress better. The objective is to improve the quality of information programs collect and report about children’s progress. SRI International has funding from the U.S. Department of Education to work with programs to find out the best ways to document how children are doing. We are collecting information on children’s development in 20 areas across seven states.
- Why This Study Matters
- The Need to Measure Children’s Progress
- The Information Programs Collect about Children
- How This Information Is Used
- How Families Will Be Involved in ENHANCE
- The Benefits to Families of Study Participation
- What Else You Need to Know if Your Family Has Been Invited to Participate in ENHANCE
- About SRI
- Who to Contact if You Have Questions
Programs record information on children’s progress to make sure they are helping children develop and learn. Results from ENHANCE studies will help programs do better at collecting information and documenting what young children know and can do. It also will help them know how to inform families about how their children are benefitting from services.
The Need to Measure Children’s Progress
Early intervention and early childhood special education programs measure children’s progress to make sure they are helping all children develop and learn. Programs also report data on children’s progress to the state agency that funds the program so that agency can provide required reports to the federal government. Early intervention and early childhood special education are supported by public dollars, and federal and state governments want to make sure these funds are going to programs that are helping children and families.
The Information Programs Collect about Children
Programs usually gather information about a child’s development from assessments, from what parents share, and what providers observe about the child. The team of people working with the child reviews this information and applies a rating process to summarize the information. The rating captures how the child is doing relative to other children of the same age.
Programs report data on children’s progress to the state agency that funds the program for reporting to the federal government. Early intervention and early childhood special education are supported by public dollars, and federal and state governments want to make sure the funds are going to programs that are helping children and families.
State agencies and the federal government use information from the ratings to see how effective the programs are and figure out ways to improve them. They also report this information to policymakers to show that the program is effective and should continue to be funded. More information about why states are reporting information on how children are doing can be obtained at The ECO Center.
How Families Will Be Involved in ENHANCE
Some families of children receiving early intervention or early childhood special education services in the study areas are being invited to participate in ENHANCE. The project will collect information about children’s development and learning through three studies:
- In the Comparison with Child Assessments Study, we will compare information about children’s progress that is collected in different ways. We will examine the relationship between the summary rating process the program uses when the child starts and stops receiving services with the scores and progress documented in a formal assessment of the child. The assessment tools are the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI-2) and Vineland Scales of Adaptive Behavior (Vineland-II). Assessments will be given to children near program entry and program exit, around the same time as when teams decide on summary ratings.
- In the Team Decision-Making Study, we will use videos of the child’s team discussing how a child is doing to learn how teams describe a child’s functioning and summarize it with a rating. We will investigate the discussion process the child’s program uses to decide upon the appropriate rating. We will examine who is involved in the discussion, how long it takes, what evidence people describe, and how they use that information to decide on a rating.
Families who live in one of the study areas may be invited to participate in one or more of these studies. If they are invited to participate, families are given further details. They will be told what specific activities are involved, what information will be collected, and what their rights and protections are as study participants. Only families who choose to participate and sign a statement of informed consent will be involved in the project. Families will still receive the same early intervention or early childhood special education services whether or not they decide to be involved in any of the research studies.
The Benefits to Families of Study Participation
Having quality information on how children are doing is important to families, providers, and policymakers. By participating in this project, families will
- Help programs serving young children do a better job recording how children benefit from services
- Help programs provide families with better information about how children benefit from services
- Help states know how to assist programs in improving their services
- Help policymakers and other funders get the information they need to justify future funding for these programs.
What Else You Need to Know if Your Family Has Been Invited to Participate in ENHANCE
If your family has been invited to be in the ENHANCE project, we hope that you will agree to participate. Someone at your child’s program or school district will give you more detailed information about what is involved in the particular study to help you decide. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
Information being collected will be seen only by the study team. Nothing will ever be reported in a way that could identify your child or your family.
Silicon Valley-based SRI International is one of the world’s leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946, SRI conducts a wide variety of research projects, including studies of programs and services for young children and their families. SRI’s projects are funded by the federal and state governments and private foundations.
Who to Contact if You Have Questions
You can reach ENHANCE staff by e-mailing enhance@sri.com or by calling toll-free 1-877-697-5765. Additional contact information is also available on the contacts section of the project website.
