General Growth Outcomes for Young Children: Developing a Foundation for Continuous Progress Measurement

Public expectations of accountability in our education system have increasingly focused on young children's development, in part because of Goal 1 of the National Education Goals (By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn). Few sensitive measurement systems have been developed, however, to monitor young children's growth over time. Building such a system requires a parsimonious but comprehensive set of developmental outcomes expected of children between birth and age 8. In the two studies presented here, investigators formulated a set of 15 general growth outcomes for young children, and conducted a survey of parents of children with and without disabilities and professionals in early childhood and early elementary education to validate the outcomes.