Assessment and Program Accountability in Early Childhood Education: Lessons Learned in Ohio

Abstract

Ensuring that children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, start school ready to learn is an important goal. This paper presents lessons learned from the state of Ohio's multi-year program to develop a standards-based assessment system for programs delivering state-funded early childhood education (ECE) through programs receiving public dollars such as the federally funded Head Start and state- funded preschool programs. Its program, called the Ohio Indicators of Success Initiative (IOS), was designed to collect data that could be used to improve the quality of state-funded ECE programs in Ohio and to hold these programs accountable for child outcomes. A significant proportion of ECE programs are Head Start programs.