about the project

The Center for Child and Family Studies (CCFS) addresses a wide range of research and evaluation topics related to early childhood, including the Syracuse Family Development Research Program Follow-Up, a 15-year longitudinal study of the impact of high-quality intervention with children from birth to five years. CCFS also conducted research on the Marin City Families First project in which CCFS staff assessed the efficacy of strategies for supporting families and agencies and the community's ability to provide intervention services. In addition, CCFS conducted a two-year evaluation of statewide preschool services for low-income children and their families in Arizona.

CCFS staff currently are working on the following research and evaluation projects:

• The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) Evaluation assesses the effectiveness of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care training system. The evaluation documents the impact of training by PITC Infant/ Toddler Specialists who are working through the PITC Partners for Quality system on caregiver quality. This training is being carried out in infant/toddler programs in every region of California. An important element is the development of an innovative program evaluation tool, the PITC Program Assessment Rating Scale, used to assess programs in a wide variety of areas such as responsiveness and relationship-based care.
• The Desired Results Training and Technical Assistance Project supports California Department of Education-funded programs at the local level as they implement the Desired Results system. Project staff also helps CDE-funded programs build their capacity to train the infant care teachers who work directly with children on the use of the Desired Results Developmental Profile.
• The Desired Results Developmental Profile Instrument Refinement and Validation Study is testing the integrity of the instrument that California Department of Education-funded programs are using as a base for assessment and curriculum planning with young children.