Kerry Kriener-Althen is the Assessment and Research Director for WestEd’s Early Childhood Learning and Development content area. She oversees projects related to program quality assessment, formative child development assessment, and formative evaluation of services and policies promoting quality early learning and care.
Kriener-Althen has directed the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) and Program for Infant/Toddler Care Program Assessment and Reflection System (PITC PARS) projects since 2004, overseeing assessment development and research activities for both projects. As California’s state-supported early learning assessment, the DRDP supports learning and development for children from early infancy through early elementary.
Kriener-Althen was the lead author for a paper published in the journal Early Education and Development describing the methodology for using DRDP summative results to inform state-level efforts to promote school readiness. She was also a contributing author on a research publication by the Learning Policy Institute that related children’s early learning gains to preschool quality.
For WestEd’s PITC PARS project, Kriener-Althen co-authored the PITC PARS Instrument Guide, Subscale Guides, and an article about the development and psychometrics of the PITC PARS that was published in the journal Early Education and Development. She has also contributed to policy briefs through her participation in the Network of Infant Toddler Researchers (NITR).
For over 30 years, Kriener-Althen has led or participated in state-level early childhood policy evaluation projects in California, Iowa, Minnesota, and Tennessee. She has also presented research findings through papers and presentations at annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association, the American Evaluation Association, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and Birth-to-Three.
Kriener-Althen completed a BS in child, parent, and community service, an MS in social science at Iowa State University, and a PhD in family social science at the University of Minnesota.