WestEd’s Center for Child and Family Studies (CCFS) addresses a wide range of research and evaluation topics related to early childhood.
Previous projects include:
- 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.
- 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.
- A two-year evaluation of statewide preschool services for low-income children and their families in Arizona.
Current and recent research and evaluation projects include:
- The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) Evaluation assesses the effectiveness of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care training system. An important element is the development of an innovative program evaluation tool, the PITC Program Assessment Rating Scale (PITC PARS), which is used to assess programs in a variety of areas such as responsiveness and relationship-based care.
- The Desired Results Developmental Profile Instrument Refinement and Validation Study tested 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.
- The Academic Outcomes for Children Previously Served by California Even Start Study explored whether a relationship between participation in Even Start services and early elementary academic outcomes could be detected.
- The Study of Access to Quality Improvement Activities by Family Child Care Providers describes activities that are funded by the California Department of Education and are available to and accessed by family child care providers throughout California.
- The Monterey County C.A.R.E.S. Program provides annual cash stipends to reward child care providers who improved their education and professional development during the previous year. The Monterey County C.A.R.E.S. Annual Evaluations have analyzed data reported in the C.A.R.E.S. stipend database and collected through observations of child care environments, focus groups, and telephone surveys.
