New York City ACS/DOE Uniform Performance Measurement System

The Unified Performance Measurement System project was an NYC grant with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the Department of Education (DOE) to pilot a comprehensive performance measurement system that will eventually be utilized to set uniform quality standards for all early care and education programs city-wide. As part of the project's research phase, Teachers College students visited a random sample of 39 publicly funded NYC early care and education programs (including Head Start, state-funded universal pre-kindergarten, child care, and family child care programs) to assess classroom quality, child/caregiver interaction, and program administration quality using three specific evaluation instruments. After the research phase was complete, data on the 39 participating programs was analyzed comparing the three evaluation instruments used. The project culminated in a comprehensive report with recommendations to the City about which of the three comprehensive performance measurement systems (or a combination of the instruments) should be used to set uniform quality standards for all early care and education programs city-wide. ACS and the DOE will be able to use the report findings to develop a plan for Sept 2009 on how to implement the recommended quality assessment tools citywide, so that all publicly funded NYC early care and education programs can be held to the same high quality standards to foster children’s healthy development and education.

Funding Source: United Way of New York, New York City Department of Education.

Contact: Miriam Westheimer, Ed.D.

Current Early Childcare and Education Projects

Completed Early Care and Education Research Projects