Informing the Performance-Based Contract Between First 5 LA and LAUP: Assessing Child Progress

In 2009-2010, as part of Phase 3 of the Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS-3), Mathematica Policy Research administered a full battery of direct child assessments to inform the performance-based contract between First 5 LA and Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP). In addition, First 5 LA asked Mathematica to explore the feasibility of using a brief assessment that both center-based teachers and family child care (FCC) providers could easily administer and that could serve as a proxy for the full battery. The goal was to learn whether providers could administer a brief set of measures combining ratings and direct assessments that would yield data that approximate the scores obtained through more intensive direct assessments. This study described children’s growth from fall to spring as captured by the different measures and examined the reliability and validity of the teacher-administered measures.