Program-Level Influences on the Measurement of Early Communication for Infants and Toddlers in Early Head Start

Measurement in early childhood is an increasingly large-scale endeavor addressing purposes of accountability, program improvement, child outcomes, and intervention decision making for individual children. The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) is a measure relevant to intervention decision making for infants and toddlers, including response to intervention approaches. The widespread use of the ECI is growing in multiple programs and states. Local program staff members collect ECI data and, with their program directors, manage their own system of ECI measurement. Program-level implementations represent independent ECI measurement replications, and the success of each potentially influences the quality of data produced and, ultimately, the validity of the inferences made thereof. The purpose of this research was to examine program-level influences on child-level ECI total communication growth and 36-month outcomes in a large sample of children, including those with individual family service plans served by multiple Early Head Start programs in two states. Results indicated variation in programs’ sociodemographic composition, ECI implementation quality, ECI total communication growth, and 36-month outcomes. Program-level sociodemographic composition was found not to be an influence on ECI growth or 36-month outcomes, whereas state location and implementation quality were. Implications are discussed.