June 11, 2004

The Evaluation Exchange

Jack Shonkoff, from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University writes that it might be useful to think about the early childhood evaluation enterprise as a succession of three stages. The first could be named "Don't just stand there, do something!" as the compelling nature of the needs focused on the urgency for action rather than the value of research. The second stage could be labeled "Don't just do something, stand there!" During this period, thoughtful leadership focuses on the need to step back and reflect on a core set of important questions about what programs are trying to accomplish. The report concluded the general question of whether early childhood programs can make a difference and answered in the affirmative innumerable times. The central research priority for the early childhood field is to address more important sets of questions about how different types of interventions influence specific outcomes for children and families. This agenda defines the parameters of the third stage in the evolution of early childhood evaluation: "How do we know what's really making a difference?" This report asks and answers the tough questions about the impacts from what kinds of services, on what kinds of children, in what kinds of families, under what kinds of circumstances, and at what cost.