About Desired Results Developmental Profile Child Assessment (DRDP)

About the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP)^©

A Developmental Continuum from Early Infancy to Kindergarden Entry

The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP)^© is a developmental continuum from early infancy to kindergarten entry. It is a formative assessment instrument for young children and their families used to inform instruction and program development.¹

The DRDP^© is a tool that consistently produces valid, reliable, and useful estimates of children’s developmental progress within each domain, using information gathered from individual measures about children’s behaviors, knowledge, and skills associated with that domain. The assessment, which reflects the child development research literature, is readily interpretable by all early childhood teachers. Measures are presented in a simple and straightforward manner that clearly demonstrates how learning and development in each area typically progresses for children from early infancy to kindergarten entry.²

“Assessment information gained from using the DRDP^© is intended to support teachers with planning next steps for scaffolding young children’s learning in key areas… Teachers and administrators can use the data to gauge the status and progress of children’s development and learning in an effort to inform instructional and programming decisions in support of individuals and groups within the programs. In addition, teachers may communicate with families about the results of the DRDP (2015)^© as one part of larger conversations about supporting children’s learning and development.”³

¹ From DRDP (2015)^© Preschool Comprehensive View, pg. Intro-1

² From DRDP^© Technical Report, pg. 32

³From DRDP^© Technical Report, pg. 12

Developed by Leading Experts

The Desired Results Developmental Profile (2015)^© was developed by the California Department of Education, with assistance from Berkeley, the Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center at the University of California, the Desired Results Access Project at Napa County Office of Education, and WestEd’s Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS).

BEAR Center at UC Berkeley

The BEAR Center designs and delivers educational assessment instruments and performs research on assessments and psychometrics. Led by Mark Wilson, a renowned psychometrician and author in the area of item response theory (IRT), the BEAR center team was involved in the research behind the DRDP^©, including designing research activities, determining methodologies, defining samples, and conducting analyses. They were also instrumental in the design and development of accurate and useful reports that include psychometrically valid and reliable domain-scaled scores.

Desired Results Access Project, Napa County Office of Education

The Desired Results Access Project promotes positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families by creating and supporting a high-quality assessment system. The Desired Results Access Project was involved in the review and revision of measures, developmental levels, and examples in the DRDP^©. They also contributed to the research and report development efforts. The Desired Results Access Project also helped ensure the instrument was suitable for all children, including those with disabilities.

WestEd’s Center for Child & Family Studies

CCFS promotes high-quality, research-based early care and education, informing national, state, and local child and family policies. Co-directed by pioneers in the field, J. Ronald Lally and Peter Mangione, CCFS was a primary content contributor for the DRDP^©. In addition to their work on the DRDP^©, the center also developed the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), the most widely used training system for infant and toddler caregivers in the county. PITC has been heavily involved in the training of Early Head Start (EHS) programs since the launch of EHS.

Standards and Framework Aligned with the DRDP^©

The DRDP^© is organized by domains and the domains are aligned with a variety of different standards and frameworks, including the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Outcomes Framework (HSELOF), which represents five broad areas of early learning and is grounded in comprehensive research around what infants, toddlers, and children should be able to do and know during their early years.

Quickly record observations;
Conveniently use their iPad or other favorite mobile device;
Easily associate observations with one or more children, and one or more developmental measures;
Rate measures for a child based on their behavior using the detailed per-measure rating screen, including full rating level descriptions, and behavior examples to ensure consistent ratings; and
Rapidly enter rating data with our rating grid.

The Desired Results Developmental Profile^© is aligned with the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework (HSELOF), as well as with the Common Core Standards, and all volumes of the California’s Infant/Toddler and Preschool Learning and Development Foundations.

Here’s some more information on the correspondence between the DRDP^© and the HSELOF for Infant/Toddler or Preschool:

Item Response Theory

The DRDP^© employs item response theory (IRT), which is a measurement approach that treats the assessment as an interaction between a child’s ability and a measure’s difficulty.

The DRDP^© Technical Report states, “As applied to the DRDP^©, the IRT indicator of ‘child ability’ is an individual child’s set of ratings for measures in a domain. ‘Measure difficulty,’ as related to the DRDP^©, is the estimated level of challenge required to progress through each of the levels represented in a measure’s developmental progression or continuum.

A beneficial result of using IRT is that child ability estimates and measure difficulty estimates fall on the same interval-level scale for each domain. The development of an interval-level scale, called the ‘domain scale,’ is accomplished through a process of model calibration that produces model parameter estimates of item-difficulty and item-stage thresholds. In this way, a numerical approximation of the latent construct can be obtained in the form of DRDP^© domain-scaled scores. Thresholds between the developmental levels on the domain scale are determined based on the results from the calibration process.

These domain-scaled scores and their associated standard errors, produced by IRT, enables reporting of information about development for individual children and groups of children at given points in time and over time. Domain-scaled scores enable comparisons of children’s progress over time, as well as aggregated reporting. Aggregation of domain ratings is possible as a direct result of the conversion of ordinal individual measure ratings to interval-level domain-scaled scores. Domain ratings, the qualitative descriptions of the DRDP (2015)^© domain-scaled scores, are provided to the field (teachers, special educators, parents, program administrators).”

The DRDP^© Technical Report also says, “One major advantage of the IRT measurement approach is that it allows for different developmental levels on a measure to vary in amount of challenge or complexity (allows for different probabilities for being rated at each level of a measure). As applied to the DRDP^©, this means that knowledge and skills that typically develop earlier or later than other knowledge and skills are accounted for in the quantitative models that produce the domain-scaled scores.”

From DRDP^© Technical Report, pp. 26-27, 31

An example of a DRDP^© measure guide

DRDP^© Domains

The DRDP^© is made up of eight domains with each domain focusing on the knowledge, skills, or behaviors that reflect each domain’s developmental constructs.

Approaches to Learning—Self-Regulation*
Social and Emotional Development*
Language and Literacy Development*
English Language Development
Cognition, Including Math and Science*
Physical Development—Health*
History—Social Science
Visual and Performing Arts

With the DRDP^© focusing on these five domains, it provides teachers the ability to focus on crucial areas of learning that The National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) has deemed important for later school success.

NEGP’s website states they are “an independent executive branch agency of the federal government charged with monitoring national and state progress toward the National Education Goals.”

* = Designates the 5 key domains

DRDP^© Views

There are two sections of the Desired Results Developmental Profile: Infant/Toddler and Preschool and contain different views that vary in the number of measures that each include. The Infant/Toddler refers to the measures, domains, and developmental levels that are intended for use with children in infant/toddler programs. It is broken down into two different views:

Comprehensive View: This view provides for assessment of children’s learning and development in domains related to all areas of the Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Foundations or Preschool Learning Foundations, covering the full range of learning
and development that early childhood curricula generally cover.

All programs may use the Comprehensive View.
It is required for infants and toddlers with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs).
It may be used for preschool-aged children with Individualized Education Programs (IFSPs).

DRDP (2015)^© View Guide

Essential View: This view provides for assessment of children’s learning and development with selected measures in key domains.

The Preschool refers to the domains, measures, and developmental levels that are intended for use with children in preschool programs. It also uses the Comprehensive View and Essential View, along with another – Fundamental View.

Fundamental View: This view provides for assessment of preschool children’s learning and development in the key domains associated with school readiness.

All programs may use the Preschool Fundamental View.
It may be used for preschool-age children with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

Each view was developed with the goal of ensuring that all children have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Additionally, each view includes domains that meet the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) child outcome requirements for children with Individualized Family Services Plans (IFSPs) or Individual Education Programs (IEPs).

When more measures are completed, the reports are more robust and informative for teachers and providers, administrators, and agencies.

See a full list of the DRDP^© Measures and Views.

Key Features

This DRDP^© PDF describes the various key features of the DRDP^©:

The DRDP (2015)^© is administered in natural settings through teacher observations, family observations, and examples of children’s work. Ongoing documentation of children’s knowledge and skills in everyday environments is a recommended practice for early childhood assessment.
The DRDP (2015)^© represents a full continuum of development from early infancy up to kindergarten entry. The Infant/Toddler Views are for use with children in infant/ toddler programs, and the Preschool Views, for children in preschool programs
The DRDP (2015)^© is designed for use with all children from early infancy up to kindergarten entry, including children with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
The DRDP (2015)^© is aligned with all volumes of the California’s Infant/Toddler and Preschool Learning and Development Foundations, the Common Core Standards, and the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework.
The DRDP (2015)^© takes into consideration the specific cultural and linguistic characteristics of California’s diverse population of young children, with specific consideration for children who are young dual language learners (see section below).
The DRDP (2015)^© was developed with the goal of ensuring that all children have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. To enable access to the assessment for diverse populations, the principles of Universal Design were followed.
The DRDP (2015)^© includes domains that meet the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) child outcome reporting requirements for children with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) or Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

DRDP^© PDF, pg. Intro-1

IEPs and Cultural Differences

The DRDP^© can automatically customize each child’s rating measures based on their individual requirements. For children who require Individualized Educations Programs (IEP), the assessment will customize the assessment to match the required rating measures for that child. This means teachers will no longer need to memorize which students have an IEP.

The DRDP^© is also fully compatible for children with cultural differences. A panel review by content experts in cultural and linguistic diversity confirmed that the selection of measures included in the DRDP^© was appropriate for children from diverse cultural and linguistic communities.

The Desired Results Developmental Profile can be changed to complement multiple children’s needs, such as:

IEPs
English Second Language (ESL)
Cultural difference

According to the BEAR Center, the teacher who knows the child best uses the broad range of DRDP^© observational protocols to record the specific levels of development that have been observed across multiple domains of development.

Information from the assessment is intended to support teachers with planning next steps for the children’s learning. Teachers and administrators can use the data to gauge the status and progress of children’s development and learning over a period of time. Teachers can also discuss results from the DRDP^© with the children’s families to help support a child’s learning progress and development and to make sure they thrive in their earliest years.

Research

Panel Reviews (Fall 2012)
Pilot Study (Spring 2013)
Sensitivity Study (Fall 2013)
Field Study (Fall 2013 and Spring 2014)
Sensitivity Study (Fall 2014) and ELCD “Soft” Implementation (Fall 2014 and Spring 2015)
Calibration Study and Sensitivity Study (Fall 2014 and Spring 2015)
Instrument Launch (Fall 2015) and Interrater Study (Fall 2015 and Spring 2016)
Concurrent Validity Study (Fall 2016 and Spring 2017)

Teachers observe students as they participate in routine classroom activities and complete the DRDP^© assessment within 60 calendar days of the child’s first day of enrollment in the program. The assessment can be repeated again every six months to gauge students’ progress throughout the year and support their transition to the next educational level.

Students who attend Head Start would still need to perform assessments at least three (3) times a year, per the Head Start Performance Standards 1307.3(b)(1) and 1307.3(b)(2), along with Head Start Act, section 641A(g)(2).

With the DRDP^© now available directly in ChildPlus, Head Start programs across the nation can enjoy these great benefits:

Assessment data and Head Start software in ONE system
The best assessment tool in the nation
Exclusive analysis of assessment results with other data (e.g. attendance, etc.)
Premier support and training
And more!

Additional Resources

Technical Report for the Desired Results Developmental Profile (2015) PDF

More DRDP benefits PDF

https://www.desiredresults.us/

About the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP)^©

A Developmental Continuum from Early Infancy to Kindergarden Entry