Setting Up Your Rating Schedule for Success

 

Every school year, your agency will update your DRDP Rating Schedule. Use these 10 DRDP Setup Questions to make sure your agency is scheduled for success! 

The DRDP Rating Schedule is the place where your agency tells ChildPlus how to organize and control the DRDP for a program. You can think of it as an instructional binder. Your agency may have one schedule or many schedules. Enter your responses to these questions to get started! 

  1. Schedule Name: What school year will the schedule be used and which program(s) will be using it?
  1. Description: Which staff and program will use it? When will it be used? Who will be assessed? 
  2. Schedule Type: Will the 1st assessment be due on established due dates or based on a child’s enrollment date?

Within each of your agency’s rating schedules are multiple Assessment Periods. Each assessment period is like a tab in the binder containing a unique label, due dates, cut-off dates for newly enrolled children, the number of observations to be collected and permissions to rate or not rate measures when the observation count is below expectations. Use the questions below to organize the tabs in your binder!

  1. Assessment Periods: When will assessments be due this school year? What is the last date a child can enroll and still be assessed for each period? 
  2. Naming Convention: How would you like each assessment labeled?  
  3. Recommended Observations: How many observations do you expect staff to collect for each measure? Do you want them to be able to rate if they don’t meet the expectation?

The DRDP Assessment tool provides agencies with a variety of DRDP Views to choose from, Infant-Toddler views for children 0 – 35 months, and Preschool views for children 36 months – 5 years old. Use this handy chart, DRDP Assessment – Definition of Views, to assist you in selecting the best view for your rating schedule.

  1. DRDP Views: Which view of the DRDP Assessment tool do you want staff to use in this schedule? 

One of the many advantages of the DRDP Assessment in ChildPlus is the connection of information from other parts of the system to the DRDP. These 2 questions allow your agency to take advantage of! 

  1. Statewide Identifier: Do you want to connect each child’s assessment with another ID in addition to their ChildPlus ID? 
  2. Dual Language Learners: Do you want information for Head Start dual language learners connected to the DRDP? 

Each year when your agency sets up new rating schedules, it can be helpful to refer back to Notes that describe the rationale for decisions made about the setup. Use this section to record key decisions! 

  1. Schedule Notes: What do you want to remember about the decisions made for this schedule? 

Once you have applied these 10 DRDP Setup Questions to your agency’s DRDP setup, you are ready to assign the appropriate schedule to each of your classrooms or caseloads, step back, and feel confident in your decisions! 

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