About the Desired Results access Project

The Desired Results System is an accountability initiative of the California Department of Education (CDE) developed to determine the effectiveness of its child development and early childhood special education services and programs. The Desired Results access Project assists CDE’s Special Education Division (SED) in implementing the DRDP access Assessment System to measure the progress of California’s preschool-age children with IEPs. The Project supports special educators, administrators, and families in implementing the DRDP access Assessment System for preschool-age children with IEPs by:

Assuring the inclusion of preschool children with IEPs in the DRDP access Assessment System.
Refining the Desired Results Developmental Profile access (DRDP access).
Aligning the DRDP access with the other DRDP instruments, California’s Preschool Learning Foundations, and Preschool Curriculum Frameworks.
Providing useful information and reports to programs about DRDP assessment results.
Providing resources and activities to assist California’s preschool special education community to understand, use, and benefit from this statewide system.

The Desired Results access Project is a special project of the Napa County Office of Education, funded by the California Department of Education, Special Education Division.

Key Activities for 2011-12

The Desired Results access Project provides opportunities for professional development; guidance materials that support the implementation of the DRDP access Assessment System; and research activities that lead to data-informed improvements to the system. Highlights of the activities planned for 2011-2012 are described below.

Implementation and Professional Development Activities

Support Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAS) and their school districts in accessing training and professional development activities.
Produce new and updated guidance materials and online learning modules.
Collaborate with CDE’s Child Development Division and other state agencies to develop resources and strategies for enhancing collaboration between child development programs and preschool special education for the DRDP access Assessment System.
Collaborate with other states on a national level, including participation as a Partner State with the Early Childhood Outcomes Center:
http://www.the-eco-center.org

Research Activities

The DRDP access Project engages in systematic research to improve outcomes for preschool-age children with IEPs in California. Research activities focus on these strategic areas:

Coordination of data collection and analysis to support state and federal reporting for the Preschool Assessment Indicator of the State Performance Plan, including: scaling investigations, equating studies, item testing and other descriptive and inferential analysis of statewide datasets.
Ongoing instrumentation research to enhance the implementation and utility of DRDP access instrument, including the development of new tools for the use of this data for SELPAs, school districts, teachers, and families.
Specialized educational and psychometric studies including the ongoing investigation of the DRDP access with infants and toddlers to evaluate the utilization of the instrument for children served in Early Start programs. This research examines whether the DRDP access can be used for progress monitoring as a socially valid instrument for children birth to 3 with IFSPs receiving special education and/or related services through Local Educational Agencies.
Joint project with CDE’s Child Development Division (CDD) and Special Education Division (SED) to develop a single DRDP instrument for use in the field for all children birth to kindergarten entry.
Collaboration with state and national partners to disseminate research-based practices to the field.

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Last updated: 10/26/2011