Wichita State University's Community Engagement Institute reported that the Kansas Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) portfolio served 8,282 children across 74 counties in the prior year and produced measurable improvements in parenting practices, classroom quality and early literacy and numeracy.

Dr. Lynn Schreperman, lead evaluator at Wichita State University, told the Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund that 26 grantees delivered services to children and families, with 68 percent of families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and 88 percent of families having at least one risk factor. Schreperman presented headline results: “88 percent of the parents that were engaged in our family services were shown to be at the end of their program engaging in positive parenting. This is the highest rate that we've seen in 10 years.” She also reported that 81 percent of observed classrooms met the program's high-quality benchmark — also the highest rate in a decade — and that 70 percent of 3-year-olds and at least 80 percent of 4-year-olds met age-expected benchmarks in early literacy and language comprehension; 78 percent of children were on track in early numeracy.

Evaluation approach: The cabinet's Common Measures Initiative requires grantees to use a standardized set of validated measures so the cabinet can produce statewide snapshots and support local program improvement. Schreperman described a multi-year selection process that prioritized measures with established reliability, validity and sensitivity to one-year changes; the Common Measures approach began with a pilot in 2014 and moved into field testing for statewide annual cohorts beginning in 2015. Wichita State has conducted annual analyses and provides individualized grantee reports and data coaching to support continuous quality improvement.

Program details and risk profile: Among children served, 50 percent had an indicator of developmental delay; 22 percent did not speak English as a first language; 7 percent were in foster care or out-of-home placement; caregiver-level risk included 11 percent with less than a high-school education, 68 percent qualifying for free/reduced lunch, and 46 percent unmarried caregivers. Schreperman highlighted research (citing James Heckman) on early intervention and return on investment and noted the evaluation focuses on proximal indicators known to predict long-term outcomes (executive function, parenting practices, classroom interactions, phonological awareness).

Data use and next steps: Cabinet staff and KSDE announced they finalized a data-sharing agreement to match ECBG participant data with pre-K–12 outcomes. Amanda Peterson, Kansas Department of Education director of early childhood, said KSDE and the cabinet are working to match and analyze data and that preliminary matched analyses could be available within four months. Peterson noted the cohort in this year's report contains children just entering kindergarten, so multi-year longitudinal analysis will require matching across prior cohorts to produce K–12 outcome comparisons.

Distinguishing discussion vs. direction: The presentation was an informational evaluation report; no vote was required. Members asked substantive questions about measure definitions, program types that support positive parenting, data coaching and whether qualitative data are collected. Schreperman said the Common Measures evaluation focuses on quantitative indicators per the statutory evaluation requirement; grantees receive individualized reports and data-coaching sessions and Wichita State visits grantees to review findings. Schreperman said qualitative data are not systematically collected by the evaluation team, though other partners may collect qualitative information separately.

Why it matters: The evaluation showed statewide gains on multiple indicators tied to child development and school readiness. Cabinet staff and KSDE indicated intent to use data linkages to assess longer-term outcomes such as third-grade reading once longitudinal matches are completed.