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Action
Plan: Measuring Results
- Outcomes and indicators should be practical, results-oriented,
clearly important to the well-being of children, and stated in
terms that are understandable to the public. They should reflect
the well-being of the whole child, rather than focusing on the
parts served by specific services systems.
- The overall outcomes sought should be expressed as positive
expressions of child well-being, rather than as the absence of
negative conditions (good health rather than decreased illness).
However, many of the indicators that measure those outcomes will
be phrased in the negatives because that is how the data are currently
collected.
- Since no one indicator captures the full dimensions of the outcomes
sought, each outcome should be measures by a set of indicators
chosen from the most valid and reliable data available.
- Indicators should be selected to reflect the overall state of
our children, not the state of the service delivery system, although
implications for the improvement of the current system of services
should be derived from the regular collection and analysis of
service delivery data. Indicators should, where possible, reflect
the outcomes of services for families and children, and not just
the existence of services.
- Initial efforts should focus on a strategic set of outcomes
and indicators that reflect concerns shared by the entire community,
including policymakers, service providers, and families. Efforts
should begin with a limited number of outcomes and indicators
that focus on child well-being, with the understanding that, in
subsequent years, indicators that reflect the well-being of families
and communities may also be added.
- The process of developing appropriate and practical outcome
measures that accurately reflect the state of the county's
children will be an evolutionary one, from which there is
much to learn. Perhaps one of the most important steps is
the clarification of the cultural and value foundations
that underlie the process; the selection of outcomes and
indicators that reflect goals shared by all groups is essential
if the product is to be a meaningful picture of the state
of the county's children.
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