Implementation and Use of the Desired Results Developmental Profile: Study Findings and Recommendations

To strengthen any assessment tool, it is important to connect with those who use it. This report summarizes findings from a study of the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) that engaged infant toddler teachers and agency leaders in its design and analysis.

Collaborators identified four data collection activities to assess the DRDP’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to existing validated measures and agency developmental priorities. We first completed leadership focus groups and administered a teacher survey to inform our team’s landscape analysis. We then held in-person and virtual workshops to enable infant toddler teachers’ analysis of data and to codesign a tool facilitating DRDP use in classrooms.

Findings point to several recommendations that can support the infant toddler workforce and inform DRDP training resources:

• Include additional domains in the DRDP tool to strengthen its utility for classroom and training use
• Increase training for DRDP content, particularly related to assessing infants and using findings to help infant toddler teachers ground their assessment in knowledge and strengthen teaching
• Engage families to identify opportunities for better communication across all phases about the tool’s implementation and use
• Encourage WestEd, which developed the DRDP, to work with agencies toward identifying ambiguous terms, then clarifying them in trainings