First 5 Kern Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2010-2011

Kern County Children and Families Commission (First 5 Kern) is funded by the Proposition 10 ballot initiative to support services for children prenatal to age five in California. The state revenue comes from an extra 50-cent tax on tobacco products, and is distributed according to the proportion of live births in each county. Following a Statewide Evaluation Framework (First 5 California, 2005), the 2010-11 Annual Report includes multilevel evaluation findings to show what works, for whom, and in which context of early childhood development in Kern County. At the first level, descriptive data are examined to support fact findings on service counts. In addition, value-added assessments are incorporated at the second level to articulate outcome measures in support of the local priority setting. At the third level, longitudinal data are analyzed for those programs receiving funding during adjacent years of 2009-2011 to track improvement of sustainable accomplishments beyond the cycle of annual reporting. Altogether this report has addressed the results-based accountability required by Proposition 10. At a county covering a land area as large as the state of New Jersey, this report also served as a model of evaluation for 58 county commissions across the golden state. Two appendixes are included: (1) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC); and (2) IRB Approval. (Contains 14 footnotes, 27 tables, 55 figures, and 3 exhibits.)