The final report of the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force, Taking Stock: Assessing and Improving Early Childhood Learning and Program Quality, recommends developing a comprehensive assessment system to improve child outcomes.  A key recommendation involves aligning high-quality and comprehensive standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessments as a continuum from Prekindergarten through Third Grade. 

The Task Force's recommendations are flexible enough to be adapted in multiple states, employ state-of-the-art evaluation methods, and focus on how assessment data can be used to improve Prekindergarten programs, and enhance positive outcomes for children.

FCD Senior Program Officer, Fasaha Traylor, commented, "As Prekindergarten expands, policymakers and the public will shift their focus to making sure that children are well prepared to read, think, compute, and learn self-control and how to work with their peers and adults by the end of Third Grade.  The National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force sets our nation on that path."