The DRDP Framework
The DRDP For Head Start and state-funded ECE programs
Educa is a licensed DRDP platform vendor
DRDP (2015) Overview
The DRDP was developed in California and aligns to the ELOF, the Pre-K Common Core State Standards and the California Preschool Foundations.
Many teachers in North America use learning stories linked to DRDP as the primary evidence source to meet State & Head Start assessment requirements. This process is supported in Educa.

DRDP Views
There are four versions of the DRDP (2015).
- Essential View – 29 measures – Infant/Toddler, Preschool and Kindergarten versions
- Fundamental View – 43 measures – Preschool only
- Comprehensive View – Infant/Toddler and Preschool versions
- MODIFIED – a version to accommodate Covid-related absences
Educa supports all DRDP views, including the Modified Views used when children are not always on site and so not available for in person observations.
Evidence & Rating Rules
- Attitudes to Learning – Self-Regulation
- Social and Emotional Development
- Language and Literacy Development
- English Language Development
- Cognition, including Math and Science
- Physical Development – Health
DRDP Rating Submission & Inspection
DRDP Online Reports
Using this raw child data, programs can then see analytical data online:
- Ratings by class
- Growth from period to period

Above shows Educa’s DRDP selector that helps teachers link their Learning Stories.
Below shows how the DRDP rating in Educa pre-populates links from your Learning Stories.

DRDP is Research-Based, Valid & Reliable
(Page 12, Technical Report)
Research Background
The 10 quality indicators that guided the development of the DRDP (2015) are listed below:
- Alignment (to State, Common Core State Standards, HSELOF)
- Acceptability (for State and Head Start)
- Authenticity
- Cultural and Linguistic Appropriateness
- Multifactors (evidence from multiple sources)
- Sensitivity
- Universal Design
- Utility 43
- Validity
- Reliability
Please refer to the Technical Report for the Desired Results Developmental Profile (2015) by the DRDP Collaborative for details on each item.
The Technical Report states that the DRDP instrument consistently produces valid, reliable, and useful estimates of children’s developmental progress within each domain, and that it has sufficient sensitivity to detect growth between rating periods, as confirmed in a 2013 Sensitivity Study.
DRDP Testing & Validation
The DRDP Collaborative followed this approach. Here is the validation process they followed (from Technical Report).

The 142-page Technical Report for the DRDP goes into great detail on the quality factors used in developing the framework domains and measures, and the results of testing – covering distributions by measure:
- Frequency distribution by measure ratings
- Symmetry of distribution
- Fit statistics
- Item Characteristic Curves
- Wright Maps
DRDP- School Readiness Validation Report states (Page 18):*
Validity and Reliability Quality Measures
- Content validity – alignments and research supports this
- Response validity – cognitive interviews in 2014 provided evidence of the fit between the intent of the measures and the resulting ratings.
- Internal structure – calibration studies confirmed expected order of and relationships between item/step difficulty and child performance across domains. Older children were consistently rated higher.
The Reliability indicator refers to “the consistency of measurements, gauged by any of several methods, including when the testing procedure is … administered by different raters (inter- rater reliability)” (NRC 2008, 427).
Internal Consistency
Inter-rater Reliability
(Page 69 of Technical Report) Inter-rater reliability data was collected at various times in 2015, 2015 and 2016, to gather evidence about rating agreements between pairs of teacher and pairs of special education assessors who independently rated the same child on the same DRDP measures within the same time period.
DRDP Rating and Studies
DRDP Technical Report https://www.desiredresults.us/sites/default/files/docs/resources/research/DRDP2015_Technical%20Re port_20180920_clean508.pdf
DRDP-School Readiness Validation Study
https://drdpk.org/docs/DRDP-SR_ValidationStudiesSummary.pdf