Kerry Kriener-Althen is the Director of the Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS) Evaluation Team at WestEd.
She has extensive experience leading research and evaluation in center-based and home-based early care and education settings serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Under Kriener-Althen’s direction and leadership, the CCFS Evaluation Team develops observational assessments that support children’s development in early care and education programs. The core of Kriener-Althen’s work has been overseeing the development and field-testing of two observational assessment instruments:
-
- The Program for Infant/Toddler Care Program Assessment Rating Scale (PITC PARS), designed to assess the quality of early care and education settings for infants and toddlers
- The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), designed for teachers to use to observe, document, and reflect on children’s development and progress in an early care and education program or a before- and after-school program; to plan curricula for individual children and groups of children; and to guide continuous program improvement
Prior to joining WestEd, Kriener-Althen was a member of the First 5 California Statewide Evaluation Team and led major facets of the evaluation including the Kindergarten Entry Profile data collection, First 5 and School Readiness Initiative systems change surveys, and participation of First 5 LA School Readiness Initiative programs in statewide data collection efforts.
Kriener-Althen received a BS in child, parent, and community service and an MS in social science, both from Iowa State University, and a PhD in family social science from the University of Minnesota.