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What Are Results & Indicators?
We all want what is best for our children and each of us, including parents, frontline professionals (teachers, clinicians, social workers, nurses, probation, policeman, to name a few), child advocates, service associations, legislators and state and local program administrators and policy-makers, represents a thread in the safety net for our children. As family and community members, we must decide what is necessary for our children to grow and thrive, and how we can measure our success.
Being accountable for every Maryland child requires indicators that can adequately describe the status of children statewide and in each of Maryland's jurisdictions (twenty-three counties and Baltimore City). Over the last ten years Maryland, similar to many states realizing how crucial it is to count and gauge the progress of children in several areas, has chosen these areas to describe child well-being:
- Infant Mortality
- Low Birth Weight
- Births to Adolescents
- Healthy Children
- Immunizations
- Hospitalizations
- Child Deaths
- New Perspectives
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Obesity
- Substance Use
- Asthma Prevalence
- Education
- School Readiness
- School Success
- Academic Performance – HSA
- Academic Performance – MSA
- Truancy
- School Completion
- High School Dropout Rate
- High School Program Completion
- Graduation of Students with Disabilities
- School Transition
- Educational Attainment
- Youth Employment
- New Perspectives
- Alt-MSA
- Bullying and Harassment
- Community
- Safety
- Juvenile Felony Offenses
- Recidivism
- Maltreatment
- Stability
- Hunger
- Out-of-Home Placement
- Homelessness
- New Perspectives
- Crime
- Out-of-School Time Opportunities
- Child Poverty
All Maryland's Children will be Successful in Life.
Each of us must also look at the programs and services available to our children to be certain that they are making a real impact in the lives of the children. In addition to statewide measures of well-being for the child population as a whole, we must also look for results from programs and services that show us that the children and families receiving services are healthy, well-educated, and safe.
Taken together, these results, including both population-based measures (known as population accountability) and client-based measures (known as program accountability), form the foundation on which we build our strategy to improve Maryland's schools, neighborhoods and cities. To learn more about Results Accountability, please visit http://www.raguide.org or http://www.fiscalpolicystudies.com.
Kent County is dedicated to the health and well-being of our children, the families who raise them, and the communities that support their growth. If we focus our attention on indicators of health and well-being, and wisely use information that shows us whether we are improving the status of our children, then we are taking positive steps to ensure a bright future for all children.
What is a result?
A goal that Maryland has established for its children, families, and/or communities.
What is an indicator?
Information that demonstrates Maryland's progress toward meeting a result.
The Maryland's Children's Cabinet, in cooperation with local jurisdictions, strives to meet the needs of Maryland's children, families and communities. Through this collaborative approach, each jurisdiction identifies and focuses on results and indicators that are priorities in their community.
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