Principal Investigator
Amy Taub – MDRC (formerly Emily Hanno and Sophie Litschwartz)
Project Description
Funded as part of Urban Institute’s broader Student Upward Mobility Initiative, this study develops and validates new measures of executive functioning (EF) skills using metadata generated from children’s interactions with digital early learning assessments. Conducted across multiple early childhood sites, the study collects repeated assessment data alongside traditional EF measures to evaluate whether metadata such as response time, task persistence, and interaction patterns can be used to reliably capture EF skills. The research includes psychometric analyses to assess the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the new measures, as well as comparisons with established EF assessments. The study aims to create scalable, low-burden approaches to measuring EF that can be embedded within existing assessment systems and used to inform research, policy, and practice.
Research Questions
- How can metadata from digital assessments be used to generate interpretable and reliable measures of executive functioning skills?
- To what extent are metadata-based measures of executive functioning reliable, valid, and distinct from academic skill measures?
- Do metadata-based measures of executive functioning function consistently across different student populations and contexts?
