In 2015, Innovation Edge commissioned the development of South Africa's first national-level preschool child assessment tool. The project's key innovations were that the tool should fairly assess children from across the cultural and socio-economic spectrum, be inexpensive in terms of equipment and administration costs, and be administered in about 45 minutes. Rather than professional evaluators, well-trained persons with a background in early childhood education would serve as assessors. Finalized in 2016, the primary purpose of the Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM) (www.elom.org.za) is to provide the country with a national instrument to fairly assess children age 50-69 months from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. This brief article describes the program's early learning development standards and how to effectively interpret ELOM data.