2009

This report discusses the ways in which the Classroom Assessment Scoring System© can help states, counties, districts, and programs take steps toward improving the quality of early childhood education (ECE) teachers’ interactions with children.

REPORT.pdf

A guide for incorporating culturally competent practices into state child care quality rating and improvement systems.

Findings from an inquiry into the collaboration between Children's Trust and Prevention Funds (CTFs) and early childhood stakeholders to develop quality rating and improvement systems, based on survey responses from stakeholders in 32 states

Findings from a comparison of the improvement of the school readiness in children who attend high quality early childhood programs and those who attend lower quality programs as rated by the Missouri Quality Rating System (QRS), based on a sample of 350 children aged 3 to 5 years old from 32 centers and 6 family child care homes in Missouri.

Abstract: The developmental and educational importance of high quality early care and education is well documented. The value of access to high quality care combined with the increasing demand for care has made access to high quality
child care a central focus of U.S. public policy. State level licensure and national accreditation are the most prevalent strategies for promoting and assuring higher levels of care. More recently, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) have emerged as mechanisms for motivating child care professionals to provide

This publication provides information and considerations for State child care administrators and policymakers for improving access to high quality school-age programs that reflect the unique needs of school-age children. A systems framework is used to illustrate strategic approaches to using the Child Care and Development Fund and other resources to build a strongly aligned system of quality improvement. (publisher abstract)

Report.pdf

This 2009 brief presents nine short- and long-term steps the Federal government can take to support State developments of effective quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). QRIS are systemic strategies to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programs. QRIS can be helpful to guide decisions on how to target resources, focus dollars on results, streamline administration, and build quality.

This article uses data from one state's QRIS to examine whether a shorter subset of items on the ITERS-R could be used to acheive a representative score and to examine how many classrooms need to be sampled to achieve an overall representative score.

iters article.pdf

This document presents a summary of findings from the 2009 Montana Early Childhood Trainer/Instructor Survey. Survey participants rated the importance of 39 items in four areas related to early childhood trainers: (1) general characteristics; (2) the training topic/content; (3) adult learning principles; and (4) local community experts, specialists, and State agency staff.