Evaluation

An analysis of the validity of North Carolina's 5-star child care licensing system, based on data collected from 84 child care centers.

A guide to developing, implementing, and evaluating a child care quality initiative involving the collection and dissemination of child care quality indicator information to parents.

A summary of an assessment of the quality of child care facilities voluntarily seeking the highest ratings in the North Carolina Rated License program.

This briefing paper informs policymakers about the level of quality observed in child care centers in Minnesota, the characteristics of programs that provide higher quality care, and the resources needed by child care centers to improve quality. Nationally recognized observational tools were used (i.e., the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised and the Arnett Caregiver Interaction Scale) to document activities and interactions and to track quality benchmarks in 100 randomly selected classrooms serving children (aged 3-5 years) in Minnesota child care centers.

This report presents Year 1 findings from a five-year study of six student cohorts at Antioch University, California State University-East Bay, Mills College, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, and the University of La Verne in California. These cohorts are enrolled in B.A. completion programs, which target small groups of adults working in early care and education. The students in the study demonstrated a strong commitment to the early care and education field, having worked continuously in center- or home-based settings for an average of about 16 years.

This executive summary highlights the findings from an inventory of almost all of the California institutions of higher education that train adults to teach children under the age of five years, including certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs. Findings show that in California, 136 institutions of higher education, or approximately one-half of the State's public colleges and universities, are engaged in preparing teachers to work with young children prior to kindergarten.

This executive summary highlights the findings from an inventory of almost all of the California institutions of higher education that train adults to teach children under the age of five years, including certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs. Findings show that in California, 136 institutions of higher education, or approximately one-half of the State's public colleges and universities, are engaged in preparing teachers to work with young children prior to kindergarten.

This brief summarizes research that was conducted to assess the validity of the Qualistar Early Learning Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) as a tool for improving child care quality in Colorado. The QRIS includes five components that are generally agreed to contribute to high quality care: (1) classroom environment, (2) child-staff ratios, (3) staff and director training and education, (4) parent involvement, and (5) accreditation. Data suggest that much work needs to be done before such systems can be confidently designed and implemented at scale.

This study examined whether the Keystone STARS program in Pennsylvania is improving quality in participating child care programs and to determine if Keystone STARS is reversing the decline of quality in child care in Pennsylvania that was so evident in the late 1990's. Data were collected from 356 child care centers, 81 group child day care homes, and 135 family child day care homes. Programs were assessed using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) for center-based programs or the Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS) for home-based programs.

Report.pdf

This document presents an overview of assessment scores from the first six years of the Star Rated License implementation in North Carolina. Findings primarily apply to the quality of care in programs applying for three, four, or five points in program standards. As of November 2005, there were 9,217 star rated licenses issued to centers and homes. In 2005, the largest proportion of centers (31 percent) and homes (35 percent) had three stars. The percentage of centers and homes in the upper tiers of stars has increased from 2002 to 2005.