Measuring Quality

This report summarizes information gathered through interviews with state and national key informants regarding continuous quality improvement in quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS).

Continuous Quality Improvement, An Overview Report for State QRIS Leaders.pdf

The purpose of this research brief is to report on two aspects of child care licensing for all 50 States and the District of Columbia state child care center licensing regulations and child care center licensing policies.

999_1208_Center_Licensing_Trends_Brief_FINAL.pdf

The following provides information about the requirements for healthy weight and obesity prevention found in State child care licensing regulations. First, an analysis is presented of State requirements based on the goal areas in the Let’s Move! Child Care Initiative.

948_1202_Regs_Healthy_Weight.pdf

State child care licensing regulations and policies on monitoring and enforcement provide a baseline of protection to ensure the well-being of children in early and school-age care and education settings. Regulations and methods of enforcement, however, vary greatly from State to State. Standards in some States provide greater protection and more stringent enforcement methods than in other States.

962_1108_LicensingIssueBrief.pdf

Study shows how quality improvement happens.

ASM_2012_16_fall_1.pdf

One quality domain of interest to program administrators and Quality Rating and Improvement System developers focuses on the relationships between families and providers. High quality family-provider relationships have been hypothesized to affect both child and family outcomes.

family_sensitive.pdf

As a part of the FACES study*, Mathematica Policy Research designed and conducted a study to assess the extent to which using different observation measures and protocols to evaluate classroom quality may affect (1) the resulting scores and (2) the reliability of the measures.

SRCD poster 2011 3_25.pdf

The field of early childhood education continues to grapple with the issue of understanding quality in classrooms. The lack of clarity in definition (or conceptualization) and related ability to assess (or operationalize) quality has contributed to a reliance on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R), which is often interpreted to be synonymous with the quality of a classroom. Likewise, the ECERS-R (although a measurement tool) is often used to define quality.

This chart provides an analysis of states that are using or planning to use (or proposed to use in their RTT/ELC application) the CLASS as part of their quality rating and improvement system (QRIS). 

CLASSCHART.pdf

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