Working Together to Improve Child Care Quality

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Working Together to Improve Child Care Quality

• Developing a Consortium to SupportQuality Rating
  Improvement Systems

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• Working Together to Improve Child Care Quality
• Developing a Consortium to SupportQuality Rating
  Improvement Systems

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High Quality Child Care is Goodfor Children and
Society

• Children benefit from higher quality care
• A number of studies have found significant
  relationships to child cognitive and social
  outcomes
• Long term individual benefits include higher
  school completion rates, higher individual
  earnings, less delinquency
• At-risk children benefit most
• Society benefits in the longer term as well
• Reduced crime
• Lower welfare costs

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Many States are Developing QualityRating and
Improvement Systems

• 36 states have tiered quality strategies with
  rating mechanism
• 30 use QRS as basis for tiered reimbursement
  strategies
• Already, 11 have statewide QRS
• CO, DC, KY, MD, MT, NC, NM, OK, PA, TN, VT
• 6 others have pilot or local QRS programs
• 23 more currently exploring/designing QRS

Source NCCIC (2004), VWA (2005)
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QRIS National Map
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These Quality Rating and Improvement Systems
Share Some Common Elements

• Voluntary participation (in all states but TN)
• Federal Child Care block grant as funder (most
  systems)
• Similar quality components
• Environment assessment with standardized rating
  scales (ERS)
• Teacher credentials and training
• Accreditation / regulatory compliance
• 4 or 5 rating levels (except MT and VT)
• Limited operating experience (mean 4 yrs for
  statewide systems)

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Rating and Measurement Challenges

• Creating efficient and cost-effective family
  involvement, ratio and other component measures
• Developing classroom observational measures that
  are sensitive enough to capture teacher
  instructional quality and the emotional climate
  of the classroom
• Modifying measures and processes to meet local
  needs
• Developing cost-effective quality improvement
  strategies with the most bang for buck

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Qualistar Has Developed a QRIS to SupportIts
Mission Improved Early Learning for Colorados
Children

• Four-star rating system identifies program
  strengths and weaknesses and creates a detailed
  action plan for continuous quality improvement
• Five Components
• Learning Environment
• Family Partnerships
• Training and Education
• Adult-to-Child Ratios / Group Size
• Accreditation

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Going to Scale

• 1999 Qualistar begins rating and providing
  quality improvement (QI) services to 30 Denver
  child care programs. 2006 Qualistar provides
  ratings and QI services to over 350 programs
  across the state
• How
• Passage of HB 1297 provides federal funding for
  over 200 child care programs to be rated
  statewide
• Merger with the state-wide Resource and Referral
  Network provides locally based QI services to
  child care programs and high-quality referrals to
  parents
• Collaborative work with foundations and local
  agencies to incorporate ratings into
  locally-based quality improvement activities.
• Development of an Early Learning Fund comprised
  of public and private dollars to provide ratings
  and quality improvement activities to more child
  care programs

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Improved Quality 1999-2005
Number of 3 4-Star sites increasedmore than
60 from 1999-2005
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Qualistar Early Learning Contracted with RAND
Corporation to Validate Its QRIS

• Public and private funding supports ratings and
  QI (coaching, materials) intervention
• Longitudinal assessment of children aged 3-4 at
  initiation refreshed sample at second and third
  assessments
• Employment of known measures with similar goals
  to validate QRIS and QRIS components
• Pre-Kindergarten Snapshot (Howes Stewart,
  1987)
• Arnett Sensitivity Measure (Arnett,1989)
• Longitudinal data permit assessment of effects of
  ratings improvements on child outcomes

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Key RAND Validation Study Analyses

• Analysis of QRIS components
• Assessment of changes in QRIS ratings over time
• Association between QRIS ratings and process
  measures
• Relationship between QRIS ratings and child
  outcomes

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RANDs Analyses Revealed Limitsof our Knowledge
about Assessment of Child Care Quality

• Difficult to conduct this research in localities
  and states given high costs and small samples
• Collaboration creates opportunities for needed
  empirical research on measures, QI,
  accountability
• Lowers development cost for any single entity
• Combines diverse perspectives and needs
• Pooled data sets could create longitudinal
  databases with more statistical power
• Empirical studies could capitalize on naturally
  occurring variation in policies, resources, and
  demographics

This work can be best accomplished through the
establishment of a multi-state Consortium
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More Questions, Some Answers

• The RAND Evaluation of the Qualistar QRIS has
  already identified important questions facing
  states as they implement their own QRIS systems
• How to measure program quality given local needs
  and variation?
• How to scale up and maintain program integrity?
• What are the most cost-effective QI strategies?
• What are the most cost-effective delivery
  systems?
• How to spread effective practices broadly and
  deeply?
• How best to adapt effective strategies to unique
  local conditions?
• How best to blend national models and home-grown
  initiatives?

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A Planning Conference was Convenedat RAND in
January 2006 to Solicit Interest in a QRIS
Consortium

• Attended by representatives of eight states,
  representing approximately 35 of U.S. preschool
  children
• Attendees agreed to pursue a collaborative
  planning effort focused on
• Empirical research
• Shared RD
• Cost-efficient adaptation of best practices

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Key Goals of a QRIS Consortium

• Address scale-up challenges through empirical
  study of best practices and local implementation
  models
• Develop and validate new measures at greatly
  reduced cost to each participating entity
• Share database technologies, measures, and QI
  interventions
• Enable cost efficiencies through application of
  common design principles across states

Timing is right QRS/accountability
movementgaining visibility and policy support
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Value of Collaborative Consortium

• Per capita savings through shared RD of measures
  and QI interventions
• Shared technology development
• Data sharing enables research into best practices
  across multiple contexts
• Increased knowledge of what works best
  business process sharing across states
• This work will reduce costs of delivering ratings
  and quality improvement interventions at scale

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Since the Conference, a Proposal for a6-month
Consortium Planning Granthas been Written,
Reviewed and Revised with RAND Guidance

• Preliminary Steering Committee has been
  established that includes
• National groups in child care arena with
  background and experience in QI
• Representatives of states at different stages of
  quality initiatives
• Meetings with potential funders occurring this
  month

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Assuming Successful Fundraising, the Planning
Period Will Produce a Number of Useful Outcomes

• Review of key studies and identification of gaps
  in the relevant literature
• Creation of a research agenda for the Consortium
• Conference to discuss a Consortiums future
• Proposal for ongoing support
• Solicitation of that support

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