30 Sep 2015
Brief

Moving Up the Ladder: How Do States Deliver Quality Improvement Supports Within Their Quality Rating and Improvement Systems?

Aleksandra Holod, Ann-Marie Faria, Emily Weinberg, and Eboni Howard

As national attention has increasingly focused on the potential for high-quality early childhood education (ECE) to improve children’s school readiness, states have developed quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) to document the quality of ECE programs, support systematic quality improvement, and provide clear information to families about their child care choices. Nearly all states in the nation currently operate—or are planning to implement—some form of QRIS. This brief discusses quality improvement supports, including their prevalence in state and regional QRISs, and key considerations for their implementation.

Related Work

Ann-Marie Faria
31 Aug 2015
Video

Long Story Short: How Can Early Childhood Education Quality Ratings (QRIS) Ensure the Best Return on Our Investment in Six Million Children?

Recent federal efforts to expand access to early childhood education for six million children by 2020 have also increased attention about quality programming. In this video interview, Ann-Marie Faria, principal researcher, explains the role that Quality Rating and Improvement Systems have in communicating about quality to parents, programs, and policy makers.
27 Mar 2015
Report

Examining Ratings and Dimensions of Quality in an Early Childhood Education Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS)

Documenting and improving early childhood program quality is a national priority, leading to a rapid expansion of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs). QRISs document and improve the quality of early childhood education programs and provide clear information to families about their childcare choices. Findings from this study suggest that incremental changes to how QRIS ratings are calculated can alter inferences about program quality.

Related Projects

Project

Going Beyond the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS): A New Way to Evaluate Early Learning Programs

Brain development is critical during children's early years, yet nationally less than 50 percent of children enter Kindergarten ready to learn. AIR and Excellent Schools Detroit developed the Early Learning Scorecard, which provides families and the community with information about climate and culture as part of a high-quality early care and learning program.

Further Reading