Virginias Star Quality Initiative for Continuous Quality Improvement

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Virginias Star Quality Initiative for Continuous
Quality Improvement

• A Quality Rating and Improvement System
• for Early Care and Education Settings

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What is a Quality Rating and Improvement System?

• A quality rating and improvement system, or QRIS,
  is a method to assess, improve, and communicate
  the level of quality in early care and education
  settings that families consider for their
  children.

From the National Child Care Information Center
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What is the purpose of a QRIS?

• Defines standards for early childhood education
• Creates a framework for accountability
• Establishes a network of support and outreach for
  early childhood professionals
• Provides incentives linked to achieving and
  maintaining quality standards
• Acts as a consumer education tool to improve the
  information available to families

From the National Child Care Information Center
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QRIS a trend across the U.S.
13 states and the District of Columbia have
adopted a QRIS. In 2007, an additional 4 states
were considering legislation to launch a QRIS.
Over 30 states are in the process of exploring,
designing, or piloting a QRIS.
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How was Virginias Star Quality Initiative
developed?

• Under the leadership of the Governors Working
  Group on Early Childhood Initiatives, the
  Alignment Project team has been working to create
  a continuum of high quality care and education
  for Virginias young children, bridging the gap
  between private child care and public schools

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The Alignment Project

• an effort to align childrens skill development,
  teacher competencies, early childhood program
  quality, evaluation and assessment, and program
  policy, funding, and planning.

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The Alignment Project

• Quality Rating Improvement System
• voluntary market-driven strategy to evaluate and
  improve quality in a wide range of early learning
  settings
• uses licensing as a foundation, with a scale of
  clearly defined star levels of increasing quality

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What is Virginias Star Quality Initiative?

• programs will be rated on a 5 star scale by
  reliable and highly trained Star Quality Raters
• if a provider is currently working to become
  regulated, they can receive Rising Star status
• the star rating incorporates 5 standard areas,
  selected based on research linking these measures
  to positive child outcomes
• education, qualifications, and training
• interactions
• staff to child ratio and group size
• learning environment and instructional practices
• partnerships with families and communities

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Standard One Education, Qualifications, and
Training

• assessed by documentation provided by programs
• indicators include
• Education and qualifications of directors,
  teachers, and assistant teachers
• Ongoing training and professional development for
  all staff, all instructional staff, directors,
  teachers, and assistant teachers

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Standard Two Interactions

• assessed by rater observations using the CLASS
  (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) developed
  at the University of Virginia
• observations of periods of up to 30 minutes, then
  rating what was observed on a 7-point scale
• measured across 3 subscales emotional support,
  classroom organization, and instructional support
• due to the strong correlation between high
  quality teacher-to-child and child-to-child
  interactions and positive child outcomes,
  standard 2 is weighted 1.5 times more than the
  other standards

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Standard Three Staff to Child Ratio and Group
Size

• assessed by documentation provided by programs
• differentiated by the age of the children served,
  from infants to school-age children

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Standard Four Learning Environment
Instructional Practices

• assessed by rater observations using an
  Environmental Rating Scale developed by the Frank
  Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the
  University of North Carolina
• measured across seven subscales Space
  Furnishings Personal Care Routines
  Language-reasoning Activities Interaction
  Program Structure and Parents Staff
• separate scales for each age group in
  classroom-based programs and for home-based
  family child care providers

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Standard Five Partnering with Families and
Communities

• assessed by documentation provided by programs
• includes two indicators
• communication with families
• transition practices

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Star Quality Raters

• responsible for conducting observations in 1 out
  of every 3 classrooms in a facility using the
  CLASS and Environmental Rating Scale instruments
• are objective and independent in applying the
  instruments and have a role in quality
  improvement that is distinct from program mentors
• have had significant work experience in early
  childhood or in observation and evaluation,
  completed training and achieved reliability in
  the observation instruments, so that there is
  consistency in star ratings

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Star Quality Raters

• specialized training conducted by Star Quality
  Master Trainers, who have attended
  train-the-trainer or similar training programs at
  the source universities
• to protect consistency and reliability in ratings
  over the long-term, Star Quality Raters will be
  tested for reliability once every 10 observations
  by conducting an on-site visit in tandem with a
  Star Quality Anchor, an individual who either
  serves as a Master Trainer or who is a
  particularly reliable Rater

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What is Virginias Star Quality Initiative?

• includes not only rating but also technical
  assistance, mentoring, and other incentives for
  quality achievements
• beginning in October 2007, the classroom-based
  standard will begin to be tested in approximately
  200 3- and 4-year-old classrooms around the state

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QRIS Demonstration Pilot

• builds on existing local efforts to promote
  quality
• testing the standard and the ratings process
  itself across various settings, including
  faith-based, non-profit, for-profit, Head Start,
  VPI, and military
• star ratings will not be given in the first year
  to allow sufficient time to systematically test
  the standard and make any needed adjustments
  before the initiative is expanded
• providers will receive narrative feedback about
  how their program fared in the ratings process,
  including strengths and areas for improvement

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QRIS Demonstration Pilot

• centralized activity supported by the Virginia
  Early Childhood Foundation, using private funds
  to award a grant to Child Development Resources
  to coordinate rater training and ongoing support,
  the ratings process, data collection, and
  analysis
• local coalitions responsible for nominating
  individuals to serve as Star Quality Raters,
  selecting a diverse group of providers to
  participate, coordinating mentors for quality
  improvement in participating programs, and for
  underwriting the cost of classroom observations
  in their area

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QRIS Demonstration Sites
the following communities were accepted to
participate

• Blacksburg
• Charlottesville
• Harrisonburg
• Newport News

• Roanoke
• Richmond City
• South Hampton Roads
• Williamsburg

in addition to the following pre-K pilot sites

• Albemarle
• Alexandria
• Alleghany
• Chesapeake

• Fairfax
• Hampton
• Richmond County
• Virginia Beach

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What is the next step for Virginias QRIS?

• Star Quality Advisory Team the compass for the
  demonstration, making strategic recommendations
  for implementation and for the next phase of the
  QRIS, in addition to evaluating the demonstration
  as a whole across all sites
• a QRIS standard for home-based programs is
  currently in development
• expand the QRIS demonstration to include more age
  groups and more classrooms in a wider geographic
  area

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To learn more

• For more information, please contact
• Kathy Glazer, Executive Director, Governors
  Working Group on Early Childhood Initiatives at
  kathy.glazer_at_governor.virginia.gov
• Anne Hyslop, Special Assistant to the Secretary
  of Education at anne.hyslop_at_governor.virginia.gov