ABSTRACT

Quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) are designed to assess, improve, and communicate the quality of early care and education programs. Using administrative data, we investigated whether providers that participated in a county-level QRIS saw increases to their global quality (tier) rating, domain-specific quality ratings, and scores on an observation measure of classroom quality. Research Findings: On average, participating providers increased their overall tier ratings; this pattern was particularly true for providers with lower initial tier ratings. We found more consistent evidence of increases on indicators of structural quality components (e.g., teacher and director qualifications), and limited evidence of improvement on process quality indicators (e.g., measure of teacher–child interaction). This finding suggests structural quality improvements may be driving global tier rating changes. In addition, providers saw average increases on a measure of classroom quality, with larger increases seen in domains that measure classroom organization and emotional support. Practice and Policy: We discuss implications for how QRISs can promote quality improvement for participating providers and suggest avenues for future research.

摘要

质量评级和改进系统 (QRIS) 旨在评估、改进和传达早期护理和教育项目的质量。使用管理数据，我们调查了参与县级 QRIS 的提供者的全球质量（等级）评级、特定领域质量评级以及课堂质量观察指标得分是否有所提高。研究成果：平均而言，参与的提供商提高了其整体等级评级；对于初始等级较低的提供商来说，这种模式尤其如此。我们发现更一致的证据表明结构质量组成部分（例如教师和主任资格）指标有所增加，而过程质量指标（例如师生互动的衡量标准）改善的证据有限。这一发现表明结构质量的改善可能正在推动全球等级评级的变化。此外，提供者还发现课堂质量衡量标准的平均增长，其中衡量课堂组织和情感支持的领域增长幅度更大。实践与政策：我们讨论了 QRIS 如何促进参与提供者的质量改进的影响，并为未来的研究提出了途径。