| Q.R.S. - Quality Rating
System..
the MINNESOTA QUALITY RATING SYSTEM
FOR MN CHILD
CARE AND EDUCATION AND SCHOOL AGE PROGRAMS
The MN Quality Rating System (QRS) will provide specific information on
child care and education programs’ quality to help parents in making program
choices. The QRS will also provide support and financial incentives for
providers to improve and maintain quality care linked to young children’s
school readiness.
There is no question that parents are the first and most important people in
children’s lives and are responsible for their children’s healthy growth and
development. However, of the nearly one million children, ages 0-12 in
Minnesota, 68 percent spend part of their day in a child care setting. Child
care providers throughout Minnesota are doing the important work of helping
parents provide their young children with safe, nurturing environments and
opportunities for learning. But many families can’t afford market fees while
many child care providers can’t provide quality services without additional
resources.
Currently, there is no clear path with focused support to help child care
and education programs achieve higher levels of quality. Research of the
private child care market documents inconsistent quality with only 20
percent of programs rated as good quality while 40 to 60 percent provide
only mediocre care and 20% of programs provide “poor to harmful” care and
education.
The GOOD NEWS is that over 90% of children who have attended
accredited quality child care centers enter kindergarten “fully ready”
compared with the Minnesota statewide average of 50%.
The BAD NEWS is that less than 11% of all full and part day
centers and less than 1% of licensed family child care providers in
Minnesota have achieved recognized accreditation. Most parents in Minnesota
do not have the choice of an accredited program and there is no other
“consumer” guide or rating to help them distinguish between poor, mediocre
and good quality programs. The 2005 MN Household Survey found that over 90%
of parents looking for child care said that a quality rating system would be
very or somewhat helpful.
A QRS
is a consumer guide, a benchmark for program improvement, and an
accountability measure for funding…. Now in place in 10 states and in
development in more than half the country, QRS’s improve the quality of
early learning and empower parents to become savvy consumers and choose the
best early education and care for their children…. A QRS can also help
policymakers create policies that will improve quality….A state or community
with a QRS is aligned around the best interests of its children and is on
track to build successful schools, productive citizens, and a well-trained,
well-educated future workforce to support long-term economic development.”
Brian A. Gallagher,
President and CEO, United Way of America, Stair Steps to Quality,
July 2005.
MN Quality Rating
System Facts...
1.
The QRS will be VOLUNTARY
and open to ANY center – including for profit, non profit, and religiously
sponsored programs - licensed family child care providers, preschools and
school age programs. THE QRS IS NOT REQUIRED BY THE STATE.
2.
Parents requesting QRS
information will receive the program ratings and the child development
outcomes research on which the QRS indicators are based.
3.
The QRS,
DOES NOT REQUIRE A CURRICULUM. Accreditation by the National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) DOES NOT REQUIRE
USING THE ANTI-BIAS CURRICULUM BOOK referred to by EdWatch. Hundreds
of religiously based programs are accredited through the NAEYC. There
are hundreds of recommended books and curriculums that programs refer to in
designing their program.
4.
The QRS builds on Minnesota’s
licensing requirements and uses a building block design for programs to
reach higher levels of quality.
5.
The QRS builds on the current MN
standards for school readiness (The Early Childhood Indicators of Progress)
and the professional guidelines for teachers/providers (The Core
Competencies).
6.
The QRS will provide technical
assistance, training supports, and improvement grants for participating
programs to improve their quality.
7.
The QRS will involve program
self study, documentation of the indicators, and on-site observations.
8.
The QRS will ensure the validity
and reliability of the on-site observations and program ratings.
9.
The QRS will award annual
performance bonuses to all participating programs in Levels 2 – 4
based on their rating and program size.
10.
The QRS will provide
accountability for school readiness outcomes for private and public
investments in child care programs that provide quality care and
opportunities for learning.
For more information about
the QRS, check out the Ready 4 K website:
www.ready4k.org
QRS Quality Indicators
The DRAFT Plan for a MN QRS calls for a four-level system that contains quality
indicators at each level. The Plan uses a “building block” design in which a
program must meet all the criteria in one level before moving to the next level.
Separate indicators were developed for licensed family child care programs,
centers and schoolage programs. The following seven categories of quality were
selected because of the professional consensus and strong research base linking
them to both program quality and positive child outcomes.
• Provider Qualifications/Professional Development/Training: A provider’s
knowledge and understanding of early childhood development are central to the
quality of care a child receives The indicators in this category were designed
to recognize the diverse professional development pathways that may lead to high
quality and thus contain options for combinations of formal education,
certification, and community-based training.
• Family Partnerships and Education: Parents are children’s primary and
most important relationship. Communication between providers and families is an
essential ingredient for a successful partnership. Communication should
facilitate sharing about the families’ cultural and childrearing practices,
values and beliefs, and orient families to the program’s policies and practices.
• Licensing Compliance: Licensing provides the regulatory foundation on
which quality programs can be built. MN’s licensing requirements are strong in
the areas of health, safety, and nutrition.
• Child-Provider Ratios: Lower ratios – that is, fewer children per
provider – facilitate more positive interactions and more opportunities for
individual attention. In centers, studies have documented a link between
child-provider ratio and the quality of care observed in the classroom.
• Learning Environment: A substantial body of research documents the
elements of the environment and interactions that are linked to high quality
care and positive child outcomes. The QRS indicators use three alternative tools
to assess quality at different levels of the QRS - accreditation, observations
of the environment, or Head Start Performance Standards.
• Management /Administrative Policies: There is a growing consensus among
professionals in the care and education field that quality depends on the entire
context of a program.
• Program Evaluation: When programs establish a feedback loop to receive
information from staff and families about how well their needs are being met AND
collect information about children’s progress, they are better equipped to plan
and carry out quality improvements.
More information:
Download the ABC's of QRS for
Family Child Care.
Download the ABC's of QRS for Child Care Centers
Download the
ABC's of QRS for School Age Care Programs
Frequently Asked Questions:
The MN Quality Rating
System will provide:
1) clear, concise consumer information on program
quality for parents,
2) a pathway and incentives for providers to improve
their quality,
3) recognition and rewards for quality providers, and
4) accountability for improving child outcomes for public and private
investments in early care and education.
Q:
Who was involved in designing the Minnesota Quality Rating
System?
A: The Ready for K
Coalition (www.ready4k.org),
the Child Care Financing Project (www.gmdca.org),
and the Minnesota Department of Human Services convened a statewide Task
Force to develop the QRS with representatives from family child care and
centers, Head Start, school age care, Child Care Resource and Referral,
professional organizations, teacher educators, licensing, health care, and
early education research.
Q: How will the
quality rating system impact child outcomes?
A: Less than half of young children in Minnesota enter kindergarten
with the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that will set them on a path for
success. (MN Department of Education School Readiness Studies, 2002 and
2003) Minnesota also has the highest percentage in the country of mothers
in the workforce. Numerous studies show that high quality early learning
programs help close the early education achievement gap by helping children
get ready for school and enter with the same set of skills as their peers.
High quality after school programs have also been proven to help close the
education achievement gap.
The key ingredient in
this equation is quality. The MN Quality Rating System will
recognize, market and reward programs as they incorporate best practices
that research has demonstrated boost child outcomes.
Q: Who is calling
for a MN Quality Rating System?
A:
The good news is that new supporters are calling for increased investment to
ensure quality early education choices and parent consumer information.
Business leaders involved in the MN School Readiness Business Advisory
Council, policy makers and the Governor’s office have endorsed rewarding
effective programs that improve child outcomes. The Ready 4 K Coalition
supports a quality rating system to better inform parents, to provide clear
measures for results and to raise the resources needed to ensure that every
child has access to quality care and education.
Q: Will it be
mandatory for licensed programs to participate in the QRS?
A: No. The MN QRS will be a voluntary program.
Q: Which types
of programs will be eligible to participate?
A: All licensed child care and education programs will be invited to
participate, including: child care centers, family child care homes,
preschool programs, and Head Starts. School District sponsored
before-and-after school programs not required to be licensed will also be
invited to participate.
Q: Isn’t this
just one more hoop to jump through? Why would child care programs want to
participate?
A: The MN QRS will be a way for programs to track their progress and
be recognized for providing quality that exceeds licensing requirements.
Many providers in Minnesota already go above and beyond licensing
requirements but currently have no way to be recognized or rewarded. Other
programs do not provide quality services because of lack of the financial
resources needed to boost quality. The quality rating system will identify
specific needs for financing quality improvements and for investing in
quality programs through bonuses and targeted scholarships.
Q: Will there
be assistance available to help my program achieve a higher rating?
A: Yes. One of the advantages a quality rating system offers is the
opportunity for zeroing in on provider needs, and demonstrating the impact
for children of these investments. It is anticipated that new bonuses and
incentives and existing grant programs, training and consultation will be
modified and improved to help providers achieve quality rating goals.
Q: Will the
rating system align with accreditation?
A: Yes. Research confirms that accreditation by a nationally recognized
body is a strong indicator of program quality. The MN QRS will utilize
program accreditation.
Q: Will the
system align with licensing?
A: Yes. Licensing provides a floor for health and safety and a
foundation for building quality. The first level of the MN QRS aligns with
licensing.
Q: Will
providers’ non-credit coursework and training count toward the professional
development qualifications in the rating?
A: Yes.
Q: Is the QRS
just for experienced providers?
A: No. A participating provider’s rating will be based on meeting
the specific standards set out in the MN QRS.
Q: Will child
assessments be used in the ratings?
A:
Child observation will be included in the rating indicators as an
internal program improvement tool.
Providers will achieve higher ratings if they incorporate ongoing child
observation to identify children who need special attention or services and
to make program adjustments and improvements. The evaluation of the QRS
system may also use a random sampling of child assessments from
participating QRS programs. However, individual child assessments
will not be included in the rating
as a measure of individual program quality.
Q: Will this
mean a lot of extra documentation and paperwork on the part of the provider?
A: It will require some extra documentation and paperwork. However,
the MN QRS was developed so that providers do not sacrifice time with
children for paperwork. Therefore, the rating will keep the amount of
documentation and paperwork to a minimum.
Q: How will
parents access and use this information?
A: The QRS provides an easy-to-understand snapshot of a program’s
quality to help parents select care and use the power of consumer choice to
influence the child care marketplace.
States with quality
rating systems provide parent information in many ways such as postings on
websites, magazine articles, state hotlines, and through collaboration
between child care licensing, Child Care Resource and Referral, school
systems, Head Start and other organizations concerned with children’s care
and school readiness.
Q: Where will
funding come from to support the QRS?
A: Many sources will be tapped to support the QRS and programs’
improvement efforts. The Ready 4 K coalition and the Minnesota School
Readiness Business Advisory Council are promoting a new public/private
Minnesota Early Learning Fund which would provide resources for the QRS.
Federal and State funds for provider training, quality improvements, and
parent information could also be re-focused to support the QRS.
Q: How many
states have a quality rating system?
A: Thirty-six (36) states recognize and reward child care providers
for reaching higher levels of quality. In 21 states, more than two levels
of quality are recognized.
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