2-011 - Learning Collaboratives and CQI come to Early Childhood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

“Health services are in the process of transitioning from a professional model characterized by individual responsibility, professional autonomy, and accountability to a transformational model characterized by shared responsibility and collaborative decision making, continuous improvement, and learning.” (Upshaw et al. 2012).
Across a range of sectors, from business and organizational management to health care and education, movement from a compliance-focused approach to continuous quality improvement (CQI) is founded on using data to determine the best techniques and strategies to achieve targeted outcomes. Managers and workers are expected to collect and use information to guide and improve productivity, service quality, and the “personalization” of services. These transformational approaches (sometimes called Breakthrough Series Learning Collaboratives) seek to create a culture of quality improvement that spans management, service providers, and recipients. Recent efforts aim to bring these approaches to early childhood care and education programs.
The proposed symposium provides three examples of efforts to apply quality improvement methods to early childhood care and education to (1) decrease childhood obesity, (2) promote the use of trauma-informed practice and (3) improve preschool quality and children’s language outcomes in Chile. Our proposed discussant, a medical doctor and the federal lead for the Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network, will provide feedback on the papers and highlight lessons learned for policy, practice, and research. The chair will facilitate a lively discussion with the audience.

Sub Unit

• Methods, History, Theory

Chair

• Kimberly Boller, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Discussant

• Carlos Cano

Individual Presentations

• Innovations to Promote Healthy Weight: Applying Continuous Improvement Methods to Build Bridges from the Clinic to the Community - Presenting Author: Marianne McPherson, N/A; Shikha Anand, National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality; Charles Homer, National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality

• A Breakthrough Series Collaborative to Support Trauma-Informed Practice in Early Childhood Programs - Presenting Author: Anne L. Douglass, University of Massachusetts, Boston

• Improving Child Outcomes: A CQI Learning Collaborative among Public Preschools in Chile - Presenting Author: MaryCatherine Arbour, Harvard University; Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University; Ernesto Trevino Villareal, Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación, Universidad Diego Portales; Francis Romina Duran Mellado, Fundacion Educacional Oportunidad; Francisca Romo, Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación, Universidad Diego Portales; Felipe Godoy Ossa, Centro de Políticas Comparadas de Educación, Universidad Diego Portales