2-044 - Are QRIS Ratings Related to Observed Quality and Children’s Development? Evidence from Three State QRIS Validation Studies

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

State Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are designed to promote and improve the quality of early care and education programs with the ultimate goal of supporting children’s school readiness. QRIS have proliferated in recent years and are now in place in over 40 states/localities. Federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grants awarded to 20 states from 2011-2013 resulted in increased investments in implementation and evaluation of QRIS. The papers in this symposium report on the state context and results from three QRIS validation studies conducted in Delaware, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The studies were structured to meet provisions in the RTT-ELC grants requiring states to examine whether the QRIS ratings are functioning as expected. Each paper reports on two aspects of QRIS validation: (1) how QRIS ratings are associated with independent measures of observed quality, and (2) how children’s participation in early care and education programs (including family child care programs and child care centers) rated at different levels of quality is associated with developmental gains in the year before kindergarten. The three studies each find associations between the QRIS ratings and measures of observed quality. Associations between ratings and children’s development were not prevalent, however, with only one study reporting significant child-level results. Panelists will address the implications of the findings for quality measurement in state QRIS design. The discussant will describe the larger national context for the validation studies and options for QRIS revisions that may better align with children’s developmental outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Chair

• Kelly Maxwell, Child Trends

Discussant

• Ivelisse Martinez-Beck, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families

Individual Presentations

• Validation of Minnesota’s Quality Rating and Improvement System - Presenting Author: Kathryn Tout, Child Trends; Jennifer Cleveland, Child Trends; Weilin Li, Child Trends; Rebecca Starr, Child Trends; Margaret Soli, Child Trends; Erin Bultinck, Child Trends

• Validation of Delaware's Stars for Early Success - Presenting Author: Lynn Karoly, RAND; Heather Schwartz, RAND Corporation

• Wisconsin Early Child Care Study Findings on the Validity of YoungStar’s Rating Scale - Presenting Author: Katherine Magnuson, University of Wisconsin; Ying-Chun Lin, University of Wisconsin-Madison