1-107 - New Insights on Quality and Access in Early Care and Education: Lessons from QRIS Data

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

In response to increasing evidence highlighting the importance of high quality early care and education (ECE) for promoting children's development (e.g., Keys et al., 2013), many states have invested in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), which are designed to promote the availability and accessibility of high quality ECE by (a) monitoring quality, (b) supporting continuous quality improvement, and (c) providing information about quality to families (Zellman & Perlman, 2008). Despite their growing popularity, limited studies have addressed how QRIS support quality improvement efforts, and whether QRIS promote the availability of quality programs for families.

This symposium showcases how data collected from state QRIS--unique in that they track rich information on ECE programs--can be utilized to answer new questions about quality at scale. The first paper leverages the richness of data from Oregon’ statewide QRIS to identify common factors in measuring quality across home- and center-based programs, and across toddler and PreK ages. The remaining three papers leverage longitudinal measures in QRIS data to examine how availability and quality changed across a state system. The second paper investigates whether administrative supports available for home-based ECE providers in Delaware’s QRIS improve programs’ observational global quality. The third paper examines whether programs more highly rated on Maryland’s QRIS became more available in disadvantaged and/or advantaged communities over time. Using data from Tennessee’s QRIS, the fourth paper studies changes in the availability of home-based ECE programs over a 14-year period, and the extent these programs successfully engaged in quality improvement efforts.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Chairs

• Lieny Jeon, Johns Hopkins University

• Justin Brian Doromal, University of Virginia

Individual Presentations

• Identifying Commonality in Observed Quality across Home- and Center-Based Early Learning Programs - Presenting Author: Shannon Lipscomb, Oregon State University-Cascades; Non-Presenting Author: Roberta Weber, Oregon State University; Non-Presenting Author: Beth Green, Portland State University; Non-Presenting Author: Lindsey Patterson, Portland State University

• Impact of Delaware’s Quality Rating and Improvement System on Family Child Care Learning Environments - Presenting Author: Jing Tang, University of Delaware

• Equity in Access: Availability of Quality Early Care and Education in Disadvantaged and Advantaged Communities - Presenting Author: Lieny Jeon, Johns Hopkins University; Non-Presenting Author: Tonya Satchell, Johns Hopkins University; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Dale, Johns Hopkins University; Non-Presenting Author: R Christopher Swanson, Johns Hopkins University

• Changes in the Availability and Quality of Licensed Tennessee Family Child Care Providers from 2002-2015 - Presenting Author: Justin Brian Doromal, University of Virginia