Review of Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Programs for Child Care Services
November 2009
The Washington Department of Early Learning is considering adoption of a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) which would offer financial incentives to private licensed child care providers who agree to strengthen the way they care for young children. The goal would be to improve social, emotional and cognitive development for young children in child care and insure these children are ready to learn as they enter kindergarten.
Any of Washington’s 7,400 licensed child care providers who accept the state’s definition of “quality care” would be eligible for these incentives. Currently, the Department of Early Learning and its non-profit partner Thrive by Five Washington, are field testing its “Seeds to Success” QRIS pilot program in Clark, Kitsap, Spokane, Yakima and King Counties. Once the model is tested and refined, the Department will consider extending it to all providers.
Adopting a statewide QRIS program is not a new idea. Over the years, a number of states have used QRIS programs in an effort to enhance child care services and improve children’s readiness to learn. Before adopting a full QRIS program in Washington, it is important for policymakers and the public to learn from existing state programs, so Department of Early Learning managers can build on the successes, and not repeat the mistakes, of officials in other states.
This study reviews the availability and cost of child care services in Washington, presents current research on the effectiveness of QRIS programs, describes examples of QRIS programs operating in other states and, based on
these findings, proposes an alternative model for informing parents and achieving high-quality child care services in Washington.
• Since 1998, eighteen states have implemented Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) in an effort to evaluate and raise the quality of private child care facilities.
• The elements which QRIS programs measure do not measure actual early development and educational outcomes for children.
• No empirical research exists which links QRIS systems to improved child outcomes or kindergarten readiness.
• QRIS programs are expensive and complicated to administer.
• QRIS ratings are limited in scope and often not shared with the public, so they cannot guide decision-making by parents and families.
• An alternative rating system could be designed to give parents objective facts and information about child care facilities, similar to the model offered by GreatSchools.net. Such a model would allow parents, not a centralized state agency, to decide which features and characteristics of a child care facility are most important to them.
If state QRIS programs are not proving effective at improving early childhood development, improving kindergarten readiness, managing costs or guiding parents, the question naturally arises: What kind of quality-rating system would be of most use to parents, caregivers and state program managers?
Policymakers should consider an alternative approach: a rating system focused on providing fact-based, timely information about child care facilities that is easily available to parents and caregivers.
A model for this kind of rating system is GreatSchools.net, a website that provides clear, objective nationwide information about elementary and high schools within five miles of a given zip code. The site includes a five-star rating system providing information in the categories of principal leadership, teacher quality, extracurricular activities, parent involvement, and safety and discipline. Both public and private schools are rated and the site includes a school’s location, student diversity, class sizes, per-student spending, test scores and other factors.
The purpose of GreatSchools.net is to provide parents with neutral but important facts to help them make a decision, leaving the ultimate determination of educational quality to them. Some families may feel location and student diversity are most important, while others may wish to choose a school based on class size or per-student spending. The information provided is objective, but the weight given to each factor is left to the parents.
Read or download the full Policy Brief here (pdf)
You can also read or download the shorter Policy Note version here (pdf)
