Office of Early Childhood Programs August 20, 2010

Hilton Miami Airport

• Dr. Marisel Elias-Miranda– Administrative Director, Office of Early

Childhood Programs• Dr. Magaly Abrahante

– Assistant Superintendent• Blythe Robinson

– Sr Director of Programs, Early Learning Coalition

Welcome - Introductions

Session Overview

• Ready Schools and Quality Counts• History and Rationale of Quality Counts• Quality Counts process• Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales-

Revised (ECERS-R)• Resources• Q & A• Closing

Ready Schools Miami and Quality Counts

• RSM> school improvement– Cannot succeed if early care and learning is not of high quality

• Quality Counts goal– Raise quality of early care enough to improve children’s school

readiness (community-wide)– Quality Rating Improvement System-QRIS

• RSM and QC collaboration– Align early care and elementary education

• RSM partner schools– Menu now includes Quality Counts

– Many of your schools began with Quality Counts already

• RSM activities can support your participation in Quality Counts – Master’s program, now including Early Childhood– School leadership teams

• Quality Counts supports– Orientations for school teams – Train-the-Trainer for Curriculum Specialists– Trainings: QC Self-Study. Environment Rating Scales. Quality

Improvement Plans– Data management WELS-Web-based Early Learning System

• Funders– The Children’s Trust, the Early Learning Coalition, Early

Childhood Initiative Foundation/Ready Schools Miami

QRIS National Picture

• Obama administration• National solution to a national problem• Powerful tool to shape practice and

professional development• Maximize resources to create an

integrated system• OPRE Study and Miami-Dade County

Florida QRIS History

• Early Learning Coalitions 1999 – How to really improve early care and education?– ELC Board includes M-DCPS representation: Dr. Abrahante

• Studied other state QRIS models • FL Coalitions and CSCs got going:

– Palm Beach, Tampa, Jax, Broward, Miami-Dade– Miami-Dade CSC (Children’s Trust) convened stakeholders to

design our QRIS system

• Voluntary Multi-County QRIS Collaborative– Common standards, endorsed by Office of Early Learning – Now some 16 ELC communities involved (of 31)

• Quality Counts “brand” adopted by most of FL

Big Picture• Comprehensive

– Strategic and community-wide approach to improved early care and education

– Increase the knowledge and skills of teachers– Increase children’s readiness for school

• Universal accountability: Common standards and benchmarks

• System-building– Coordinate private industry + Head Start + public school– Leverage funding– Work with statewide QRIS and Professional Development – Seamless transition into public schools via Ready Schools

initiative

What community buy-in does Quality Counts have?

Centers FCC RCMA Head Start

MDCPS VPK

Totals

Participating 262 70 6 80 35 453

Children 0-5 19,650 350 900 6,800 700 28,400

Teachers 3,930 70 120 960 70 5,150

Wait list (6/1/10): 163 centers, 30 family child care (FCC)

1/3 of the field is participating

5 Star Standards for M-DCPS

• Staff Qualifications• Learning Environment

– Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS)

• Curriculum• Family Engagement

MDCPS standards are a modified to meet your program design – differ from center-based care

Quality Counts Process

• Schools elect to participate• Connect with Curriculum Support

Specialist – Office of Early Childhood Programs

• Activities coordinated by ELC “Hub”• Access training• QC System Partner meetings

– Help build the system

Quality Counts Process cont’d

• Self-Study– Understand the QC standards and the Environment

Rating Scales– Self-assess your status at the start of the process

• Baseline assessment– Receive full report identifying strengths as well as

challenges

• Quality Improvement Plan– Teacher enhancement of classroom climate and

curriculum – Support from administration for facility needs

Assessment

• Setting up an assessment visit– Consultation from QC offered prior to assessment– Have Self-Study materials accessible– Give black-out dates and best window for site

• Using results– Baseline assessment is to inform your Quality

Improvement Plan– No publicizing of the baseline or of later ratings

without express permission (no plans to do so)– ALL early care and learning programs have strengths

and challenges

Environment Rating Scales

Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales-Revised (ECERS-R)

Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scales-Revised (ITERS-R)

Family Child care Environment Rating Scales-Revised (FCCERS-R)

What is the ECERS-R?

ECERS-R Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – RevisedFor programs serving children ages 2 ½ through 5

1st edition 1980Revised 1998

The Authors

• Research Professor at the School of Education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill since 1975.

• Consulted with NAEYC in the development of the center accreditation instruments.

• Co-Author of NAEYC School Aged child care assessment tool.

• Co-Author of the 10 part TV series “Raising America’s Children.”

Thelma Harms, Ph.D.

Lead Author of the ERS and the “All About” books

Director of Curriculum Development at the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina

The Authors• Lectures on ERS worldwide.

• Has studied and written about early childhood quality for over 20 years.

• Studies real world issues and translates research findings into practice.

• Co-Author of award winning 10 part TV series “Raising America’s Children.”

• Principal Investigator in the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers Study.

Debby Cryer, Ph.D.

Co-Author of the ERS and the“All About” books

Scientist at FPG Child Development Institute, UNC – Chapel Hill.

The Authors

Dr. Richard CliffordCo-Author of the ERS. Senior Investigator at FPG Child Development Institute, UNC

• Co-Director of the First School Initiative at FPG – UNC.

• Past President of NAEYC • Former Co-Director of:

– National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL)– Early Childhood Leadership Development Program.

The Authors• Trainer, TA specialist.

• Served as a research assistant for the Army Family Child Care Accreditation Project; developed and implemented a model accreditation system for Army, Navy, and Marine family child care.

• Helped establish a system of reliability as well as a system to train all assessors throughout North Carolina.

Cathy Riley, M.S.

Co-Author of the “All About” books

Has worked at FPG Child Development Institute for over 15 years.

Why was the ERS chosen?

• The Scales translate research and professional judgments about BEST PRACTICES into a structure for assessing the quality of early care and education services.

• The Environment Rating Scales have a long history of use in research projects. There are over 200 references of research articles in which the ECERS/ECERS-R was used.

Why do we care about ECERS-R ratings?

• Three and four year old children who attended quality care programs scored better on math, language, and social skills development through the early elementary years than children in poor-quality care, regardless of whether they came from high-income or low-income homes.

What does ECERS-R measure?

• Process quality in settings for children

• Process quality refers to the experiences of children within the early care and learning environment including their interactions with others, materials, and activities

What makes up a QUALITY early care and education program?

High quality care environments for children must provide for three basic needs that all children have:

1. Protection of health and safetyIf you don’t feel safe you can’t relax enough to learn.

What makes up a QUALITY early care and education program?

2. Building positive relationships

Children need warm responsive relationships with trusted teachers, and need help learning how to get along with others

What makes up a QUALITY early care and education program?

– Reading about how to drive a car is not the same as actually driving a car. We learn more from the actual experience.

– Reading a recipe is very different from actually following the recipe when cooking.

3. Opportunities for stimulation and learning from experience

ECERS-R

• Focuses on social and learning outcomes.

• The score gives a measure of overall quality in the room.

• “It is the AVERAGE TOTAL SCORE that is related to positive child development, not any of the single requirements.”

All About the ECERS-R, xii

Who is currently using the ERS?

• The ECERS-R is currently being used in major studies including: – Head Start/Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences

Survey (FACES 2003) – Georgia Early Care Study (GECS) – More at Four (MAF) Evaluation in North Carolina, National

Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) – Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD) – Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Program (PCER)

Who uses these scales?

The ECERS-R and ITERS-R are being used in research programs in Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Iceland, Portugal, England, Spain, Austria, and China, to name a few.

In England, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Austria, higher scores on the Environment Rating Scales have been shown to be related to more positive child development outcomes (Melhuish & Petrogiannis, 1996).

Who is Devereux?

• Devereux has existed since the early 1900’s providing mental and behavioral health services to children and adults throughout the nation

• Devereux is a large not-for-profit agency in Florida and throughout the country

• Contracted in Miami-Dade and other FL counties to provide Quality Counts formal assessment

The Assessors

Assessors• Assessors have been trained and have

established reliability with the Authors of the ERS.

• Every 6 to 10 assessments, inter-rater reliability checks are conducted.

• Devereux Assessors maintain reliability scores over 90%.

• Annually they participate in an inter-rater reliability re-checks with the ERS authors.

• When there are two assessors in a classroom, that means that a reliability check is taking place.

Preparethe

children

Next Steps

If interested in Quality Counts

• Receive copies of the ECERS-R and All About the ECERS-R today

• Sign up for Quality Counts orientation c/o Office of Early Childhood Programs

• Stay tuned for additional QC trainings

• Respond to MDCPS inventory of PD needs

Q&A Discussion

• Modesto E. Abety– President/CEO of The

Children’s Trust

• Dr. Marisel Elias-Miranda

Closing

Contact InformationEarly Learning Coalition: www.elcmdm.org

Children’s Trust: www.thechildrenstrust.org/quality-counts-qris

Pamela Hollingsworth, Director of Quality Counts, Early Learning Coalition Miami-Dade Monroe 305-646-7220 x284 phollingsworth@elcmdm.org

Nicole Lopez Bardin, Data-Workflow Manager, Early Learning Coalition 305-646-7220 x223 nbardin@elcmdm.org

Dr. Jesse Leinfelder, Quality Counts Administrator, The Children’s Trust 305-571-5700 x238 jesse@thechildrenstrust.org

Dr. Michele Kaplan, Early Childhood Program Manager, Devereux FL 954-962-1225 x205 mkaplan@devereux.org