• Home »
• Specialized Programs »
• Child Development »
• Resources

CAEL QIS Design Subcommittee Meeting Agenda

California Early Learning Quality Improvement System (CAEL QIS) Advisory Committee

Design Ideas for Licensing, Quality Rating, and Improvement Systems Subcommittee

Dennis Vicars, Chair
Consuelo Espinosa, Vice-Chair

The CAEL QIS Design Ideas for Licensing, Quality Rating, and Improvement Systems Subcommittee met on July 21, 2010 at the California Department of Nutrition Services Division 560 J. St, Sacramento, CA from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm with a video conference site at the Riverside County Office of Education, 2300 Market Street, Riverside, CA, plus 50 video streaming slots. Additional information such as the meeting agenda and work plan are available at CAEL QIS Web page.

Introductions

Welcome and introductions were provided by Dennis Vicars, Subcommittee Chair and CEO of Human Services Management Corporation/PACE. The meeting opened with a brief PowerPoint review of work completed and approved to date by the CAEL QIS Advisory Committee.

Overview

Dennis Vicars presented the following:

• The Design Subcommittee’s charge under SB 1629- Steinberg 2008 to develop options for California’s rating structure and process with support systems to improve quality over time.
• Upcoming meeting dates and Workplan topic areas:
  • Design Oversight - August 18, 2010
• QRS Design Block System and first 5 Elements (Family Involvement, Ratio and Group Size, Teaching and Learning, Program Leadership, and Staff Education and on-going Professional Development) for California QRS.
  • Decisions made by CAEL QIS Advisory Committee, determined California’s QRS will include the following factors:
  • Be based on a block system-each tier building on the previous tier-each tier building on the previous tier
  • Include up to five tiers with an entry level based on Title 22 and moving to aspirational and attainable criteria for Tier 5
  • Include licensed center-based programs and licensed family child care homes using consistent criteria for all programs
  • Include License-Exempt programs that meet all three criteria: operational oversight and responsibility for meeting Title 22 requirements, a district, agency, or entity that holds the liability and there is recourse for families
  • Cultural and language competence will be integrated into all quality elements with special emphasis on family involvement, staff education and training, and teaching and learning
  • Inclusion of children with special needs will be integrated into all quality elements with special emphasis on family involvement, staff education and training, and teaching and learning
  • Nutrition, health and physical activity are included in QRIS through Teaching and Learning quality element
  • California’s QRIS sets quality elements and tiers, third party accreditation and validated performance reviews will be used in conjunction with tiers but not incorporated into tiers
  • Technical assistance with achieving and maintaining the quality improvement plan that is prepared when a program goes through the QRIS process
  • Technical assistance is comprised on both internal and external resources, and technical assistance resources identified locally and regionally
  • Support needs to be greater for entry level programs.
  • Technical assistance is available for all programs, and resources for exempt care providers may include preparation for licensing
  • Technical assistance is done by different groups than assessment and rating to avoid conflicts of interest
  • The importance of a measurement of quality of teacher/child interaction and environment as the criteria for teaching and learning quality element.
  • The use of ECERS for centers, family child care homes and infant toddlers programs as a measure for Tiers 1-5 and the use of Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) for Tiers 4 and 5, to be done in alternating rating periods, as approved by the Committee.
  • The development of a partnership with public and private entities in developing a single assessment tool that measures teacher/child interaction quality and environment
  • Definition of cultural and language competence to be based on Early Childhood Educator Competencies
  • Emphasize quality components in rating system that show stronger links to child outcomes
  • Aim for fewer rather than more components
  • Pilot  and further evaluate components viewed as important but with limited research
  • Experiment in pilot phase with alternative cut points for measures

After the PowerPoint presentation by Dennis Vicars that outlined elements related to California’s Quality Rating Structure, there was a presentation from Nicola Howard from City of Gardena Family Child Care Home Education Network on how a Family Child Care Home Network  operates and ideas on how the networks could implement the QIS system.

After the presentation, Dennis Vicars lead a discussion on oversight and piloting the California Early Learning Quality Improvement Rating System.

Everyone agreed that the long term goal is for all children to have access to quality care. The vision is that participation in the QRS is ultimately mandatory, but initially voluntary, with appropriate funding and incentives available. Ongoing technical assistance using a coaching model as well as other techniques to encourage continuous improvement is being recommended. Technical assistance resources to focus not only on the on the quality of the environment but also areas such as operational, business, fiscal, administration, management, as well as programmatic resources. Technical assistance would be more fundamental in the beginning tiers with movement and more comprehensive or detailed in the higher tiers.

The pilot project will be a 3 to 5 year study. There was a strong voice of concern about the evaluation of the pilot project. The concern is the importance of building the evaluation system along with building the elements for the pilot. The thought is the evaluation system is just as important as the data from the pilot.