¿Cómo se mide la calidad de los servicios de cuidado infantil?: Guía de herramientas

Abstract

Editorial Design: Círculo Salvo Comunicación | circulosalvo.com

Validity of four measures of child care quality in a national sample of centers in Ecuador

“…We briefly discuss some of them. A more detailed description of these four instruments and their characteristics, costs, advantages and disadvantages is presented in the toolkit by Lopez-Boo and colleagues [4].…”

“…Prices were valid as of December 28, 2015. Further research and prior evidence on psychometric properties in other settings and references to other countries where the tools were implemented can be found in Tables 3 (ITERS-R), 4 (CLASS), 8 (MITRCC) and 9 (CC-IT-HOME) in Lopez-Boo and colleagues [4].…”

“…Both the CLASS (by filming and coding off-site) and the MITRCC (by coding on-site in the center) collect data exclusively through observation, while the other two instruments combine observation with information reported by the caregiver in the classroom under study. Observation demands more time, training and resources than caregiver-report, but generally produces higher-quality data than reported information [4]. Filming and coding off-site has the advantage that the video coder can focus on what is happening with the child, blocking out what is going on around her (e.g., other groups of children who are not part of the sample or the activities of support staff).…”

“…Moreover, several experimental and quasi-experimental studies, particularly those conducted in the U.S. and other developed countries, have shown that the impact of child care centers on child development mostly depends on the quality of the centers, especially their process quality. A toolkit by Lopez-Boo and colleagues [4] provides a meta-analysis of this literature. Process variables characterize the quality of child care routines and interactions between children and caregivers, as well as between children and their peers.…”

“…The instruments ranged in complexity and quality focus and included the Classroom Assessment Scoring System for Toddlers (CLASS) [19], the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised Edition (ITERS-R) [20], the Child Care Infant/Toddler Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (CC-IT-HOME) [21], and the Missouri Infant/Toddler Responsive Caregiving Checklist (MITRCC) [22]. They all have comparable domains of quality and some of them, such as CLASS and ITERS-S have been proven to be strongly predictive of child development (See Lopez Boo and colleagues [4] for a review of the evidence). It is worth noting that CLASS and ITERS-R have been designed for center-based care only, while CC-IT-HOME and MITRCC could be used (in different versions of the instrument) both in center-based and home-based early childhood programs.…”