Identifying baseline and ceiling thresholds within the Qualistar Early Learning Quality Rating and Improvement System

Le, Vi-Nhuan; Schaack, Diana; Setodji, Claude Messan

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.03.003

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…However, research suggests that overall ERS ratings are more strongly linked to student outcomes than individual subscales or factors (Brunsek et al, 2017), which provides further justification for our use of overall ratings as an outcome of interest. Recent work has also found that different ERS thresholds are more salient across different outcomes, and some outcomes don't lend themselves to any specific thresholds (Le, Schaack, & Setodji, 2015). Despite this, the thresholds examined here allow us to leverage the meaningful incentive contrasts embedded within North Carolina's QRIS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

The Effects of Accountability Incentives in Early Childhood Education

Bassok¹,

Dee²,

Latham³

2017

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In an effort to enhance the quality of early childhood education (ECE) at scale, nearly all U.S. states have recently adopted Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). These accountability systems give providers and parents information about program quality and create both reputational and financial incentives for program improvement. However, we know little about whether these accountability reforms operate as theorized. This study provides the first empirical evidence on this question using data from North Carolina, a state with a mature QRIS. Using a regression discontinuity design, we examine how assignment to a lower quality rating influenced subsequent outcomes of ECE programs. We find that programs responded to a lower quality rating with comparative performance gains, including improvement on a multi-faceted measure of classroom quality. Programs assigned to a lower star rating also experienced enrollment declines, which is consistent with the hypothesis that parents responded to information about program quality by selectively enrolling away from programs with lower ratings. These effects were concentrated among programs that faced higher levels of competition from nearby providers. C 2019 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.1 Here and throughout the article, we use the term "ECE" broadly, to include any center-based child care provider, including those that are independently operated, part of a franchise, affiliated with Head Start, or any other local/state/federal initiative, religious-sponsored, or operated by any other agency.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

The Effects of Accountability Incentives in Early Childhood Education

Bassok¹,

Dee²,

Latham³

2017

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“…Studies looking at Approach [15,29,52,68,69,75,100], Cognitive [4,5,27,29,30,34,48,50,53,66,68–70,75,77,80,84,85,92,94,98–100,102–106], and Positive Behavior outcomes [11,13,15,27,29,30,33,35,44,45,50–53,60–62,64,68–70,74,75,77,80,81,85–88,92–94,96,98,100,102–106,108] showed very few significant associations with ECERS/ECERS-R total scores. Several studies included outcomes that combined various developmental screeners (labeled ‘Combination’ in S4 File).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale and its revised form and child outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Brunsek¹,

Perlman²,

Falenchuk³

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and its revised version (ECERS-R) were designed as global measures of quality that assess structural and process aspects of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs. Despite frequent use of the ECERS/ECERS-R in research and applied settings, associations between it and child outcomes have not been systematically reviewed. The objective of this research was to evaluate the association between the ECERS/ECERS-R and children’s wellbeing. Searches of Medline, PsycINFO, ERIC, websites of large datasets and reference sections of all retrieved articles were completed up to July 3, 2015. Eligible studies provided a statistical link between the ECERS/ECERS-R and child outcomes for preschool-aged children in ECEC programs. Of the 823 studies selected for full review, 73 were included in the systematic review and 16 were meta-analyzed. The combined sample across all eligible studies consisted of 33, 318 preschool-aged children. Qualitative systematic review results revealed that ECERS/ECERS-R total scores were more generally associated with positive outcomes than subscales or factors. Seventeen separate meta-analyses were conducted to assess the strength of association between the ECERS/ECERS-R and measures that assessed children’s language, math and social-emotional outcomes. Meta-analyses revealed a small number of weak effects (in the expected direction) between the ECERS/ECERS-R total score and children’s language and positive behavior outcomes. The Language-Reasoning subscale was weakly related to a language outcome. The enormous heterogeneity in how studies operationalized the ECERS/ECERS-R, the outcomes measured and statistics reported limited our ability to meta-analyze many studies. Greater consistency in study methodology is needed in this area of research. Despite these methodological challenges, the ECERS/ECERS-R does appear to capture aspects of quality that are important for children’s wellbeing; however, the strength of association is weak.

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“…However, research suggests that overall ERS ratings are more strongly linked to student outcomes than individual subscales or factors (Brunsek et al., ), which provides further justification for our use of overall ratings as an outcome of interest. Recent work has also found that different ERS thresholds are more salient across different outcomes, and some outcomes don't lend themselves to any specific thresholds (Le, Schaack, & Setodji, ). Despite this, the thresholds examined here allow us to leverage the meaningful incentive contrasts embedded within North Carolina's QRIS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Accountability Incentives in Early Childhood Education

Bassok¹,

Dee²,

Latham³

2019

J Policy Anal Manage

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In an effort to enhance the quality of early childhood education (ECE) at scale, nearly all U.S. states have recently adopted Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). These accountability systems give providers and parents information about program quality and create both reputational and financial incentives for program improvement. However, we know little about whether these accountability reforms operate as theorized. This study provides the first empirical evidence on this question using data from North Carolina, a state with a mature QRIS. Using a regression discontinuity design, we examine how assignment to a lower quality rating influenced subsequent outcomes of ECE programs. We find that programs responded to a lower quality rating with comparative performance gains, including improvement on a multi‐faceted measure of classroom quality. Programs assigned to a lower star rating also experienced enrollment declines, which is consistent with the hypothesis that parents responded to information about program quality by selectively enrolling away from programs with lower ratings. These effects were concentrated among programs that faced higher levels of competition from nearby providers.

show abstract

Identifying baseline and ceiling thresholds within the Qualistar Early Learning Quality Rating and Improvement System

Cited by 24 publications

References 32 publications

The Effects of Accountability Incentives in Early Childhood Education

The Effects of Accountability Incentives in Early Childhood Education

The relationship between the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale and its revised form and child outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The Effects of Accountability Incentives in Early Childhood Education

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