Recommendations for Child Care Quality Rating Systems

One of the core strategies of the Strive early childhood student success networks in both Ohio and Kentucky is to increase the number of high quality early childhood centers in our area.

The RAND Corporation just came out with a new research brief that discusses the development of quality rating and improvement systems in five states called Quality Rating and Improvement Systems in Five Pioneer States: Implementation Issues and Lessons Learned.

In short, quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) provide simple, independent public ratings of child-care quality along with feedback, technical assistance, and improvement incentives. These systems can inform parental choice and motivate and support quality improvements.

Following is a summary of recommendations from the brief: