Quality Ratings and System Characteristics: Patterns in the Round 1 Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge States. Evaluation Brief. NCEE 2019-4004
Author: Herrmann, Mariesa
Date: 2019-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Legislation,Federal Aid,Federal Legislation,Federal Programs,Program Evaluation,Achievement Rating,Incentive Grants,Early Childhood Education,Educational Policy,State Policy,Preschool Education,Child Care Centers,Program Implementation,State Programs,State Aid,Alternative Assessment,Educational Assessment

The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grants program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), aimed to increase the number of high quality early learning and development programs. RTT-ELC awarded $520 million in the first of three rounds of grants to help states develop and implement systems that rate early learning and development programs based on state-defined quality standards and help them improve on these standards. These systems are known as tiered quality rating and improvement systems (TQRIS). A key objective for RTT-ELC was to increase the number of early learning and development programs in the top rating levels of the TQRIS, and to increase the number of children with high needs, such as those from low-income households, enrolled in those programs. To meet this objective, states could try to encourage more programs to participate in TQRIS and achieve high ratings. The likelihood that programs participate in TQRIS and achieve top rating levels could be influenced by the system characteristics and policies that states have selected for their TQRIS. These characteristics and policies could also affect the accuracy of the ratings as measures of programs' quality. However, little is known about how states' actual implementation of TQRIS characteristics and policies relate to programs' ratings. Understanding the patterns of ratings across states with different characteristics and policies could help inform next steps in the continued testing and development of TQRIS. This brief describes programs' ratings across the nine Round 1 RTT-ELC states, which had different TQRIS characteristics and policies in place during the grant period (2012 to 2016). This brief presents patterns for several key TQRIS characteristics and policies, individual states, and four types of programs: (1) state-funded prekindergarten (pre-K) programs; (2) Head Start programs; (3) licensed centers that received child care subsidies; and (4) licensed centers that did not receive subsidies. The TQRIS characteristics and policies examined include the following: (1) Three policies that could affect the accuracy of programs' ratings at entry: alternative pathways, automatic ratings, and entry level requirements; and (2) Two characteristics and one policy that could affect programs' attainment of top rating levels: the length of time TQRIS had been implemented, the rating structure that determines programs' ratings, and financial incentives that increase as programs reach higher ratings. [Additional contributions to this report were made by Amy Defnet, Adrienne Jones, Juha Sohlberg, and Tara Wildszewski. For the related reports &quot;Moving on Up? Program Quality Ratings under Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge. Evaluation Brief. NCEE 2019-4000,&quot; see ED594514; &quot;Are Ratings from Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems Valid Measures of Program Quality? A Synthesis of Validation Studies from Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge States. NCEE 2019-4001,&quot; see ED594510; and &quot;Implementation of Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems in States That Received Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Grants. Study Highlights,&quot; see ED594516.]