Progress and Challenges in Developing Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems in the Round 1 Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge States (In Focus Brief)
Download
Associated Project
Evaluating Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants
Prepared for:
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
Key Findings
Key Findings:
- Eight of the nine states had a statewide TQRIS in place by 2015.
- States promoted participation in TQRIS in several ways. States made participation mandatory for certain programs, such as public prekindergarten programs or Head Start programs. States provided alternate pathways into higher rating levels. States offered financial incentives tied to higher ratings.
- States used different methods to calculate ratings, some of which changed over time.
- States used various sources of evidence to collect the information needed to rate programs, and they developed processes and standards to help ensure the reliability of this information.
This brief describes states’ progress in developing and implementing systems that rate early childhood education programs on quality and help them improve. These systems are known as tiered quality rating and improvement systems (TQRIS). The brief focuses on the nine states that received the Round 1 Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grants, which encouraged the development and implementation of TQRIS. These nine states differed substantially in the ways that they structured and implemented, promoted participation in, and rated and monitored programs in their TQRIS.
More like this from Mathematica
Featured Publication
Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund: Benefits, Costs, and Economic Returns
How do you apply evidence?
Take our quick four-question survey to help us curate evidence and insights that serve you.
Take our survey