Resources: Improving the Overall Quality of ECE Programs

• As part of BUILD's effort to support QRIS to reform and strengthen early learning systems, we have created a suite of six resources: QRIS 3.0 Tools 
• The statements in this tool were derived from a project to generate a small number of succinct, evidence-based statements that could be used by policymakers and other leaders promoting the importance of quality in pre-K: Indispensables for Quality Pre-K   
• Over three years, BUILD and CEELO collaborated on the State Policy Learning Table to develop a community of practice to accelerate the process of shifting teaching and learning for improved outcomes for at-risk children. Advancing State Policies and Supports to Promote Effective Teaching and Learning
• How the Five Essentials could be adapted and applied to early childhood settings: Organizational Supports Essential to Improving Early Education Settings
• The Case for Strengthening Organizational Conditions to Improve Early Childhood Care and Education Quality: A New Approach to Policy: The Case for Strengthening Organizational Conditions to Improve Early Childhood Care and Education Quality
• Drawn from the Ounce Investing in Innovation project, this brief makes the case that the field must abandon traditional professional development and replace it with the organizational and sustained support of job-embedded professional learning (JEPL). Reimagining Instructional Leadership and Organizational Conditions for Improvement: Applied Research Transforming Early Education
• Dr. Deborah Daro reviews the evolution of home visiting programs, research evaluating such programs, and suggests strategies to move the field forward. Dr. Daro is a research fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and is a member of the Ounce board of directors.Home Visitation: Assessing Progress, Managing Expectations
• This resource represents a joint effort by the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the Division for Early Childhood (DEC), and Child Care Aware of America. It provides context for the current debate on inclusion but focuses on discussing how states can maximize opportunities in the new CCDBG requirements to promote inclusion. Building Inclusive State Child Care Systems
• What are doulas? Why are they needed? And how can more early childhood programs add doula services? The First Days of Life: Adding Doulas to Early Childhood Programs
• The Expulsion Policy Strategy Tool lays out a rubric for a range of policy options to promote young children’s social-emotional development and reduce the likelihood of expulsion and suspension in early learning settings. The tool is closely aligned with the 2014 Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) reauthorization and can be used to identify strengths and set priorities for action: Suspension and Expulsion Prevention Policy Tool
• The purpose of this guide is to increase understanding of the rationale and bene ts of tribes and states working together on state and local needs assessment and strategic planning to align their respective early childhood systems. Engaging Tribes in the Design and Implementation of Statewide Early Care and Education Systems 
• This report examines how diverse providers access QRIS and the processes built around them, what indicators can be used to better capture program elements that are valuable to immigrant and refugee families, and how the rollout of QRIS in different states has affected these communities. Quality for Whom? Supporting Diverse Children and Workers in Early Childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems

• This policy brief analyses the opportunities ESSA introduced for DLLs and the ECEC workforce. New Opportunities? ESSA and its implications for Dual Language Learners and ECEC Workforce Development

Additional Quality Tools

This page includes tools that states are using to help assess program and classroom quality for continuous improvement. Some of these tools are also used as a basis for recognizing quality in a QRIS framework. If you have ideas of tools to add, please reach out to info@buildinitiative.org.  

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