virginia’s vision for a unified quality improvement system
TRANSCRIPT
Quality Matters
Virginia’s Vision for a Unified Quality Improvement System
October 28, 2020
Objectives and AgendaAs a result of this presentation, participants will:
1. Understand the legislation, timeline and process for developing Virginia’s unified measurement and
improvement system
2. Reflect on why quality matters and guiding principles
3. Provide perspectives and engage in discussions to help with next steps
Agenda:
• Virginia’s Approach for Quality Improvement
• The 5ws
• Guiding Principles: What we care about
• Reflection : Getting Your Perspective
• Nuts and Bolts :Building the Unified Measurement and Improvement System
• Timeline and Process
• Questions and Feedback
Virginia’s Approach for Quality Improvement
Our Shared ChallengeAll Virginia children are capable of and deserve to enter school ready. Yet more than 37,000 children entered Virginia kindergarten without the full opportunity to fulfill their potential.
• According to the 2019 Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP), 44% of Virginia children started school without having the opportunity to have built key literacy, math, and social-emotional skills.
• Most concerning is our system failed to prepare 55% of children from economically disadvantaged families and 66% of children with special needs.
• Virginia ranks 33rd nationally in preschool funding; 1 in 3 at-risk four-year-olds and 3 out of 4 at-risk three-year-olds lack access to quality preschool (~47,000 Virginia children annually).
• 75% of Virginia’s early childhood programs that receive public funding do not participate in the state’s voluntary quality measurement system; vulnerable families as well as policymakers, practitioners and community leaders do not have uniform information on quality.
• Virginia ranks 37th nationally in early childhood governance and lacks a uniform oversight and regulatory framework, making it difficult for communities to strengthen their local systems.
Why a uniform measurement and improvement system? Public early childhood dollars serve our most vulnerable infants, toddlers and preschoolers. If we build and fund a system that:
• Empowers every educator with individualized feedback, support and resources to continually improve as professionals;
• Equips every leader to support continual improvement through access to classroom-level information and aligned resources;
• Aligns preparation and professional development resources to address the needs of every leader, educator and child; and
• Offers every family a quality option that meets their needs;
Then our most vulnerable children will thrive, with equitable opportunity to develop the skills needed to be ready for school.
What is the uniform measurement and improvement system? It is a new system that will focus on the quality of all publicly-funded infant, toddler, and preschool classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across different program types.
● The new unified system reflects multi-year effort to rethink Virginia’s Early Childhood System.
● Executive Directive Four intensified the call for unification and engaged hundreds of stakeholders.
● Governor Northam signed legislation in July 2020, formalizing the call to:○ Move oversight for early childhood to the VDOE,○ Establish a new Early Childhood Advisory Committee, and○ Create a Uniform Measurement and Improvement System.
Who will be required to participate?
All publicly funded providers will be required to participate in the new unified system.
In Virginia, this includes :
• Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI)• Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE)• Title I Preschool• Head Start/Early Head Start• Child Care Centers and Family Day Homes that
participate in the child care subsidy program.
Early childhood programs that do not receive any public funds will have the option to participate.
When will the new unified system be in place? Together we will develop and scale the new system over the next three years. This will include two years of practice with the new system.
• All programs will have a chance to participate in at least one practice year.
• In 2021-2022, the first set of programs will participate in a practice year.
By fall 2023, all publicly-funded programs will participate with ratings shared in fall 2024.
How will this strengthen Virginia’s ECE system?
Virginia’s new unified measurement and improvement system will help build a stronger early care and education system in the Commonwealth.
Our unified measurement and improvement system will...
• Create a “true north” for quality;
• Provide useful data for educators and stakeholders;
• Align and strengthen infrastructure to support quality improvement;
• Enable collaboration across program types;
• Deepen family engagement by making program quality understandable and comparable; and
• Demonstrate the positive impact of early childhood in order to increase investment.
Guiding Principles: What We Care About
Virginia’s Investment in Measuring Quality
Virginia Star
Quality
Initiative
2008
Head Start
Revised
Performance
Standards
2012
Virginia
Quality (VQ)
and VPI+
Grant
2015
Preschool
Development
Grant (PDG
B-5) and VPI
Legislation
2018
PDG B-5
Renewal &
Expansion
2020
Virginia has a long standing commitment to measuring and supporting quality improvement in early care settings.
Quality Interactions Matter
More than 200 research studies have shown that children in classrooms with high quality teacher-child interactions as measured by CLASS® have better academic and social outcomes.
✔ Math and Literacy Gains
✔ Social and Emotional Gains
✔ Cognitive Gains
✔ Classroom Engagement
A Common Theme: Teacher-Child Interactions Virginia is measuring and supporting teacher-child interactions across all early learning settings, providing feedback where it is needed most.
Other Quality Indicators Used
Provisions
for Children
with Special
Needs
Staff
Compensation
& Benefits
Accreditation
Ratio &
Group
Size
Health &
Safety
Curriculum
Child
Assessment
Family
Engagement
Program
Management
EnvironmentStaff
Qualifications &
Training
From BUILD QRIS Compendium
Community
Involvement
Cultural &
Linguistic
Diversity
Wraparound
Services
Developmental
Screening
Proposed Guiding Principles Using Virginia’s strong starting point as a basis, we should establish a set of guiding principles to inform the design and implementation of the new system.
Virginia’s Unified Measurement and Improvement System should:
• Impact quality and result in improved school readiness for children.
• Use measures that can distinguish levels of quality and demonstrate growth over
time.
• Provide clear, actionable information, resources and incentives for improvement.
• Be affordable for providers and the state.
• Scale for use in over 6,000 programs and 10,000 classrooms.
• Increase equity in 1) the outcomes that are measured, and 2) the process for
making and using the system.
Reflection
As we begin to develop our new unified quality measurement and improvement system, we’d like to get your thoughts and perspectives about our guiding principles.
POLL QUESTION - Which guiding principles do you feel are particularly important for the development of Virginia’s new unified measurement and improvement system?
Additional thoughts and perspectives can be shared in this survey.
Nuts and Bolts: Building the System
Data Driven Decision Making
We will review existing Virginia program and classroom level data on quality elements to develop a proposal for a unified approach to measurement and improvement.
Virginia’s Data Sources
• Preschool Development Grant (PDG) and LinkB5 Data Portal
• VPI program and observation data
• Virginia Quality
• Head Start
• Other sources as applicable
Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five
Virginia is using its four year, $43 million dollar Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five (PDG B-5) to build a more unified birth-to-five system at the local level.
• Most funding goes directly to local communities. • There are two cohorts of community networks,
representing approximately 60% of communities.
PDG B-5 Communities are funded to: 1. Build collaborative relationships across programs2. Increase access by collecting community-level information3. Strengthen the quality of programs by providing feedback and aligned
supports for improvement4. Support family engagement in early learning experiences.
PDG B-5: Laying the Groundwork
PDG pilot communities are laying the groundwork for a coordinated and unified early childhood system by:
• Gathering accurate counts of children birth-5 served across programs;• Observing and coaching educators using CLASS;• Collecting uniform data via a new unified data portal (LinkB5); • Assessing effective methods to engage families; and• Promoting teacher retention through an educator incentive program.
PDG B-5 communities will be the first to participate in the practice years for the unified measurement and improvement system. The application for the third PDG B-5 cohort will be in spring 2021.
Timeline & Process - Fall 2020We will begin to design our unified system in fall 2020.
Data and Policy ● Develop proposals based on national research and current Virginia landscape.
● Review and model current quality data from Virginia.● Finalize proposed set of measures.
Engagement and Feedback
● Conduct stakeholder engagement webinars and presentations. ● Host listening sessions and phone calls. ● Conduct statewide survey for input.
Timeline & Process - Winter/Spring 2021We will finalize the methodology and implementation plan for the first practice year of the unified rating and measurement system in winter/spring 2021.
Data and Policy ● Use data from fall 2020 to test proposed set of measures. ● Develop policy proposal based on feedback and data modeling.● Share policy with Early Childhood Advisory Committee and the
Board of Education by July 2021.
Engagement and Feedback
● Continue stakeholder engagement through webinars, presentations and listening sessions.
● Seek input on proposal through Early Childhood Advisory Committee.
● Work with PDG communities (cohorts 1-3) to prepare for practice year 1.
Timeline & Process - 2021-2022 School Year
Select Virginia communities will begin the first practice year for the unified system in fall 2021. We will review the data and make revisions based on what we learn.
Data and Policy ● Practice year 1 begins with PDG Pilot Communities ● Review data from practice year to inform needed revisions and
gather feedback on unified system. ● Bring any necessary revisions to the EC Advisory Committee and
Board of Education by July 2022 and prepare for practice year 2.
Engagement and Feedback
● Share routine updates on progress of practice year with EC Advisory Committee and other stakeholders.
● Work with PDG communities (cohorts 1-4) to prepare for practice year 2.
Question & Answer
We’d like your help….
● Please share your questions, thoughts and perspectives with us by responding to this short survey
● Stay up to date on the latest information by signing up for VDOE’s Readiness Connections Newsletter
Kris Meyers Associate Director of Quality Measurement and Improvement