Child Care

Improving The Quality Of Child Care

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 04:57 PM

WHAT MIGHT BE DONE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF CHILD CARE?
A wide variety of approaches might be used to improve child care. Figure 7 provides a path model that attempts to identify the various links between interventions and quality, taking into account parents? resources.

Most of the interventions would be included in the elements of the left column. These include the provision of information, licensing requirements, placement activities, subsidies to compensate child care workers, training programs for providers, tuition subsidies for students who enroll in early childhood education, increased tax credits to cover the cost of care for lower- to middle-income families, incentive payments to individual teachers and assistants who remain in the same center for a minimum of 3?4 years, and even direct provision of care. In the longer run, we need research to help better identify those factors that best improve the quality of child care. In essence, we need better understanding of the production of high-quality care, which may differ for children of different backgrounds.

The minimum roles for the public sector are as providers of information on available slots, hours of operation, structural quality features, costs of care and education, and training of personnel. The government might also establish a certification program to certify providers who met certain requirements. Minimum standards need to be strengthened in many states. Incentives might be offered to providers who meet certain requirements. Other government activities to increase the availability of high-quality care include operation of training programs and covering the cost of instructors and facilities for these programs. Information on the successful completion of such programs could be disseminated by the public sector as part of its information activities.

A more ambitious role designed to increase the pool of well-qualified individuals who enter (and remain) in the field of early childhood education would be some form of tuition subsidy for those willing to major in this field. There is a long tradition of such programs when shortages are feared; examples include nursing education and medical school. An alternative might be a college loan forgiveness program based on years spent as a child care provider following college, or Associate degree completion. Another approach to increasing the pool of qualified providers is to raise salaries. This seems especially important given the relatively low salaries in child care compared to other occupations (see Figure 1 and the discussion of the figure above). Such increases might result from increased information to parents, tax credits to parents, and the expansion of subsidy programs or direct payment to providers by the public sector. An innovative program might reward the stability of providers by paying a bonus after some specified period of years.

Current programs to improve child care quality exist and might be replicated or expanded. For example, a broad-based community initiative in North Carolina (Smart Start) has been successful in improving child care quality (Bryant, Maxwell, and Burchinal, 1999). This initiative, established by the governor of North Carolina in 1993, is a partnership between state government, local communities, service providers, and families. Twelve county partnerships were initially selected based on competitive review to receive funds for new and improved child care services. Data to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative were obtained in 1994 and 1996 from over 180 child care centers in 12 counties. Local quality improvement activities (in 1996) were distributed as follows: training workshops (83 percent), funds to attend training activities (53 percent), on-site consultation or technical assistance (58 percent), higher child care subsidy rates (35 percent), increased subsidies for meeting higher standards (29 percent), funds to improve quality by purchasing new equipment (70 percent), funds to improve quality by purchasing new educational materials (63 percent), funds to achieve higher licensing level (26 percent), funds to achieve national accreditation (13 percent), funds to improve services for children with disabilities (11 percent), teacher substitute pool (20 percent), transportation services (18 percent), lending library (51 percent), and provider compensation programs (35 percent).

The mean number of improvement activities per center was 5.3 in 1994 and 5.8 in 1996, with a range of 0 to 14 activities each year. In both years, ECERS scores were significantly related to the number of local quality improvement activities in which individual centers participated. In addition, process quality was significantly higher in 1996 than in 1994. Only 14 percent of centers were rated as good quality in 1994. In 1996, this figure was 25 percent. Participation in the Smart Start initiative also was related to a significant increase in the percentage of centers that obtained the higher-level Associate of Arts licensure credential.

See also Child Care 526 1 - 6