In March 2022, Child Trends contracted with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)1 to evaluate Parent Aware, Minnesota’s quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for early care and education (ECE) programs.2 The evaluation included several research activities designed to assess to degree to which Parent Aware effectively supports the state’s children, families, and the ECE workforce.
In this brief, we provide the background and context for the Parent Aware evaluation and our guiding questions for the evaluation. Then, we discuss our reflections on the methods and measures we used to understand ECE quality and children’s experiences in Parent Aware Rated programs—particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the significant impacts it had on the ECE sector.3,i This brief can inform approaches for ECE researchers and state QRIS leaders to measure and understand how quality in ECE programs and myriad other factors come together to shape children’s healthy learning and development.
1 This report was funded by the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, which launched on July 1, 2024. From July 2024 to July 2025, state programs and staff will gradually transfer to DCYF from the Departments of Human Services, Education, Health, and Public Safety. As this new agency is established, documents may have previous agency logos or names and the DCYF website may temporarily redirect to original agency web pages. For more details, visit the DCYF website.
2 Parent Aware is available for family child care and center-based programs that are licensed through Minnesota DCYF, certified child care programs, Head Start programs, and public school-based and Voluntary Pre-K programs.
3 With the effects of the pandemic on ECE programs’ staffing and capacity, we experienced challenges recruiting study participants. As a result, our sample size did not permit examination of associations between Ratings, quality, and children’s development over time. We still pursued the study to explore methods and measures that could take a more holistic approach to understanding the experiences of children, families, and the workforce in Parent Aware Rated programs without placing undue burden on the individuals asked to participate in research.
i Child Care Aware of America (2022). Demanding change: Repairing our child care system. https://www.childcareaware.org/demanding-change-repairing-our-child-care-system/
Suggested Citation
Diamond, Z., Hilty, R., Tout, K., & Cleveland, J. (2024). Methods and Measures for Understanding Children’s Experiences in Parent Aware Rated Programs. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/56r2287k