Measuring Readiness for Change in Early Care and Education

Nov 26 2019

Researchers and policymakers in the early care and education (ECE) field are interested in understanding the factors that contribute to successful quality improvement (QI) initiatives in ECE settings. They also want to learn about factors leading to improved outcomes for children and families through successful QI initiatives. One factor posited to influence the success of such initiatives is the readiness of individuals and organizations to adopt new quality improvement practices (Kirk, Wanless, & Briggs, 2017; Maxwell, Partika, Wanless, Pacchiano, Halle, Hsueh, & Maher, 2018). In this brief, “readiness” is defined as a characteristic of a person, group of individuals, or organization that captures at a particular point both the willingness and the capacity to take on a new practice or perform an existing practice in a new way. The measurement of readiness within ECE studies is still not widespread, partially due to a lack of access to readiness measures tailored for use in ECE settings and with early childhood professionals. However, ECE researchers have begun to develop new readiness tools and adapt measures of readiness from other fields of study to address this gap.

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