Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

There is growing recognition by researchers and policymakers alike of the importance of child care as a work support for parents and a critical developmental setting for children. Many states have invested in quality initiatives to support high quality and developmentally appropriate early care and education settings. For example, Illinois has a state quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) that offers assistance to providers around quality improvement and credentialing and aims to increase the transparency of provider quality for parents. Interest in QRIS is high; QRIS systems operate in most states, with almost all others developing or exploring QRIS adoption (Tout et al, 2010; National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, nd). Yet, provider uptake in QRIS is far from universal, with diverse opinions and limited research to fully understand barriers to participation (e.g., Rand, 2008). There is mounting interest among policymakers and researchers in gaining understanding about provider opinions of and experiences with QRIS with the goal of capitalizing on program strengths and reducing barriers to participation.

This paper aims to develop an exploratory and grounded understanding of provider engagement in and experiences with QRIS in Illinois. The primary analysis draws from qualitative interviews with a sample of 38 child care providers in centers and licensed family child care homes in two regions of Illinois. Provider interviews are supplemented with 20 key informant interviews conducted with a range of QRIS program stakeholders including state administrators and program staff who conduct outreach, training, and support around engaging providers in QRIS. The study is part of a multi-component federally funded project, the Illinois/New York Child Care Research Partnership Study.

We address three research questions: 1) What information do providers have about the Illinois QRIS, and how did they learn about it? 2) What is the range of provider opinions about and experiences with QRIS, and to what factors do they attribute their accounts? 3) What recommendations do providers have to increase QRIS interest and engagement, and to improve QRIS?

After providing an overview of Illinois’ QRIS system drawn from publically available documents, we conduct a thematic analysis of provider interviews. For Question 1, we examine provider knowledge about QRIS and categorize the sample into more and less knowledgeable subgroups. Differences in sources of knowledge across groups are explicated. For Question 2, we examine both opinions and experiences separately, and then consider whether opinions of QRIS are informed by specific program expectations and requirements, provider experiences with the QRIS process, and/or shaped by outside factors such as previous experiences with quality initiatives, experiences interacting with other government programs such as the child care assistance program, or economic conditions. To address Question 3, we categorize recommendations according to key themes and examine factors related to these themes. Across all questions, we explore similarities and differences by program type (center, license family child care home) and degree of involvement with QRIS. Finally, we supplement our analysis by considering key findings in light of stakeholder views about differential interest and involvement of providers with QRIS.