Steps to Excellence Project (STEP)
Timeline
2007-2009
Project Goals
Project Goals
The Steps to Excellence Project is a pilot
project developed by the
Policy Roundtable for Child Care. The purposes of STEP are to:
- Provide parents with clear, concise information on the quality of individual child care settings;
- Create incentives and supports for programs to meet and maintain higher program standards;
- Distinguish programs that are meeting these higher standards;
- Provide benchmarks to determine if the quality of care in
individual programs or communities is improving over time.
Project
Staff
Emily Harding-Morick
Sandra Soliday-Hong
Project Support
Los Angeles County Office of Child Care
First 5 LA
Emily Harding-Morick
Sandra Soliday-Hong
Project Support
Los Angeles County Office of Child Care
First 5 LA
Project Summary
Child care centers and family child care homes in nine pilot communities in Los Angeles County can volunteer to be observed and provide information about six areas of their programs’ operations that impact the quality of care: 1) regulatory compliance; 2) teacher/child relationships; 3) learning environment; 4) identification and inclusion of children with special needs; 5) staff qualifications and working conditions; and 6) family and community connections. Based on the information collected, programs will then be assigned a STEP quality rating from 1 to 5.
The Center for Improving Child Care Quality will be conducting the site visits to programs and collecting data using Environmental Rating Scales (ECERS or FCCERS), a global measure of program quality and the Adult Involvement Scale, which focuses on provider-child interactions.
