Approaches to validating child care quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS): Results from two states with similar QRIS type designs

• Definition of a set of approaches to validate QRIS program standards.
• Description of methods used in two states to implement a QRIS validation study.
• Presentation of results of state QRIS validation studies and findings in support of the application of the validation approaches.
• Validation approaches found to be of utility – effective in designing and implementing QRIS validation studies.
• Recommendations for policy-makers, program administrators seeking to design validation studies for their own state QRISs.

In recent years, child care quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) have become an increasingly popular policy tool to improve quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings and have been adopted in many localities and states. The QRIS proposition is that with higher-quality child care settings, it is more likely that children who attend those high-quality programs will benefit in terms of outcomes like school readiness. However, in order to demonstrate this linkage, QRIS standards and ratings must function as intended, i.e. be valid. This paper presents a framework for validating child care quality improvement standards and processes, along with examples from recent QRIS validation studies in two states. The state examples provide useful data about the strengths and limitations of these validation approaches. We discuss the implications of applying these approaches and provide recommendations to researchers, policy-makers, and program leaders who implement QRIS validation studies.