Quality Indicators for Early Childhood Family Education Programs
Al INTRODUCTION TO THE QUALITY INDICATORS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD FAMILY EDUCATION PROGRAMS
An Instrument to Assist Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) Programs
in Program Planning and Self-Evaluation
Revised 2001
This instrument has been developed to assist local Early Childhood Family Education program staff in program planning and self-evaluation for the purpose of program improvement. The quality indicators listed in this instrument reflect observable characteristics of successful programs and indicate compliance with current Minnesota statutes. They are based on the guiding principles, mission, and goals of Early Childhood Family Education. Completely achieving these indicators of program quality in all categories is an ideal situation toward which local programs can strive. The indicators listed are by no means meant to be all inclusive of indicators of quality for ECFE. Others will continue to be added as the instrument is used over time.
The quality indicators are listed in five program component areas:
A. Community Outreach, Community Input, and Linkages
B. Parent Education
C. Early Childhood Education and Parent-Child Interaction
D. Home Visiting
E. Program Operations
The program is to be judged as to whether each quality indicator is to be achieved or has been achieved at one of the following five levels:
1. Implemented with ongoing reassessment
2. Partially implemented
3. Planning stage
4. Needs to be done
5. Not applicable or need more information to respond
The rating selected for each indicator may not be as important as the staff discussion that is likely to result from the use of this instrument. While the instrument may seem long and its use time-consuming, it reflects the complexity of Early Childhood Family Education programming and the roles staff need to play to provide an effective ECFE program.
It is recognized that different Early Childhood Family Education programs will be at different places in relation to these indicators depending on a number of factors including the age of a program, the local community, and the needs and interests of the eligible population. These indicators are useful in identifying program strengths as well as areas needing improvement. The instrument has been affirming and reinforcing to many staff members.
Suggested Uses for Quality Indicators for
Early Childhood Family Education Programs
The following suggested uses of the indicators are based on the experiences of local program staff and advisory councils. Feel free to use them in other creative ways.
Yearly program planning and goal/priority setting: Used to write goals and assign staff responsibility for accomplishment of each goal - enhances participatory management, involves coordinator, community education director, professional and support staff, and parents as equals.
Program self-evaluation by staff and/or advisory council members: Some programs do this in-depth over a series of staff meetings over several weeks or months, some go over it quickly at a single staff meeting to "screen" the program and identify particular items to work on in more depth, and some select one of the four program component areas to work on for a particular period of time, e.g., one component per year over an ongoing four year cycle. In some cases, staff have completed the instrument individually and anonymously, and then it is tallied to identify areas where there is greatest consensus as to indicators in need of most improvement. Skilled facilitators are needed who encourage openness and are comfortable with expression of diverse ideas. Some of this work has been done in small groups of staff members and some done with the entire group; programs with multiple sites have done it by site. Advisory council members have been found to be less familiar with some of the indicators than staff members, so the items are informative as well as useful for self-evaluation. Advisory council members have been observed to be empowered in their roles when they better understand the important role they play in ECFE programs.
Program reassessment: after several years of operation or when moving to a new facility. Built into ongoing program review - a continuous process; fully implemented indicators continue to need monitoring.
Orientation of new and ongoing staff, including paraprofessionals and other support staff, to the program and to each other's roles.
Individual staff self-evaluation (including identification of strengths) and goal setting; have been used to develop an evaluation tool for staff use in doing this.
Staff performance reviews by program coordinators/administrators; also useful for developing job descriptions.
As part of curriculum writing and identification of program outcomes: For this purpose it would be most helpful to use this document in conjunction with the resource "Curriculum in Early Childhood Family Education: Philosophy and Implementation."
As a tool for developing end-of-session and end-of-year parent satisfaction and program evaluation questionnaires.
As a screening tool as part of the PER evaluation process and to prepare for North Central accreditation.
Information to help other educators and administrators, programs, agencies, and others better understand program purposes and qualities.
For further information about the use of this instrument contact:
Minnesota Department of Education
Early Childhood Family Education
1500 Highway 36 West
Roseville, MN 55113-4266
651/582-8402
651/582-8494 (fax)
faye.lovell@state.mn.us
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