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Quality Rating and Improvement Systems: Secondary Data Analyses of Psychometric Properties of Scale Development
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Quality Rating and Improvement Systems: Secondary Data Analyses of Psychometric Properties of Scale Development

OPRE Report #2016-26
Published: May 30, 2016
Publisher: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation
Human Services Quality Improvement Early Childhood Child Development Early Childhood Systems Quality Measurement

Clients

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Authors

Margaret Burchinal

Sandra L. Soliday Hong

Terri J. Sabol

Nina Forestieri

Ellen Peisner-Feinberg

Louisa Tarullo

Martha Zaslow

Key Findings

Key Findings:

The results suggest that QRIS ratings can help predict gains in child outcomes when attention is paid to the psychometric principles of scale development, including dimensionality, selecting items with strong evidence, and scoring items using established criteria for cut points. 

Ratings produced in quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) are intended to provide meaningful information to parents and policymakers about the quality of early care and education (ECE) programs. Thus it is important to establish and follow guidelines for creating QRIS ratings that can promote their validity and integrity. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how using the principles of scale development can support the development of QRIS ratings. The paper reports on an analysis that uses the data from six large ECE studies to simulate state QRIS ratings.

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