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R2LP partners with BrightStars to improve family access to high-quality early education Ready to Learn Providence is working with BrightStars, the state’s new Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for early-care As a participant, R2LP recently learned that its Early Learning Center had received four out of a possible five stars – the highest rating awarded thus far. Programs are assessed across nine domains and 22 quality criteria. On seven of the nine domains, the R2LP preschool received the highest score possible. In August 2009 R2LP also learned that it will be the recipient of a grant from the United Way of Rhode Island to provide targeted training for other early-care settings seeking to address identified needs in their Bright Stars evaluation or to advance to the next star. R2LP will provide individualized professional development and mentoring support to administrators and educators of licensed center- and home-based programs in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. At a minimum, each teacher and/or director will participate in 45 hours of research-based professional development and each classroom or family child-care provider will receive at least 45 hours of on-site mentoring. Coursework and mentoring will occur bi-weekly over a 30-week period starting in January 2010. As the state’s economy has spiraled downward and public-sector funding for early education has been scaled back, early childhood programs that serve low-income families are in a difficult predicament – they are committed to improving the quality of their programs but do not have the resources needed to make critical investments. R2LP’s intervention will help to address that dilemma. The purpose of BrightStars, which is administered by the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children (RIAEYC), is to improve family access to high-quality child care and early education. QRIS initiatives exist in many states across the country and although each state model is unique, all QRIS programs are designed to rate the quality or level of a child-care program, identify areas for improvement, inform consumers about levels of quality and target technical assistance. “RIAEYC is optimistic that its partnership with R2LP will not only help programs advance along the BrightStars continuum, but will also leverage the strong community-based coalition we have established over the years, increasing the number of BrightStars participants serving low-income families,” says R2LP Director Leslie Gell. |
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settings, on two fronts – as a participant with its pre-kindergarten classroom on the Liston Campus of CCRI and as a provider of professional development for other early-care programs seeking to achieve higher rankings in several BrightStars domains.