Answering this question can help identify areas where high quality CCEE programming may not be available or accessible as well as the most common QRIS ratings for participating programs in any given area. To answer this question, site level information can be used to fist identify QRIS participating programs and then to analyze their geographic distribution.
How are CCEE program sites participating in the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) distributed geographically?
Description
General Analysis Recommendation
Identify CCEE Program Sites Participating in QRIS
The data element QRIS Participation History can be used to isolate program sites (Site ID) participating in the state’s QRIS by selecting the option “Program site currently participates in QRIS.” The quality level of a program is indicated in the QRIS Score data element.
If the state does not have a QRIS, but has another quality improvement system or initiative, use the data element Qualtiy Improvement Participation to isolate program sites (Site ID) participating in the state’s other quality improvement initiative by selecting the option “Program site currently participates in another QI initiative.”
Identify Location and Distribution of QRIS Participating CCEE Program Sites
Once the data have been filtered to include only programs participating in the QRIS, use the program sites’ Site Address fields to determine how states are distributed geographically. Possible ways to do this include grouping by Site Address – County and counting the number of programs (Site ID) in each geographic grouping. Further analysis could use each site’s associated QRIS Score to ascertain the geopgrahic distribution of quality ratings. Sites that are quality rated and those that are not can both be included in the analysis to gain additional information.
Example 1. How is the geographic distribution of CCEE program sites participating in the QRIS aligned with community poverty? To answer this question the general analysis recommendations above can be followed and enhanced with community level data from the US Census or American Community Survey (ACS). Census and ACS data is available at the national, state, county, census tract and census block level as well as by legislative district and American Indian reservation boundaries. Using the general analysis recommendations above, the geographic distribution of quality rated programs can be analyzed along with community level (county, zip code, etc.) poverty rates from ACS. For example, the poverty rate for each county can be matched to the corresponding count of QRIS participating programs in each county to examine how quality rated programs are distributed in counties with higher poverty rates compared to counties with lower poverty rates.