How do the characteristics of children enrolled in CCEE program sites differ across quality levels?

Answering this question can illuminate barriers for some groups to accessing CCEE programs at different levels of quality. To answer this question, identify CCEE programs at each level of quality. Link site level information to child and family level information to identify children enrolled in programs at each quality level. Analyze enrollment patters by child and family characteristics of interest.

Identify 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 the QRIS.” The quality level of a program is indicated in the QRIS Score data element. QRIS levels may vary across quality rating systems. For example, some QRIS systems may have four quality rating levels, and some might have five.  For reference, the number of quality levels is detailed in the System Level data element QRIS Levels. The system level data element QRIS Levels does not need to be connected to program sites for this analysis. The range of values from the QRIS Score data element is sufficient to answer this question.

If the state does not have a QRIS, but has another quality improvement system or initiative, use the data element Quality 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 and Analyze Child Characteristics of Interest Across Program Sites at Different Levels of Quality

Site ID and Child ID can be used to link a program’s quality level to the children who attend quality rated programs. This allows for the analysis of child characteristics across quality levels of programs. If family characteristics are of interest for analysis, Family ID and Child ID can be linked to associate family level data elements of interest for children enrolled in quality rated programs.  Child Gender, Child Race, and Primary Type of Disability are examples of Child Level data elements that may be of interest in answering this question. Family Income and Guardian’s Highest Level of Education are examples of Family Level data elements that may be of interest as well.  A full list of Child Level and Family Level data elements can be found in the data dictionary of this document.

Example 1. How many children experiencing homelessness are enrolled in programs that currently participate in QRIS? What proportion of these children are enrolled in high-quality programs? To answer these questions first link children to their site of attendance by using Child ID and Site ID. Filter the data to only show children who have a “Yes” value for the data element Child Homeless Status. Disaggregate this data by the linked Site Level data element QRIS Participation History and find the unique count of children whose programs are and are not participating in the QRIS. Compare these values to answer the first question. For the second question, filter the QRIS Score data element to only show children attending high quality programs as defined by the QRIS system. To find the proportion, divide the number of children experiencing homelessness in high-quality programs by the number of total children experiencing homelessness in QRIS participating programs and multiply by 100.

Example 2. Do American Indian or Alaska Native children who reside on Indian Lands attend similar quality CCEE programs as American Indian or Alaska Native children who reside outside of Indian Lands? First, link the QRIS Score of the CCEE program that a child attends to that child’s data using the Site ID and Child ID data elements. Next, filter the data to only show children who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native as indicated by the option “Yes” in the American Indian or Alaska Native field of the data element Child Race option set. Then disaggregate the data by the values in the element Child Resides on Indian Lands to obtain a total count (Child ID) of American Indian or Alaska Native children who do and do not reside on Indian lands. Compute the average QRIS Score of children who do and do not reside on Indian lands.

Alternatively, a count (Child ID) of American Indian or Alaska Native children enrolled at each quality rating level/score can be calculated for children who do and do not reside on Indian Lands. The total number of American Indian or Alaska Native children residing on Indian lands enrolled in programs at each rating tier can be divided by the total number of children residing on Indian lands to obtain the percent of American Indian or Alaska Native children residing on Indian lands enrolled in programs at each quality rating tier. This process can be repeated for American Indian or Alaska Native children who do not reside on Indian lands.