What are the characteristics of families that use information about CCEE provided by the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS)?

Answering this question can identify disparities in QRIS use and help in planning family outreach strategies related to QRIS awareness and use. Information about family knowledge and use of QRIS can be collected through a survey of families.

Information about families’ QRIS familiarity typically comes from a survey or interview of families conducted on a regular basis (yearly, bi-yearly, etc.) by the state or an external evaluator. Below are some examples of analyses that could be performed to answer this question. A full list of data elements related to family characteristics can be found in the Family Level data element section of the data dictionary in this Toolkit.

Example 1. What is the most common Highest Level of Education among families that use the QRIS compared to families that don’t use the QRIS? For the data element Parent Use of QRIS, create a group of families (Family ID) that indicate either “Parent has used the QRIS to review (but not select) programs” or “Parent has used the QRIS to select an early care and education program.” This group of families has used the QRIS. Next, create a group of families that have not used the QRIS with the categories “Parent is not aware of the QRIS” and “Parent is aware of the QRIS but has not used it for an early care and education search.” This group has not used the QRIS. Total the total number of families at each of the eight education levels in the data element Guardian’s Highest Level of Education for both categories (used and not used the QRIS). Divide the total number of families at each education level for families who did not use QRIS by the total number of families who did not use QRIS. Repeat this calculation for families who have used QRIS. Identify the most common highest level of education category (highest percentage) for families in each of the QRIS use categories and compare.

Example 2. Are families that are knowledgeable about QRIS more likely to have children enrolled at a program site with a QRIS rating than families with no knowledge of the QRIS? Use the categories in the data element Parent Awareness of the QRIS to create two groups of families, “Parent does not recognize the name of the QRIS” and “Parent recognizes the name of the QRIS.” For the sub-group of families that are knowledgeable about the QRIS: divide the number of families that have children enrolled in a program site (Site ID) that is participating in the QRIS (QRIS Participation History) by the total number of families with children at all program sites. For the sub-group of families that has no knowledge of the QRIS: divide the number of families that have children enrolled in a program site (Site ID) that is participating in the QRIS (QRIS Participation History) by the number of families with children enrolled in a QRIS program site by the total number of families with children at all program sites. Compare the percentages between these two groups (knowledgeable about the QRIS, no knowledge) for differences.