‘Quality’ is multifaceted. Measuring quality is therefore extremely complex because it relates to the context in which an organization operates.
As stated by the Government of Canada, “the quality of ELCC is a multi-dimensional concept varying according to the level of influence on children (proximal vs. distal), and how it is measured. Consequently, it should be acknowledged that there is no single universal definition of ELCC quality.”
Globally however, there are some consistent elements that ECE professionals agree contribute to the foundations of quality.
Research undertaken by Storypark advisor Edward Meluish (et al.) demonstrates the following characteristics being important aspects of quality early years provision which enhances children's development:
In Australia, the National Quality Standards outline a set of measurements that ECE services are assessed against.
There are also a variety of environmental rating scales, caregiver interaction scales, class and child assessment frameworks that are applied in different provinces, states and contexts.
In Canada, the City of Toronto’s Assessment for Quality Improvement (AQI) is a set of standards that all agencies funded by the City of Toronto are required to report against and set goals towards in support of ongoing quality improvement.
However, ensuring staff practice and document in accordance with the AQI requirements is challenging, especially when running an organization with multiple ECE services.
Storypark and other digital tools are helping services to achieve ‘exceeding’ standards, streamline processes, and provide new real-time reports to support compliance processes.
“Robust, regular data gathering, reporting and analysis helps organizations keep on top of important practices with all of this documentation. Just being able to look at all 20 of our sites and their data within Storypark has helped me figure out what sites need more support and training. This way we can allocate help to those that need it and set up mentoring etc,” says Susan Menchinton, Pedagogy Lead at Network Child Care.
“The City of Toronto’s Quality Assurance Analysts (QAAs) and Training Coordinators provide a variety of capacity building opportunities, alongside ongoing quality assessments to support high-quality early learning programs across Toronto,” says Anne Hepditch, Manager of Quality & Capacity Building Children's Services Division at the City of Toronto.
“Services are welcome to use digital or paper-based solutions to support their practice and submit assessment information for the AQI. We have seen a growing trend in the adoption of digital platforms, and we understand there are a variety of benefits for service providers.”
Depending on your context, team, philosophies and regulatory environment, the data you need for measuring quality will be different.
“Early childhood educators can learn from daily experiences that are captured by Storypark. They can think about what has happened and why and share their reflections with each other - an essential element of quality,” comments Jane Bertrand, Professor and author of Being & Becoming An Early Childhood Professional.
“Storypark can encourage early childhood educators’ reflective practice and quality early learning environments across multiple sites.”
For people operating within the AQI, there are numerous challenges that Storypark as a platform specifically overcomes.
Read this case study, to learn how Network Child Care Services uses Storypark for AQI compliance and how Storypark directly supports the AQI requirements to ‘exceed expectations’ within the Infant, Toddler and Preschool assessments.
“Qualitative and quantitative data are very different lenses, and each needs to be used when examining quality in the ECE context. Storypark can provide both types of data, including at an organizational level, to ensure rich documentation and a meaningful planning process (which quantitative data alone can’t show),” says Sharon Carlson, Head of Pedagogy at Storypark.
"Using the Storypark platform makes children's learning visible to families, while also highlighting developmentally appropriate pedagogy. This supports greater family engagement and quality outcomes for children" says Diane Daley, CEO of Family Day Care Services, Toronto.
“We design Storypark through ongoing research with ECEs across Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US. Through this, we maintain a child-centric approach, ensuring the way we design features encourages the best possible outcomes for children, families, educators and the organizations they work for,” says Jamie MacDonald, Storypark CEO.
Storypark has worked to empower evidence-based reflective practice in its platform for many years. As well as documentation and planning tools, there is a variety of real-time information available through Storypark’s reports at an individual centre level, and across multiple services within the Storypark Insights tool.
Here’s a list of quality indicators that are currently available in Storypark which our Pedagogical team would recommend as measures of quality to observe across your organization over time:
It’s important to note that the single greatest determinant of quality outcomes for children in an ECE context (and therefore measures) are the confidence, capacity and capability of their educators.
Utilizing professional growth tools to help plan, mentor, motivate, and create belonging is, therefore, an essential initiative to invest in, alongside efforts to measure quality.
Educator wellbeing is also critical, which is influenced by the working conditions created for each educator and team. In collaboration with The World Forum of ECE, Storypark has researched international innovations in staff retention. These are available at no cost and can be used as provocations to enhance the workplace experience for your team.
You can also learn more about the Storypark Insights tool, and connect with us for a personalized demonstration of how this might support quality within your organization.
You may also wish to consider measuring retention rates, staff sentiment, holiday leave (to ensure it is being taken regularly to mitigate burnout), time allocated for documentation, planning and assessment, team meetings, frequency of mentoring, and salary/benefits.
By creating the best support possible for each ECE, we enable the best outcomes for children, families and communities.
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