Sunday, February 10, 2008
The state would put preschool quality to the test
Elizabeth Strother
Recent columns
- For those who have too little
- Time to gather mountain views
- Our blind spot on roads
- Following the money trail
From the RoundTable blog
Gov. Tim Kaine's vision of expanding access to high-quality pre-kindergarten for Virginia's 4-year-olds depends heavily on local collaboratives of public and private agencies and businesses that work together to improve early learning for children from birth to age 5.
The state hopes to further expand the reach of its Virginia Preschool Initiative beyond the limits of public school budgets and classroom space by improving early learning among private day care providers. For that to be effective, Virginia will need to develop quality standards for 4-year-old preschool that can be applied to private providers who receive state funding.
Though the Roanoke area is not included in the Virginia Preschool Pilot Initiative, it does have a local collaborative, Building Children's Futures of Greater Roanoke. In May, the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation awarded the collaborative a grant to improve an array of services for children up to age 5.
The group is using part of that money to participate in a separate pilot program to test a state Quality Rating and Improvement System to assess Virginia Preschool Initiative-funded classes, whether in public schools or private settings.
Day care providers who do not get state funding would be able to participate in the QRIS rating system, but would not be required to do so. A QRIS rating would help parents make more educated decisions in choosing private child care. In that way, education officials hope the QRIS will improve preschool quality across the board in Virginia.
Building Children's Futures of Greater Roanoke serves the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area: the city and county of Roanoke, Salem, and Botetourt, Craig and Franklin counties. Its QRIS pilot sites are Northwest Child Development Center and Raleigh Court United Methodist Church Preschool in Roanoke, Honey Tree Learning Center in Salem, and STEP Inc. Head Start in Rocky Mount.
-- Elizabeth Strother
