Focused, fair and frequent: A framework to improve equity, effectiveness and efficiency of quality rating and improvement systems for early care and education

The effectiveness of early care and education programs in delivering optimal child outcomes is dependent on program quality. For this reason, governments across nations and within jurisdictions have invested in independent quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Though all QRIS generally focus on assessment of structural and process quality, there are variations in assessment items and methods. Regardless, all are high stakes. Ratings generated from QRIS can affect program viability directly, through government funding responses, and indirectly, through influencing reputation and parent choice. To ensure that QRIS deliver their intended outcomes for governments, providers, families and children requires (1) focus on measurement that is sensitive to child outcomes; (2) fairness across contexts and (3) frequency of assessment to ensure that ratings can provide current information for families and valid data sources for policymakers and researchers in assessing population effects of ECE quality. Applying these principles, we provide the case example of Australia’s QRIS, to model processes to improve and standardise QRIS internationally. We outline an agenda for research to improve the value and efficiency of QRIS.