Research
During the mid to late 1990's, Qualistar Early Learning (then Educare Colorado) began developing and implementing a Quality Rating System (QRS) to assess and improve the quality of child care in Colorado.
Qualistar was one of the first agencies to administer a QRS. At that time little was known about how to measure child care quality, how effective QRS was in improving quality, and children's school readiness skills.
As an organization defined by its commitment to evaluation and quality, Qualistar turned that accountability standard on itself by commissioning the RAND evaluation. This groundbreaking research, which is the first of its kind in the country, has shed light on the best ways to measure child care quality.
It is our hope that the research presented in this section of our website will help others interested in developing or evaluating QRS be as effective as possible.
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