![\"Quality](\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Picture1.png\")
<\/p>\nThe number of child care and preschool programs that participate in Quality First \u2014 Arizona\u2019s quality improvement and rating system for early learning programs \u2014 that meet or exceed quality standards has reached 76%. The percentage is an all-time high, which has risen steadily since 2013.<\/p>\n
Also, the number of Quality First participants in Arizona achieving 3- to 5-star ratings more than tripled, starting with 215 participants in 2013 to 788 in 2019.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rising quality levels are easy to see in FTF regions, like Pinal, where the Quality First participating child care providers meeting or exceeding quality standards has almost doubled in the past two years. The percentage of FTF Pinal Region\u2019s Quality First sites with 3- to 5-stars increased from 35% in June 2017 to 69% in June 2019.<\/p>\n
Michelle Golus, statewide director of FTF\u2019s Quality First program, said coordinated goals between child care program directors of both center and home-based, and Quality First support staff are expediting growth toward higher quality levels. In State Fiscal Year 2019, more than 62,000 babies, toddlers and preschoolers received their early education from child care and preschool providers in Quality First and more than 45,000 of those children were in a program with 3- to 5-stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are seeing is a result of consistent support from our coaching and technical assistance staff,\u201d Golus said. \u201cAs relationships build between coaches, technical assistance staff and child care providers, shared goal setting takes place and with it, this consistent growth over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Quality First program partners with more than 1,000 child care centers, home-based care and preschool providers across Arizona to improve the quality of early learning. Quality First funds improvements that research proves help children thrive, such as training for teachers to expand their skills and achieve their best.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuality improvement takes time,\u201d Golus said.<\/p>\n
After about two years of Quality First support \u2014 such as coaching, assessments, professional development and incentives \u2014 participating early learning programs are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars, according to Quality First\u2019s rigorous standards for quality.<\/p>\n
In Pinal County, Quality First and local advocates are helping to expand the understanding of best practices in early childhood education in parts of the county that can sometimes be isolating, said FTF Pinal Regional Director Shannon Brown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a child care desert,\u201d Brown said. \u201cChild care centers can be isolated and don\u2019t communicate with each other. Quality First really helps centers with one-on-one support.\u201d<\/p>\n
FTF Pinal Regional Council Member Kameron Bachert, who is the child care representative, has also worked to get centers to see themselves as a community supporting each other rather than businesses competing, Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the centers start talking and sharing best practices, they learn in a totally new way and growth happens,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
Over the past 10 years, Quality First continues to gain recognition in the child care field and more programs are seeking to improve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a little bit of peer pressure going on now,\u201d said Courtney King, Quality First program coordinator. \u201cIt spurs others to start inquiring into and using best practices, since they are all marketing to the same families. It forces them to look at their own quality care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even providers waiting to join Quality First are starting to implement best practices, King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the field as a whole is elevating,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we started in 2010 and 2011, everyone came in at lower levels of quality. Now we have centers coming in at higher levels.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of Quality First child care and preschool programs that meet or exceed quality standards has reached an all-time high of 76%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":27622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-27619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-quality-first"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n