Tennessee Star Quality Program Ineffective?

The idea behind the Tennessee Star Quality program is that each star indicates an increasingly higher standard of childare. The more stars a childcare facility recieves, the better the quality of care it offers to children. At least that's how it's supposed to work, but added bonuses, such as a 5% increase in the reimbursement rate and the ability to charge higher rates to prospective parents, cause some centers to go to any extreme necessary to gain those stars. The Star Quality program is designed to give childcare providers more incentive to continually improve your program, because we all have the same goal: safe, healthy children who are successful in school and life.

According to Dr. Thelma Harns, all children have three basic needs:

1. Protection of health and safety
2. Building relationships with other children, parents, extended family, and community.
3. Opportunities for stimulation and learning from experience.

Though these basic need do not change as children grow, the expression of these needs and the environment that best nurtures them does. Four different scales are used to assess the environment in which children are cared for. The scales are:

ITERS-R: Infant and Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised,
ECERS-R: Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised,
SACERS: School-Age Children Environment Rating Scale, and
FDRSL Family Day Care Environment Rating Scale

During the assessment, assessors spend one day observing a "normal" day in the care facility or home, investigating and documenting indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as, activities, materials and the interactions with and among the children, and rating it using a chart and scale. A minimum of one-third of the center's classroom must be assessed, including at least one class from each environmental rating group.

While the STARS program has helped to improve the quality of care provided for children, many time the ratings do not accurately reflect the quality of care, or lack of quality, as the case may be. By allowing the center to know in advance when the assessors will come, the program provides a caveat to cheaters. Centers put on a show the day of the assessment. I know, I've seen it with my own two eyes. They spend days and even weeks preparing for one day and then the next day things go back to normal. According to one center director "people buy stars. I know that's going on. They have a busload of childcare equipment and they go in and they place it in a center, because they know when those assessors are coming out." Some have been accused of saying "well on the day the STARS people come, we do it their way and the rest of the time we do it our way." Parents have even expressed a lack of faith in the system saying "I don't think the system is working because I chose a 0-star over a 3-star."

I know from personal experience and through the experiences of a close friend that the assessment is merely a stressful checklist of insane "to-dos." From the day the assessment date is announced, a rush of panic flows throuh the halls of the center and into every crack and crevice of the previously calm classrooms. Teachers immediately set about making lists, organizing, labeling, and cleaning like escapees from a local loony bin. Everyone is on pins and needles, because the expectations are entirely too high. It is not realistic to expect a 3 year old to use his elbow to pull out his chair just to keep his hands clean for lunch. Those chairs should be cleaned daily and this wouldn't be an issue. These nit-picky rediculous things are unecessary and demoralizing for childcare providers. A common complaint is that they feel like they spend all their time trying to please the assessors and this takes away from the care of the child, which is the most important thing.

41.3 percent of those surveyed believe the assessment is not fair. The simple truth is that the assessor's presence makes teachers and students act unnaturally and there will never be an ordinary assessment day. Including a parent survey would help assessors to get a feel of how things go on a day to day basis. Points are also deducted for not having low sinks or having doorways that are too narrow. These things have nothing to do with the care of the children, why should they be included in the assessment? Then you get the assessment and it's like, "you did this and this and this wrong," or "you should have done this, or had that," with minimal if any praise, even on a 3-star assessment.

The STARS program is a great program for Tennessee's children, but major changes need to be made in the process and design of the program. At the very least, make the visits unannounced. Unannounced visits will not deter the program's goal but it will go miles toward improving the result. Cheaters will be unable to fool the assessors if they don't even know when they'll be there. I'll close with the words of one DOE administrator, "you know you've been successful when...the children are in a safe environment and the overall quality has improved."

Source: www.tnstarquality.org