Watch this video to learn more about Quality Counts, a QRIS model in Miami-Dade County that offers support and incentives to help providers reach their goals (video opens in new window).

Learn about the Quality Counts QRIS model in Miami-Dade County, a voluntary rating system that reviews centers and family child care programs according to clearly defined, high-quality standards using a 5 Star method of evaluation, and offers supports and incentives to help providers reach their goals (right click to download).

Discover the benefits of leveraging partnerships to create a quality early childcare center. This presentation discusses ideas on forging new alliances within the industry, how to best understand and respond to consumers, building an infrastructure to maximize public and private investments, and how to use private sector money strategically (right click to download).

A comprehensive manual for interested early childcare centers in Miami-Dade County that gives detailed information about participation in the Quality Counts Program. This manual serves as an example of what other sites can develop (pdf opens in new window).

This informational packet offers instructions and tools to help early childcare centers complete their self-study – an element of the Quality Counts process. Completing the self-study helps early childcare centers become familiar with the Quality Counts Standards, gives a snapshot of their program in relation to the 5 Star benchmarks of quality, and illustrates achievement of quality based on those benchmarks (pdf opens in new window).

The Update Report attempts to capture an accurate picture of an early childcare program, just like the original Self-Study. The results of the Update Report show a center’s progress since the beginning of their involvement with Quality Counts (pdf opens in new window).

The Quality Counts Career Center offers child care professionals valuable information via their website, career advising services, scholarships and financial aid assistance along with a central registry that serves as the repository of information on employment in the early childhood field (pdf opens in new window).

This report provides recommendations, based on lessons learned and study findings, for designing, implementing, and refining a Quality Rating and Improvement System (pdf opens in new window).

This report summarizes the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems of five states that were early adopters of the system, and present findings that focus on identifying major implementation issues and lessons learned (pdf opens in new window).

This toolkit offers tools to better understand the importance of advancing policy and advocacy tips for a systems-building approach to improve the quality of early childhood programs at the state and local levels (pdf opens in new window).

Tips to inform public and private-sector leaders about the benefits of Quality Rating Systems (QRS) to help create policies that will improve quality, promote accountability for stakeholders to have the confidence to invest in quality, and it also provides programs with a roadmap to quality improvement (pdf opens in new window).

An overview of what is a Quality Rating System with more detailed information on the five key elements of what makes an effective QRS (pdf opens in new window).

This brief responds to the challenges, status of research and evaluation, and implementation of effective Quality Rating Systems across the county (pdf opens in new window).

This brief focuses on issues related to the development and refinement of measures to assess the quality of early childhood and school age care settings (pdf opens in new window).

This article focuses on the strategy of shared services to support early childhood education by strategically leveraging both public and private resources (pdf opens in new window).

This report discusses methods of financing Quality Rating Systems through lessons learned to create a system of outcome-based budgeting and accountability and ensure that dollars invested in early childhood programs produce quality results (pdf opens in new window).

Review a definition of what makes up a Quality Rating and Improvement System and view a chart listing all QRIS systems in the nation, including information on the program name, Web site address and year started (off-site link).

Use coaching as a vehicle to develop human capital in the field and raise quality of early learning environments for children. This coaching framework developed by Thrive by Five hopes to close the gap on school readiness and support continuous quality improvement in the state of Washington (pdf opens in new window).

Learn about work being done in Mississippi towards the establishment of a Quality Rating and Improvement System, including the various components of their QRIS program model and the number of childcare centers they will serve (pdf opens in new window).

This document gives an overview of the participation process in the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System, a voluntary rating system for licensed early childhood facilities in Mississippi (pdf opens in new window).