Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota’s Voluntary Child Care and Early Learning Program Quality Rating and Improvement System
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)[1] contracted with Child Trends to independently evaluate Parent Aware—Minnesota’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for early care and education programs—using an equity lens. This evaluation was required by law and funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act, as determined by the 2021 Minnesota State Legislative Session.
The goal of the evaluation was to understand the degree to which Parent Aware supports positive outcomes for Minnesota’s children, families, and early care and education workforce. The evaluation, which took place from March 2022 to September 2024, explored these topics:
- The availability of high-quality early care and education programs in Minnesota
- Parents’ experiences accessing quality in early care and education and their opinions of Parent Aware
- Rated and unrated early educators’ experiences with and perceptions of Parent Aware
- Early care and education programs’ ability to serve children and families, including those from racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse backgrounds
- Community members’ feedback and ideas about efforts to revise and improve Parent Aware
- Children’s healthy learning and development
More detailed information about the various activities under this evaluation and the timeline for each activity can be found under Evaluation Activities and Timeline (below).
Project Updates
To share progress on the evaluation, our team posted periodic updates on this webpage over the course of the project.
Completed Reports
- Evaluation of Parent Aware: Key Findings and Implications for the Parent Aware Redesign
- Insights on QRIS from Six States & a Literature Review
- Families’ and Early Educators’ Experiences With the Early Care and Education System in Minnesota
- Methods and Measures for Understanding Children’s Experiences in Parent Aware Rated Programs
- Early Educators’ Experiences With Parent Aware, Minnesota’s QRIS
- Parent Aware Ratings and Standards and Indicators: A Multi-Cohort Analysis
- Statewide Participation in Parent Aware Among Early Care and Education Programs
Project Update—September 2024
We are excited to announce that the Child Trends team has completed work on the Parent Aware Evaluation! This webpage has been updated to include links to the reports and other products that our team developed to synthesize key findings from each evaluation activity and implications for the Parent Aware Redesign. These reports are listed in the “Completed Reports” sidebar at the top righthand corner of this webpage and also hyperlinked throughout the Evaluation Activities and Timeline section below.
On behalf of the entire team at Child Trends, we would like to thank the many early educators, families, coaches, state QRIS administrators, and other individuals who took the time out of their busy schedules to share their experiences and stories with our team. This work would not have been possible without their help! For their continued partnership in this work, we would also like to thank our project officer Lynda Rhodes; the entire team at the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families; and members of the State and Community Evaluation Advisory Committees.
Project Update – June 2024
Project Update – March 2023
Project Update – October 2022
Evaluation Activities and Timeline
The evaluation took place from March 2022 to September 2024 and included the following research activities.
To support revisions and improvements to the Standards and Indicators that Parent Aware uses to define quality in early care and education settings, our team conducted:
- An examination of Parent Aware’s Standards and Indicators for defining program quality and a comparison of Parent Aware with other states’ QRIS using interviews with state QRIS administrators and secondary data to examine state QRIS policies, implementation practices, and approaches to embedding equity in their QRIS (see the completed report here: Insights on QRIS from Six States & a Literature Review; see a blog post about our findings here: 4 Trends in Early Care and Education Quality Rating and Improvement Systems)
- An analysis of Parent Aware Rating data to understand how participating programs select Indicators to earn points toward their desired Star Rating level, including whether there are specific Indicators that few or most programs meet and implications for how Parent Aware helps programs meet Indicators (see the completed report here: Parent Aware Standards and Indicators: A Multi-Cohort Analysis)
- Stakeholder engagement with families, early educators, and Parent Aware coaches to gather input on proposed revisions to Parent Aware Standards and Indicators, developed in collaboration with DCYF (see the completed report here: Parent Aware Redesign: Spring 2024 Public Engagement Report on Ideas for Changes to Standards and Indicators)
- Other ongoing consultation and research support to inform improvements to Parent Aware Standards and Indicators, provided by our team of experienced researchers with expertise in early care and education quality, children’s development, and equity
To explore the early care and education landscape in Minnesota and understand the factors that support or create barriers to programs participating in Parent Aware, our team conducting:
An analysis of the statewide availability of child care and Parent Aware Rated programs, with comparisons to understand where programs are located in the state relative to the communities being served
- Listening sessions with Rated and Unrated programs to understand their experiences with and perceptions of Parent Aware, including the application processes, any administrative or financial burden of participating in Parent Aware, and the degree to which Parent Aware supports the racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity of child care programs and the families they serve
To assess quality and children’s development in Rated programs and determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Minnesota’s children, families, and child care providers, our team is conducting the following evaluation activities:*
*Note that these activities have been modified from those originally planned. These changes result from feedback from early care and education programs regarding their limited capacity to participate in an evaluation as a result of the heightened stressors and barriers they continued to face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. See the Project Update posted March 2023 for more information.
- A comparison of the various pathways through which programs can become Parent Aware Rated and a review of associated requirements
- An analysis of quality and assessments of children’s development in Parent Aware Rated programs, with an emphasis on understanding programs’ practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on children’s early learning experiences (see the completed brief here: Methods and Measures for Understanding Children’s Experiences in Parent Aware Rated Programs)
- A statewide survey and focus groups with early educators and families with young children to understand their experiences providing and accessing early care and education during and in the aftermath of the pandemic, impacts to their needs and ability to access services, changes in their perceptions of program quality, what families and early educators notice about children’s developmental strengths and areas of need, and opportunities for Parent Aware to better support the needs of early educators and families (see the completed report and fact sheet here: Families’ and Early Educators’ Experiences With the Early Care and Education System in Minnesota)
A detailed overview of all evaluation activities, findings, and implications for future improvements to Parent Aware was included in our final evaluation report submitted to DCFY in September 2024. You can see the final report here: Evaluation of Parent Aware: Key Findings and Implications for the Parent Aware Redesign.
A timeline for each component of the evaluation is provided below.
Community Engagement
Throughout the project, the Child Trends team asked various stakeholders and members of the community to provide feedback on the evaluation through two committees:
- State Advisory Committee (met annually): staff from DCFY and the Minnesota Departments of Education, Health, and Management and Budget, as well as the Children’s Cabinet
- Community Advisory Committee (met approximately once every four months): representatives from state government agencies, Child Care Aware of Minnesota, advocacy and research organizations, and early care and education providers
Contact
If you have questions about the Parent Aware Evaluation, please contact Lyn Rhodes, the DCYF Project Manager for the evaluation, at lynda.rhodes@state.mn.us.
Project Partners
- Kristine Andrews, Ideas to Impact Consulting
- Jennifer Valorose & Briellen Griffin, Wilder Research
- Stephanie Currenton, Center on the Ecology of Early Development (CEED) at Boston University
Project Staff
- Co-principal investigators: Jennifer Cleveland, Kathryn Tout
- Project director: Rowan Hilty
- Equity lead: Kristine Andrews
- Task leads: Erin Bultinck, Audrey Franchett, Holly Keaton, Jing Tang, Mallory Warner, Abigail Wulah, Zipi Diamond, Keiyitho Omonuwa, Shreya Mukhopadhyay, Dianne Louise Maglaque, Catherine Schaefer, Yuko Yadatsu-Ekyalongo
- Additional project staff: Porsche Boddicker-Young, Ashley Hirilall, Alexandra Verhoye, Hannah Wodrich, Nia-Simone Woods, Kylee Novak, Theresa Sexton
- Data collection staff: Helen Sabrowsky, Heather Smith
Footnote
[1] The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) launched on July 1, 2024. From July 2024 to July 2025, state programs and staff will gradually transfer to DCYF from the Departments of Human Services, Education, Health, and Public Safety. As this new agency is established, documents may have previous agency logos or names and the DCYF website may temporarily redirect to original agency web pages. For more details, visit the DCYF website.
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