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Reports
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Measuring Up
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Four Child Care Resource and
Referral programs in Minnesota and faculty from
the University of Minnesota recently asked
themselves this question. They decided to take a
close look at child care in four representative
counties to learn more. Measuring Up is their report.
Commissioned by
Resources for Child Caring and funded by
The McKnight Foundation and the
Otto Bremer Foundation, "Measuring
Up" is an assessment of the quality of child
care in Clay, Hennepin, Lyon, and Ramsey
Counties. The executive summary looks at quality
both quantitatively, from the counties' resource
and referral statistics, and qualitatively,
through parent focus groups in all four counties.
This report is unique in that it focuses
upon child care in Minnesota.
One part of
the research involved collecting data from child
care resource and referral databases in each
county and from a survey of directors of child
care centers. Researchers analyzed data on the
amount of care available, the number of children
in care, staff turnover, and the affordability
and quality of child care.
Researchers
looked most carefully at quality indicators that
previous studies show have the greatest impact on
children's ability to succeed later in life.
Those indicators include staff turnover, academic
credentials of staff, and accreditation.
In addition,
researchers conducted focus groups of parents in
the four counties to learn more about their
experiences with different forms of child care
and their perceptions about child care quality.
Seventeen
focus groups were held at four Head Start
locations, one in Hennepin County; two in Wright
County, and one in Brown County, and at 13 Early
Childhood Family Education programs, one in Clay
County, three in Hennepin County, one in Lyon
County, and eight in Ramsey County. Participants
included five groups with 21 Hmong parents and
one group with nine African American parents.
Facilitators conducted focus groups in English,
Hmong, and Spanish, as appropriate to the group.
Focus group
participants talked about their care
arrangements, the positive and negative qualities
of their current arrangements, influences on
their selection of child care, and the positive
and negative qualities of previous child care
arrangements.
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View/Download Publications
To view the
pdf files listed here, you will need to have the
free application
Acrobat Reader installed on your
computer.
Full
Technical Report (pdf, 50 pages, 136k)
Assessment of Child
Care Quality in Four Counties in Minnesota,
Elizabeth E. Davis and Deborah Ceglowski, University of
Minnesota, March 2001
Executive
Summary Report (pdf, 136k, 15 pages)
Brochure
(pdf, 136k, 2 pages)
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Research Team
Resources for
Child Caring extends thanks to the research team
which put this report together:
- Deborah
A. Ceglowski, University of Minnesota,
principal researcher
- Elizabeth
Davis, University of Minnesota, principal
researcher
- Christopher
Watson, University of Minnesota
- Janet
Wieck, Clay-Wilkins Opportunity Council
(Clay County)
- Rhoda
Freelan, Greater Minneapolis Day Care
Association (Hennepin County)
- Gail
Goltz, Western Community Action, Inc.
(Lyon County)
- Sandy
Myers, Resources for Child Caring (Ramsey
County)
- Darlene
Gorrill, writer
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For Further Information
If you have
questions about the material, you may contact Carol
Weber Rohde, Executive Director of
Resources for Child Caring, at 651-641-6645. For
additional copies of the technical report, you
may call Sue Crownhart at
Resources for Child Caring, 651-641-6612 or email
her at
scrownhart@resourcesforchildcare.org (please provide your
name and address). |
Reprint Permission
The
information contained in "Measuring Up"
may be reproduced without charge for
education/training or related activities. There
is no requirement to obtain special permission
for such uses. We do, however, ask that the
citation below appear on all reproductions:
Reprinted
with permission from Measuring Up....
Copyright © 2001 by Resources for Child
Caring
This study
was commissioned by Resources for Child
Caring and funded by the McKnight Foundation
and Otto Bremer Foundation. Four child care
resource and referral agencies collaborated
on this project: Resources for Child Caring,
Greater Minneapolis Daycare Association,
Western Community Action Council, Inc. and
Clay Wilkin Opportunity Council (Region IV
CCR&R).
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