child care and education characteristics: structural...

Oregon Child Care and Education Researchers Roundtable

Research Sharing Tool

October 12, 2016

PROJECT TITLE PAGE NUMBER

Child Care and Education Characteristics: Structural Indicators …………………………………………………………....2

2016 Oregon Child Care Market Price Study ………………………………………….………………………………………………3

Oregon Early Learning Workforce: Two Years Beyond Baseline, Comparison of 2012 and 2014...............4

Contracted Slots Pilot Program Evaluation ………………………………………….…………………………………………………5

Challenges in Teacher-Parent Relationships for Children Experiencing Adversity......................................7

Early Care and Education Challenges for Families Facing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Care Instability and Employment Disruptions .....................................................................................................8

Roots of Resilience: Teachers Awakening Children's Healing .....................................................................9

Observations of Learning Contexts in Home-Based Child Care .................................................................10

Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative ...............................................................................................11

Testing the Efficacy of an Ecological Approach to Family Intervention and Treatment During Early Elementary School to Prevent Problem Behavior and Improve Academic Outcomes (AKA The Kindergarten Study) ..................................................................................................................................13

Oregon’s Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) Validation Study One: Associations with Observed Program Quality ........................................................................................................................................15

Kindergarten Partnership and Innovations Evaluation: A Tool For Improving Family Engagement in Prenatal-Grade 3 Initiatives ......................................................................................................................17

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Child Care and Education Characteristics: Structural Indicators

Project Member(s): Bobbie Weber & Michaella Sektnan

Organization: Oregon Child Care Research Partnership

Web Link: Available by emailing Bobbie Weber or Michaella Sektnan

Contact Information: Oregon Child Care Research PartnershipOregon State University231 Hallie Ford CenterCorvallis, Oregon 97331Telephone: (541) 737-9243Email: [email protected]: [email protected]

Research Questions and Major findings:

Oregon has been capturing data on structural indicators of quality since 2006. Structural quality includes measurement of characteristics such as teacher education and training, teacher retention, teacher wages. Researchers think that having structural quality in place enables a program to have process quality, which in turn affects child outcomes. Oregon measures structural indicators of quality for all regulated child care and education programs annually. The 2014 data captures information associated with quality of child care and education in Oregon at the level of the state and the Early Learning Hubs. This data provides a snapshot of how child care and education varies across communities on some key characteristics.

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2016 Oregon Child Care Market Price Study

Project Member(s): Deana Grobe & Bobbie Weber

Organization: Prepared for Oregon Department of Human Services by Oregon State University

Web Link: Available on DHS's website sometime this fall

Contact Information: Deana Grobe: [email protected] Weber: [email protected]


The objectives of the year 2016 market price study were to: (a) identify current prices charged for child care (i.e., current market prices), and (b) identify the geographic distribution of current child care market prices across the state.

Between 1994 and 2016 statewide prices increased for most ages and types of care.

In small home-based child care the hourly price of toddler care increased 100% since 1994 while in center care the monthly price increased 130% in the same time period. Large home-based care toddler prices rose 60% from 2000 to 2016 (Large home-based care became known as certified family child care in 2002). The small home-based care graph displaying inflation-adjusted prices shows no consistent pattern in prices up through 2008. For center care, however, prices increased faster than inflation between 1999 and 2004. For the most part prices kept pace with inflation from 2004 through 2008 and then, increased faster than inflation between 2008 and 2016 especially for infant and toddler care. Large home-based care prices have been separated from those of small home-based child care since 2000. After adjusting for inflation prices remained fairly stable from 2000 through 2006, followed by a slight increase in prices from 2006 to 2016 for all age groups.

Child care markets are local with variation among communities.

When prices were analyzed by zip codes across Oregon, patterns around the state appeared. Urban areas and communities with large universities have higher prices than do more rural communities in the state. The market study validates the existence of three different (1-3) small home-based care price clusters and four different (1-4) center and large home-based child care markets or price clusters in Oregon. Higher cluster numbers represent zip codes with higher prices and vice versa for lower cluster numbers. The clusters were determined by using a statistical method that looks for groups or clusters that occur in the price data and provides a systematic way to find the optimal natural breaks between groups. The maps of 2016 clusters graphically depict how the prices vary across the state. These clusters by type of care capture distinct sets of prices regardless of age of child served.

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Oregon Early Learning Workforce: Two Years Beyond Baseline, Comparison of 2012 and 2014

Project Member(s): Bobbie Weber

Organization: Oregon Child Care Research PartnershipOregon State University

Web Link: http://health.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/occrp/pdf/oregon-early-learning-workforce-2014-report-final-09-12-16.pdf

Contact Information: Oregon Child Care Research PartnershipOregon State University231 Hallie Ford CenterCorvallis, Oregon 97331Telephone: (541) 737-9243Email: [email protected]


This brief, the third annual, describes Oregon’s early learning workforce in 2014. As of 2012, Oregon has had in place a system that allows it to answer policy-relevant questions about the early learning workforce employed in regulated child care and education facilities. This brief captures key characteristics of the 2014 workforce and compares them with those of the 2012 workforce. Annual reports enable the State to measure workforce turnover and provide decision makers with information critical for designing the training system. With access to three years of data, this study provides a new look at teacher retention.

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Contracted Slots Pilot Program Evaluation

Project Member(s): Bobbie Weber

Organization: Oregon State University

Web Link: http://health.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/occrp/pdf/cs-final-report-11-30-2015.pdf

Contact Information: Bobbie Weber: [email protected]


Goals of Pilot Project:

Children have access to continuous quality care and education, Families have continuity of quality child care and education to support their employment, and Providers have stable funding in serving children and families experiencing low incomes in

programs of documented quality.

Research Questions:

1. To what extent did participants and other stakeholders understand the purpose and goals of the Contracted Slots Pilot program?

2. To what extent did the implemented program meet expectations of those engaged in designing and implementing it?

3. Who participated in the Contracted Slots Pilot program?4. To what extent did the Contracted Slots Pilot program achieve its goals? To what extent did the

stakeholders perceive the program as meeting its goals?5. How was the program perceived by parents, directors of eligible programs, and those engaged

in implementing the pilot?6. What challenges emerged as the program was implemented?

Findings:

1. Stakeholders demonstrated a clear understanding of the Pilot project purpose and goals.2. For the most part, stakeholders reported not having expectations. Those that did, reported

being surprised at finding barriers to participation by programs.3. Participation levels:

a. Programs: 8 of 29 OHSPK programs participated for at least one year and all but 2 of the 22 eligible OPQ programs participated signed a contract for at least one year although not all enrolled children.

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b. Children: 889 children (duplicated number) participated in at least one year of the Pilot Program.

4. Goal Achievement:a. Continuity for children: Median duration was almost double that of children enrolled in

the voucher program (11 mo OPQ and 12 mo (OHSPK vs 6 months for children in the voucher program.

b. Stable employment for parents: Pilot participants were employed, on average, 7 of the 9 quarters observed compared with 5 of 9 quarters for those in the voucher program.

c. Providers: Directors of participating programs overwhelmingly reported positive impacts on financial and enrollment stability.

5. Parent perceptions were almost all positive. Programs reported a more mixed picture with disadvantages primarily associated with contracting and paperwork.

6. Challenges:a. IdMerging two agencies’ policies, practices, and priorities, b. Operationalizing protected eligibility,c. Operationalizing parent choices,d. Targeting families and programs,e. Monitoring compliance,f. Integrating or holding separate Oregon Head Start Prekindergarten programs,g. Contracting and procurement processes,h. Identifying data needs and collection processes, andi. Staffing

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Challenges in Teacher-Parent Relationships for Children Experiencing Adversity

Project Member(s): Shannon Lipscomb

Organization: Oregon State University – Cascades

Web Link:

Contact Information: Shannon T. LipscombAssociate Professor and Program Lead for Human Development and Family ScienceGraduate and Research CenterOregon State University-Cascades650 SW Columbia Bend, OR [email protected]

Research Questions and Major findings: This project is currently underway.

Research Questions: The current study examines associations between children’s adverse experiences (ACEs) and three aspects of teachers’ relationships with parents: agreement, support, and communication.

Preliminary Findings: Children with more ACEs tended to have lower levels of parent-teacher agreement. Specific ACEs (substance abuse, mother treated violently, neglect, and maternal depression) were also linked with the three aspects of teacher-parent relationships.

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Early Care and Education Challenges for Families Facing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Care Instability and Employment Disruptions


Organization: Oregon State University – Cascades

Web Link:


Research Questions and Major findings: This project is currently underway.

Research Questions:

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being longitudinal data set, we examine associations among children's ACEs at age three years, and families’ use of ECE (type, amount, subsidy use), as well as two markers of substantial barriers: ECE stability, and disruptions in parents’ work or school due to child care problems. To effectively inform efforts to support families we examine not only associations between the total number of ACEs and ECE experiences, but also between specific ACE indicators (e.g. abuse, neglect, violence against the mother, maternal depression, etc.) and specific ECE experiences.

Preliminary Findings

Three-year old children with more ACES had higher rates of out-of-home care, eligibility for subsidy, and center-based care. They also attended more hours per week of care. More ACEs were also associated with care instability, and parents missing and/or quitting work or school due to child care problems. These associations appear to be driven by specific ACE indicators (e.g. mother treated violently, maternal depression, and child neglect).

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Roots of Resilience: Teachers Awakening Children's Healing



Web Link: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/earlychildhood/current-projects/roots-of-resilience/



In this project we are developing and testing a new online professional development program for early childhood teachers about trauma. The goal of Roots of Resilience is to help teachers to care for and educate children who may have experienced trauma. The research we are conducting examines how well the program meets teachers' needs, how feasible it is for them to complete, and ultimately how effective it is in improving outcomes for children. This is a 4-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

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Observations of Learning Contexts in Home-Based Child Care

Project Member(s): Julie C. Rusby, Ryann Crowley, Laura B. Jones, & Keith Smolkowski

Organization: Oregon Research Institute

Web Link:

Contact Information: Julie C. RusbyEmail: [email protected]: (541) 484-2123


Research Findings: This observation study investigates the prevalence and correlates of learning contexts provided to preschool-age children in 133 registered child care homes in below average-income neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest, U.S.

On average, 30% of the observed proportion of time was spent in structured teacher-led activities, 51% in free-choice activities, 10% in routine activities, 1% in watching video/TV, and 7% in transition.

Home-based child care providers gave significantly more positive recognition during structured teacher-led activities and children engaged in more prosocial behavior during free-choice time.

Directives and noncompliance occurred more often during transitions. A higher child–to–caregiver ratio was associated with more time spent in free-choice time, and

caregiver experience and education were not associated with the time spent in specific learning contexts.

Implications for Practice and Policy: Similar to preschool and center-based child care, current practice in home-based child care is to offer a mix of structured teacher-led and free-choice activities. To facilitate young children’s skill development within these learning activities typically offered, increasing research and providing empirically-based professional development opportunities relevant to home-based child care settings is needed. Attention to home-based child care will likely reach many young children, and be particularly beneficial for those in low-income households.

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Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative

Project Member(s): Shauna Tominey & Michaella Sektnan


Web Link: www.orparenting.org

Contact Information: Shauna [email protected]

Michaella [email protected]


The Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative (OPEC) is a partnership between four of Oregon’s largest foundations (The Oregon Community Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and The Collins Foundation) and Oregon State University. The initiative supports expanded access to best practice parenting education programs, with a focus on programs reaching parents of children prenatal to age six, as well as supports efforts to develop and strengthen regional “Hubs” to coordinate parenting education opportunities. In addition to funding of parenting education throughout Oregon (14 hubs and 9 programming grants) and Northern California (1 hub), OPEC supports grantees through evaluation, technical assistance, and professional development led by Oregon State University.

The evaluation team uses a cluster evaluation method for initiating, conducting, and analyzing information from the 15 OPEC Hub and 9 programming grants. The cluster evaluation involves multiple methods and uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and research analysis. Over the first six years of the initiative (2010-2016), data was collected from over 18,290 parents, 430 community partners, and over 500 contacts were made with site coordinators through conference calls, site visits, phone interviews, and surveys.

Results indicate that the OPEC initiative is reaching a significant number of participants through the programming efforts and has had a positive impact on families and communities.

Increasing Organizational Capacity

Coordinators hired for each Hub to facilitate collaboration, coordination, and program planning Websites and social media tools developed to reach parents and community members Increase in parenting education classes being offered in languages other than English 974 facilitators trained in evidence-based curricula

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$19.5 million dollars of new funds and in-kind support leveraged

Building Community Capacity

A diversity of community agencies are partnering with the OPEC initiative including: Department of Human Services, Commissions on Children and Families, Head Start, Healthy Start, schools, health departments, faith-based community, and community colleges.

As part of their strategic planning process, hubs collected input from over 6,700 parents and 370 community partners to identify strengths and gaps in parenting education in Hub regions. Community partners indicate the OPEC initiative is:

Creating community awareness of the importance of parenting education Reducing the stigma associated with parenting education Benefitting families in the community Building a common vision for parenting education Promoting networking and exchange of information Sharing resources to implement programming Coordinating efforts to avoid duplication of services

Increasing Positive Parenting Capacity

Increasing positive parenting capacity among parents is the primary objective of the OPEC initiative. OPEC sites utilize a variety of strategies to engage parents in educational opportunities leading to improved parenting outcomes. Cumulative programming numbers for the initiative include:

17,984 parents participated in 20,167 classes as part of 1,950 multi-week parenting series 6,270 new families reached through home visits 429,335 parent/child participants in 17,252 family programs Participating parents report significant improvement in parenting knowledge, skills, and

behaviors as well as significant improvement in their child’s behavior after participating in class series.

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Testing the Efficacy of an Ecological Approach to Family Intervention and Treatment During Early Elementary School to Prevent Problem Behavior and Improve Academic Outcomes (AKA The

Kindergarten Study)

Project Member(s): Elizabeth Stormshak, Laura Lee McIntyre, S. Andrew Garbacz, Allison Caruthers, Corrina Falkenstein, Jenna Wheeler, Whitney Nash, Daryl Ford

Organization: Prevention Science Institute, University of Oregon

Web Link: http://psi.uoregon.edu/

Contact Information: Dr. Allison Caruthers, Project [email protected]


The transition to elementary school is a critical time for the development of key skills that are necessary for school success. Parent support at home, such as positive parenting and support for learning, is associated with school readiness indicators that predict successful school outcomes. For many children at risk for poor developmental outcomes, this transition to elementary school can be difficult and may lead to early academic problems, which in turn may lead to a pattern of poor school performance. This randomized intervention trial, funded by the U.S. Department of Education/Institute of Education Sciences (R324A130002; E. Stormshak, PI), is designed to link families and children with cost effective, efficient, and scientifically supported interventions that will improve student behavior and academic outcomes. It is anticipated that children and families who receive the support provided through this intervention will show improvement in academic skills through the early elementary school years.

For this study, 365 families with a child entering kindergarten were recruited and randomly assigned to the Family Check-Up (FCU) or an elementary school as-usual condition. The overall goals of the study are:

1. Test the efficacy of the FCU in comparison with a randomly assigned control condition for reducing the growth of problem behaviors and academic problems in early elementary school.

2. Test the efficacy of the FCU on the proposed mediators in this model, including parenting skills, children’s self-regulation, and early literacy skills in early elementary school.

3. Understand moderating factors related to engagement of families in the intervention and successful school adaptation, including behavioral adjustment and academic competence.

Data collection began in the Fall of 2014. Staff from our Portland office are working with 2 cohorts of students from 5 ethnically and economically diverse elementary schools in the North Clackamas School District. Data collection will be underway until the end of the school year in June 2018, once Cohort 2 finishes 2nd grade. The assessment battery includes parent and teacher screeners collected within the

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first few weeks of kindergarten and again at the end of the school year. It also includes a more in-depth parent survey of family stress and support, children’s health and behavior, family management skills, and the home-school connection. These parent surveys, along with videotaped family observations and school records, will be collected annually for three years, from kindergarten through second grade. As with other FCU studies, the main targets of intervention include improving family management skills, children’s self-regulation and social competency skills, and decreasing problem behavior, such as aggression and oppositional behavior at home and at school. Additional intervention targets unique to this study include academic learning skills, such as early literacy skills and identification of learning disability.

Preliminary analyses were conducted with data from 161 children in Cohort 1 (control = 78, FCU = 83) in three stages. First, analyses indicated that with this preliminary sample, the study achieved baseline equivalence based on parent- and teacher report of child behavior problems as well as student sex. Second, a significant effect associated with random assignment to condition was found for change in teacher report of student emotional and behavior problems from fall of wave 1 to fall of wave 2, F(1, 95) = 12.24, p = .001, partial η2 = .11. Third, ITT analysis was conducted with the three intervention conditions (i.e., no feedback, feedback only, feedback plus treatment) and the control condition. There was a significant effect for change in teacher report of student concerns from fall of wave 1 to fall of wave 2, F(3, 93) = 5.95, p = .001, partial η2 = .16, with the feedback plus treatment group demonstrating a greater decrease in teacher report of child emotional and behavior problems from fall of wave 1 to fall of wave 2. Analyses will be repeated this winter once Cohort 2 Wave 2 fall data collection has been completed.

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Oregon’s Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) Validation Study One: Associations with Observed Program Quality

Project Member(s): Shannon Lipscomb, Bobbie Weber, Beth Green, & Lindsey Patterson

Organization: Oregon State University, Cascades and Corvallis;Portland State University

Web Link: Will be posted at http://health.oregonstate.edu/sbhs/family-policy-program/

Contact Information: Shannon Lipscomb: [email protected] Weber: [email protected] Green: [email protected] Patterson: [email protected]


This paper reports the findings from the first of two studies designed to validate Oregon's QRIS ratings. This first study, focuses on associations of QRIS ratings and measures of observed quality using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). The second study focuses on associations of QRIS ratings and measures of child engagement (Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS)) and family engagement (Family and Provider/Teacher Relationship Quality Rating(FPTRQ)). Data collection for the second study is nearing completion.

Study One:

The Validation Study sample included 304 programs (levels 1-5) that were observed using standardized measures of adult-child interaction quality.

Research questions and major findings for Study One were:

1. What is the quality of programs in the QRIS Validation Study, as indicated by CLASS scores and QRIS ratings?

Fifty-eight of the 304 programs met criteria for being identified as level 1 and thus had no QRIS Rating. Of the 246 rated programs (2-5), ), over one-third (37%) were Level 2, nearly one-third were star-Level 3 (30%) and one-third were rated star-Levels 4 or 5 (33%). Overall program-level average CLASS scores in the Validation Study were in the upper end of the “mid” range for Emotional Support (approximately 5.0) and Organizational Support (4.5), and at the upper end of the “low” range for Instructional Support (2.5). These scores are similar to those documented in other studies using the CLASS (Hatfield et al., 2016; Burchinal et al., 2010).

2. How highly correlated are the QRIS domains and standards with one another?

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The five domains of the QRIS were highly correlated, as were the standards within each domain. This was likely a result of the portfolio/block structure of Oregon’s QRIS. These high correlations present three primary challenges:

a. QRIS rating data do not appear to be capturing the full variability of programs’ actual practices in each of the five domains, and/or differences between programs practices across different domains (e.g. Learning and Development versus Family Partnerships).

b. It is very difficult to identify specific standards and/or domains of the QRIS that are most clearly linked with observed quality. The correlation between a given standard and observed quality reflects not only the actual association among the standard and observed quality, but also the links between other standards and observed quality.

c. High inter-correlations mean that individual standards and/or domains do not contribute much unique or additional information about programs.

3. How well do programs’ QRIS ratings differentiate observed quality of adult-child interactions?

Overall, programs that achieved a 3-, 4-, or 5- star rating had significantly higher quality adult-child interactions, as measured by the CLASS, than those at level 1 or 2. These differences were small to medium in size, depending on type of program and the age group of children or CLASS tool examined.

4. How do certain QRIS standards & indicators of interest relate to observed quality?

Findings from exploratory analysis of specific QRIS standards revealed some small, significant links between specific standards and observed quality on the CLASS. Given the high correlations among the QRIS standards we are more confident in identifying standards that are not well-linked with the CLASS than we are in identifying “the few and powerful” QRIS standards.

5. How well are other personnel measures associated with observed quality and final QRIS ratings?

By accessing two additional sets of personnel measures from Oregon Registry Online that were not part of QRIS ratings the Validation Study team was able to more adequately assess the associations of personnel measures with observed quality. Personnel measures constructed from ORO, such as the Structural Indicators, were at least as consistently linked with CLASS scores as were the PQ ratings. This increases confidence in validation findings and points to ORO as an efficient source of personnel data linked to quality.

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Kindergarten Partnership and Innovations Evaluation: A Tool For Improving Family Engagement in Prenatal-Grade 3 Initiatives

Project Member(s): Beth Green & Lindsay Patterson

Organization: Portland State University & Oregon Early Learning Division

Web Link: For more information on the Family Engagement Self-Assessment Tool (FE-SAT) please visit: http://www.pdx.edu/ccf/sites/www.pdx.edu.ccf/files/FE-SAT%207-6-16_FINAL.pdf

Contact Information: Beth Green: [email protected]

Lindsey Patterson: [email protected]


As part of the Kindergarten Partnership and Innovation Evaluation, researchers at Portland State University's Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services developed a tool for local communities to use to engage in a process of improving their family engagement strategies. The tool, known as the Family Engagement Self-Assessment, provides a framework for community groups to review, assess, and strategize to improve the intensity and effectiveness of a variety of Family Engagement activities. The tool is free and available for use.

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