
Introduction
A growing body of research demonstrating the benefits of high-quality early care and education (ECE) programs for young children, particularly those in families with low incomes, has inspired a strong commitment from both federal and state officials to improve the quality of ECE programs nationwide. Policymakers, administrators, and program and center directors have limited guidance about how to fulfill this goal and would benefit from actionable information about the cost of high-quality care and the use of center-level resources to guide decision-making.
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families contracted with Mathematica to conduct the Assessing the Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education, or ICHQ project to develop two sets of center-level measures. The measures capture (1) implementation of activities that can support quality in ECE centers serving children from birth to age 5 (not yet in kindergarten) and (2) the costs to provide care and services. By summarizing how services are provided, how center resources are used, and the associated costs of care and services, the combined ICHQ implementation and cost measures will help policymakers, administrators, and program and center directors connect decisions about day-to-day operations to the larger question of how to allocate limited resources to provide high-quality ECE.

Purpose
The goals of ICHQ are to (1) produce technically sound, systematic measures of the implementation and costs of education and care in center-based settings that serve children from birth to age 5 (not yet in kindergarten); (2) produce implementation and cost measures to examine the variation in ECE center capacities and resources that can make a difference in quality and the experiences of children; and (3) develop a feasible and useful instrument to guide the collection, development, and reporting of the measures. The measures are intended for use in research to examine and explain variations in quality, in practice to inform quality improvement, and in policy to inform funding and technical assistance.
Key Findings and Highlights
This project snapshot provides key background and reference information about the project. It provides an overview of the project as a whole including the purpose of the ICHQ measures, the key tasks and products, and who can use the ICHQ measures in the future. The key tasks of the project include consultations with a technical expert panel, producing a literature review, developing a conceptual framework, conducting a multi-case study of ECE centers to develop measures of implementation and cost, pursuing a field test to test and validate the measures, and creating a User’s Guide to support collection, construction, and use of the measures.
Implications for Next Steps
The measures are not yet fully validated, meaning they have not been tested in a large, representative sample of centers to look at associations with center quality or children’s outcomes. A field test in 2021 further tested the measures with a purposive sample of 80 centers in 4 states.
The ICHQ implementation and cost measures have the potential to support the efforts of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to better understand pathways to achieving high quality. They can also inform decisions about the level of resources needed and how to best use resources across key functions at the center level to deliver high-quality early care and education
Citation
ICHQ project team. “Project Snapshot: Measuring the Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education.” OPRE Brief #2022-24. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, US. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022.
Glossary
- ECE:
- Early care and education
- Center:
- Refers to a specific physical location where ECE classroom-based services are provided to children birth to 5 years (not yet in kindergarten).
- Data collection tools:
- An interview protocol, cost workbook, and staff time-use survey that collect the information and data used to create the measures.
- Measures:
- Constructed from the collected data to summarize levels of implementation and estimate costs of center operations.
- Key functions:
- Five areas of center operations that contribute to high quality care. Each of five key functions are defined by a specific set of activities and practices. All ECE centers carry out the key functions to varying degrees to provide services to young children and their families.