Washington, D.C. -- Today, the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative released an issue brief, "A Stimulus for Second-Generation QRIS," which outlines how states can build ratings systems that assess and improve quality in the nation's preschools, child care centers, and family-based care settings. This report comes at a critical time, as the states are beginning to receive stimulus funds, which could be used to support the creation or improvement of these rating systems.

Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are already in place in 17 states and the District of Columbia, and 28 other states are developing or ready to pilot a statewide QRIS. This issue brief, by the initiative's program associate, Christina Satkowski, explains how QRIS can improve quality in early education, outlines ways these states and others can effectively use stimulus dollars to create or expand QRIS, and describes efforts necessary to sustain QRIS efforts nationwide.

"QRIS is a proven way to improve quality among both public and private providers of early childhood education and care," said Satkowski. "Yet QRIS is an expensive investment, and the states should be careful when allocating stimulus dollars to support QRIS." Recommendations for ways to use stimulus funds to support QRIS include:

• Fund research to inform the development of QRIS, such as an early childhood workforce assessment or a feasibility study.
• Fund media campaigns to raise parents' awareness of QRIS. This could include advertisements, mailings, or banners for rated providers to display outside their facilities.
• Create a one-time "stimulus grant" program that would encourage providers to boost quality despite the economic downturn and help raise provider awareness about quality.