Challenge

Over 47,000 children under the age of 5 live in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties in South Carolina. The area is home to numerous social support and education programs for young children and their families. Despite these programs, more than half of the children entering kindergarten in the fall of 2018 did not meet kindergarten readiness standards in phonics, numeracy, and social and emotional development.^[1] These children were disproportionately Black and Hispanic, and/or came from low-income households. For these groups of students, disparities persist and even worsen as children continue in their schooling. In 2018, only 28% of Black children and 32% of Hispanic children met 3rd grade reading proficiency levels, compared to 68% of White children.^[2]

Early years form the foundation of a child’s academic and social success. Those who start kindergarten on track tend to stay on track and those who start behind often find it difficult to catch up. To ensure all children start school ready to succeed, communities must create early childhood systems that promote and support the development of the whole child. Simultaneously, service providers need to use evidence-based, child-centered, and developmentally and culturally appropriate curricula and practices within systems that work with children.

Overview

With funding from the Duke Endowment, Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative (TCCC) and Root Cause are partnering to strengthen a cohort of local early childhood service providers with continuous quality improvement (CQI) coaching. CQI is the process of collecting, analyzing, and using data to improve the quality of services being delivered. Coaching by Root Cause will help local providers strengthen their capacity to collect and use data to improve program quality, towards the ultimate goal of increasing rates of kindergarten readiness among children in the community.

A part of Root Cause’s process for CQI includes assessing each organization. Program leaders take an assessment that focuses on Program Quality and Performance Measurement Capacity. The assessment uncovers opportunities to apply CQI practices that strengthen quality across these domains:

• Accessibility: How do programs address barriers to participation for marginalized populations?
• Use of Evidence: How do programs use research to inform their approach?
• Trauma-Informed Practice: How are programs designed to address the consequences of trauma and to facilitate healing?
• Family Engagement: How do programs systematically involve families in their planning, development, and evaluations of programs designed to serve them?
• Referral Process: How do programs coordinate services with other providers?

Root Cause then works with programs to analyze and apply assessment data in the design of a capacity improvement plan that strengthens program quality and performance measurement practices.

Sources:

^[1] https://tricountycradletocareer.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/FINAL-2019-TCCC-Regional-Education-Report-Chapter-5.pdf
^[2] https://tricountycradletocareer.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/FINAL-2019-TCCC-Regional-Education-Report-Chapter-5.pdf

Root Cause will work with TCCC through 2021. First, Root Cause worked with TCCC to introduce the CQI Initiative to the community and develop trusting partnerships with key stakeholders, particularly grassroots and community leaders, across the Tri-County area. Together, TCCC and Root Cause formed a working group and selected eight programs to participate in the cohort:

• Communities In Schools Charleston
• Early Head Start Child Care Partnership
• Father to Father Inc.
• First Steps Berkeley County
• First Steps Dorchester County
• Parents as Teachers
• Parent Child Interaction Therapy Charleston
• Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina’s Residential Program for Pregnant Teens

Root Cause will conduct an assessment with each participating program and will use the results to develop continuous improvement plans with program teams. Over the course of 15 months, Root Cause will provide individual coaching to strengthen cohort members’ CQI practices and service quality. As a result, we expect participating programs will show measurable progress over the course of the coaching, based on their initial assessment.

Key stakeholders of the initiative will met regularly to assess progress and identify lessons learned to support continuous improvement. Root Cause helped build the capacity of TCCC so that they have all of the knowledge, materials, and tools to continue implementing all aspects of the CQI initiative once the project concluded. 

To learn more about continuous quality improvement for social service providers visit our Continuous Quality Resource Library.