Independent study faults Georgia day care quality

Two-thirds of Georgia day care center classrooms offer low-quality care for infants and toddlers, according to an independent study released in late March. These feature “environments that are inadequate for their health and safety,” according to the report. Preschool programs are generally somewhat better, and the Georgia Pre-K program was found to provide “medium” quality care and education.

The state hired the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, based at the University of North Carolina, to evaluate the quality of the state’s early childhood programs. The institute is one of the nation’s largest centers for studying children and young families, and day care quality is one of its specialties.

The report was completed in December but wasn’t released by the state Department of Early Care and Learning until March 26. The department, also called Bright from the Start, regulates day care and Georgia pre-K programs.

Holly Robinson, commissioner of the department, said the state commissioned the $526,000 study to provide a baseline of child care quality and to target investments for improvement.

“It takes a good bit of courage to do this,” said Luann Purcell of Warner Robins, chairwoman of the Department of Early Care and Learning board. “You can just say you’re getting better, but when you do an independent study you really put yourself out there.”

She said the study results validated changes the board has been making, including increasing teacher education requirements and strengthening rules governing health, safety and education at early child care centers.

This is all important because research has shown a link between the quality of child care and the future academic and social skills of the children, the UNC study noted.

“If you’re serious about the dropout problem, you’ve got to put money into babies and toddlers,” Purcell said.

UNC researchers randomly selected 173 child care centers and Georgia Pre-K programs for the study. They observed classes at each location, reviewed written records kept by the centers, and asked teachers and directors to report on their own practices. Participating programs were promised anonymity.

“The information on infants and toddlers is incredibly alarming,” said Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, president of the nonprofit advocacy and training organization Georgia Association on Young Children.

The study indicated that these low-performing classrooms were characterized by multiple safety hazards, few age-appropriate toys, teachers with inappropriate expectations for child behavior and neglect of recommended health practices such as hand washing.

“We knew we needed to make some investment with infant-toddler care, but the results were probably a little lower than we expected,” said Bentley Ponder, research and evaluation manager for Bright from the Start.

Thirty-five percent of preschool classes that were not part of the Georgia Pre-K program also were rated as having low quality. Only 5 percent of early child care settings (outside Georgia Pre-K) were considered high quality, according to the study.

The Georgia Pre-K program classes provided “medium” quality: a generally safe environment with access to good quality materials, but activities and interactions could be more meaningful and purposeful.

The study reached some positive conclusions. In almost all cases, the day care and Georgia Pre-K programs met Georgia’s standards for the number of students in each class and for an appropriate number of teachers for the class size. Most used a curriculum, evaluated children’s progress and encouraged parent involvement. Generally, the Georgia Pre-K programs provided a high level of emotional support to children.

The problem common to both day care and Georgia Pre-K settings was a low level of instructional support.

Researchers found that 80 percent of preschool classrooms (varying from 2- to 4-year-olds) offered less than “basic” support for language and literacy skills.

The report said the struggle to provide high instructional quality in pre-kindergarten programs occurs nationally. In the case of Georgia Pre-K, it may be partly due to the large number of children served, which makes oversight more challenging, the report noted. About half the 4-year-olds in Georgia attended Georgia Pre-K in 2007-08, the school year on which most of the research was based.

Mary Mazarky, assistant commissioner for Georgia Pre-K, said the state already knew it was focusing its Pre-K monitoring on compliance more than instructional quality.

“But what we did discover from the study was, the mandated training was not as connected to the classroom level as it needed to be,” she said. Pre-K consultants will be conducting more follow-up and mentoring to help teachers implement what they’ve learned, she said.

The study examined many quality factors related to staffing, such as turnover rates, education, and ongoing training.

The state requires 10 hours a year of continued training for early child care providers, but 36 percent of infant/toddler lead teachers and 42 percent of assistant teachers for the same age group reported they didn’t even get that many hours. (The same was true for 24 percent of lead preschool teachers.)

Neuharth-Pritchett credited the state for putting stimulus funds toward helping early child care teachers obtain a Child Development Associate credential or higher, and toward working one-on-one with problem day cares.

“We’re passing rules and then using stimulus funds to support those rules,” Robinson said.

But stimulus funds won’t cover all the improvements that need to be made, she said. Robinson said she has tried to use the funds for resources like teaching modules that can be used when the one-time cash infusion is gone. The UNC study concluded that more funding must be dedicated to early childhood care in Georgia.

Bright from the Start is funded mostly through Georgia lottery proceeds. Of the remainder, a little less than 30 percent of funding comes from the federal government, and less than 1 percent comes from the state budget, Robinson said.

“I feel like the state is making incremental change,” Neuharth-Pritchett said. “Unfortunately, Georgia tends to be known for our lower-quality early care and education. ... I’m encouraged by Bright from the Start’s response to the study, not denying it but taking it head-on and moving in the right direction.”

To contact writer S. Heather Duncan, call 744-4225.