About half of statewide Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS) refer to the state’s
Early Learning Guidelines (ELGs), most often in standards that require staff training
in how to implement ELGs or the use of a curriculum or learning activities aligned
with ELGs. This brief provides a further examination of the strength of supports
for children’s early learning in QRIS standards and an analysis of QRIS standards.
To read the full report, click here.
WELS delivers single sign-on technologies for its QRIS Portal. One of the challenges
of inter-connected web apps is the number of user names and passwords providers
need to remember. We are working on a set of standards to allow seamless integration
with other websites needed during the QRIS self-assessment process.
We have developed an open interface for authentication that support passing our
secured credentials to other websites like registries and assessment data collectors.
In this interface, a user simply clicks on a link and WELS sends them to the other
website using a secure protocol. The linked website accepts WELS’ credentials for
the user and grants access accordingly.
This simplifies the providers’ online experience when applying for QRIS or submitting
self-assessments through the WELS Provider and Parent Portal.
And our method works across homogenous Web platforms. We can work with Windows,
Linux, Apple, Oracle, and IBM application servers. By using open standards, our
solution is very easy to implement by other vendors and proprietary systems.
Ana Sejeck has recently joined the WELS Systems Foundation as its COO. Ana Sejeck
is going to focus on the administrative side of the WELS Systems Foundation. She
will also support both the marketing and sales aspects for our future prospects.
Previously, she was the COO of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation for over
13 years. The foundation’s work focuses on providing parents and caregivers with
information and supports so children are ready for first grade. In that position,
Ana was the program director for the Kellogg Foundation-funded program SPARK – a
longitudinal study of 1,600 children and their families being followed from age
3 to second grade. She led the Ready Schools Miami work which involved multiple
community partners and the work of improving quality throughout Miami-Dade County
in early care and education centers and elementary schools. Both projects focused
on improving child outcomes.
She also brings her experience from working on Wall Street for both PaineWebber
and Smith Barney, as well as Knight Ridder and The Miami Herald. She is a trustee
of the board for United Way of Miami-Dade.
She lives in Miami with her husband David, a high school English teacher. She is
the mother of 5 children and has four magnificent and brilliant grandchildren.
After a two year field test of their quality rating and improvement system, The
Department of Early Learning (DEL) received a generous grant from the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation to develop a QRIS data system that supported our goals of collecting
facility level assessment data but also allowed for comprehensive system analysis
by tracking and storing statewide QRIS data at all levels including coaching data,
quality improvement goals and milestones and incentive allocation. This was identified
as a crucial step toward statewide expansion and following a competitive bidding
process, DEL determined that WELS most closely met our needs and incredibly ambitious
timeline.
DEL is in the first stages of collecting facility data at the local/regional level
and entering assessment data into the WELS system for Early Achievers, Washington
State’s QRIS . System partners across the state have received comprehensive training
and are beginning to use it in real time after months of development and testing.
Participants who have completed their Early Achievers Registration and have started
the process of working on subsequent activities are also interfacing with the system
for the first time as they begin working on their facility self-assessments. It
was a great benefit to have a data system that could be modified to meet the specific
needs of our program.
To learn more about Early Achievers, visit their website.
WELS: An Architectural Overview
BY John Fiedler and Muriel Wong
WELS Overview
WELS is a state-of-the-art data management/consolidation/process system for early learning and school-age programs. Our software is web-centric, accessible to any user using standard browsers. WELS supports technical assistance, rating, assessment, and professional services in a single, centralized, location, and is specifically designed to be flexible and easy to use. Our customers attest that WELS is the only fully customizable QRIS/Early Education system available today, featuring flexibility and ease of use, advanced reporting tools, specialized support for technical assistance and quality assurance planning, and a focus on the process (time, investment, and outcomes).
WELS includes everything needed to consolidate and process information needed for technical assistance, rating, and outcome analysis. WELS includes site information (like professional staff and classroom information); observations (checklists and assessment data); and funding/returns information (hours, grants, costs). WELS supports technical assistance by automating needs analysis, creating quality improvement plans, capturing visit and notes, tracking TA time and Provider progress, providing calendars and resources like our Knowledge Center, and supplying tools like our Provider’s Portal to streamline the TA/Site process. WELS automatically rates programs, consistently and accurately, and provides explanations. A robust reporting subsystem includes filtered, scheduled, and automatically routed reports, in several formats. A data repository is available for ad hoc analyses.
We offer the following modules:
1. The QRIS Module takes advantage of all data sources and automates a quality rating, based on QRIS standards.
Explanations are provided about how each rating is achieved, and rating histories are readily available. Once a rating reviewed and approved, WELS produces strength and opportunity report for each standard. This data then generates a quality improvement plan based on these strengths and opportunities. A history of ratings is maintained detailing rating determination.
2. The Staff Qualifications and Professional Development Module provides individual staff profiles of staff credentials and professional development. Staff information includes primary language, classroom assignments, and amount of time in current position for determining retention. WELS keeps track of scholarships and grant awards for professional development, and reports on staff credentials and professional development. WELS can interface with existing Professional Development Registries that link credentials to a teacher/assigned classroom and provide verified staff credentials for determining a QRIS rating. State Administrators benefit by having a consolidated and centralized database of providers down to the classroom level.
3. The Assessment Module manages the assignment and assessment process. Supervisors can assign and track assessments, visits and progress. Assessment results, such as for the Environmental Rating Scale (ERS) toolset, PAS, BAS, and CLASS (PreK, Toddler and Prek-3), and ELLCO can be entered manually or brought into the system
4. The Technical Assistance Module supports all facets of technical assistance. Each Coach or Technical (TA) is able to work hand-in-hand with providers to create QIPs based on results from needs identified by assessments and checklists. Action plans are created with the help of resources presented by the shopping cart and knowledge center, all targeted directly and specifically to the identified needs. Timeframes can be set and documented, and responsibilities can be assigned to each task. Reports show plan status — like tasks completed, in progress or not started — and can be emailed or printed. Notes on visits can be linked to work plans to enforce accountability. Site hours for technical assistance are captured with detailed monthly statements of number of hours invested. Invoices for technical assistants can be generated on a monthly basis if needed.
The TA Activity Log keeps track of visits based on topic areas, hours and dates devoted to these areas. A time log for each coach can be generated detailing all visits and documentation for all facilities assigned to a coach. If a facility has several coaches, each coach is able to document their tasks and visits, providing a virtual tool for keeping coaches in communication on facility support efforts and technical assistance provided.
5. Our shopping cart graphically suggests items based on needs determined by assessments. A back end supports the ordering process from multiple vendors, from initial order through closure, streamlining the process for your organization. Our Knowledge Center allows clients to create and use information resources (e.g., posters, how- to guides, standards, tip sheets). Both tools, the shopping cart and Knowledge Center, are available during the Provider and a TA to use data from assessments and checklists results and are automatically offered as plans are developed. As part of our Knowledge Center resources, we have partnered with Child Care Exchange, who will provide over 300 articles linked to Standards available to both TA and Providers through the Portal.
6. Our Calendar keeps track of community events, scheduled visits, training sessions, and assessments. Staff members can view their schedules and make appointments; managers can tell at a glance where staff are in the field, and all participating agencies can keep on top of scheduled meetings and training opportunities. Our blog provides a convenient place for communicating helpful information or posing questions among data system partners.
7. Our Funding Module provides detailed reporting on site investments and benefits – tracking professional development, support grants, scholarships, and expenses like purchases and TA time at site costs.
8. Security and Maintenance Modules provide the mechanisms to control data and application access, and to customize and tailor the applications to your needs.
9. Our data repository (PRISM) allows clients to analyze data directly. Prism provides extensive information for reporting, outcome analysis, and trending over the time domain. All data is available for use with the range of Excel options (charting, regression analysis, scoring trends over time; ratings correlated to location or investments.)
10. Our Multi-lingual Pro vid er’ s P o rta l allows site Directors and FCC Providers to remain in touch with and directly contribute to the process. The Portal allows Directors/Providers to apply for programs, to supply and update information as needed, access Knowledge Center resources, and even do self-assessments that 4. The Technical Assistance Module supports all facets of technical assistance. Each Coach or Technical Assistance
For more information go to http://welsfoundation.org
The Build Initiative has made a priority in working to ensure that issues of equity and diversity are addressed within all early childhood systems development work. BUILD has released a series of briefs that focus on how QRIS strengthen and advance issues of equity and diversity within QRIS rating components that are more culturally and linguistically competent and relevant. One of the briefs, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for a Multi-Ethnic Society,written by Charles Bruner with Aisha Ray, Michelle Stover Wright and Abby Copeman, was to based on the following questions:
WELS QRIS Data System News 