As an early education provider, do you know how parents are making decisions about where to send their children? On this site, find information and resources to help you ensure you are providing a high-quality early education experience for the children you serve. Visit our Professional Development page for more information on available trainings to help early education teachers build your knowledge and skills.
Quality child care and early education may mean different things to different people. Virginia Beach helps parents by defining quality in terms of what has been proven to provide the optimal learning environment for young children. What does that mean for you as a provider? Below are simple guidelines to help you assess your center’s environment and instructional practices, with added information on enrolling in our local quality rating and improvement system, VSQI.
Sources: www.smartbeginningsshr.org, www.preknow.org, www.dss.virginia.gov/family/cc
The Virginia Quality Initiative (VQ) was created to provide a consistent way to distinguish programs committed to quality, allowing families to make more informed choices and allowing child care providers a way to improve the quality of their services. This voluntary quality rating and improvement system for early childhood settings awards programs that choose to participate one of four quality levels. Rated providers are demonstrating their commitment to quality beyond expectation or requirement. But the rating is only the first step of the VQ process. After receiving an initial rating, programs are able to self- pace their continuous quality improvement and are given tools and services to achieve top quality.
To get more information on how your center can enroll in VQ, contact Heather Kitis, VQ Program Coordinator at: (757) 822-5225 or email: virginiaquality@tcc.edu.
The answer could be in the level Virginia Quality is the “consumer reports” of childcare; a tool to help parents recognize quality in early childhood settings. Centers receive level ratings on four nationally recognized quality standards and best practices: Staff Education & qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment, Environment, and Interactions.
Unsure if your center is participates in VQ? Ask! Or, go directly to the Virginia Quality website where the ratings are published. Search by city or center name to find out how many stars the center earned in their most recent rating. On this site, you can also learn about the tools that are used in the rating and more information of the four quality standards: teacher education and qualifications, curriculum and assessment, environment and interactions.
Building on state licensing standards, VQ provides a method to assess, improve and communicate the level of quality in early care and education settings that families consider for their children. The rating scale defines standards for early childhood education, provides accountability measures, supports centers in improving and maintaining higher quality programs and improves the information available to parents.
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GrowSmart’s mission is to promote and improve the healthy development, school readiness, and reading proficiency of young children, ages 0-8, in Virginia Beach.
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