Child care and education are important inputs in the human capital production function. The research of Nobel prize winner James Heckman shows that skills are built from the early childhood on and increase the returns of later educational inputs, in short: skill begets skill. Therefore, it is...

Many preschool-age children in the U.S. attend center-based child care programs that are of low quality. This paper examines the extent to which teacher qualifications – widely considered important inputs to classroom quality - are valued by providers during the hiring process. To do so, we...

This report presents findings from an exploratory analysis of administrative data from three QRISs. The analyses examine the prevalence of quality components across centers and how they combine to result in an overall rating level and to predict observed quality.

This in-depth study describes what is conceptualized as quality and how it is measured in five QRISs.

In this commentary, we discuss the current state of QRIS research and evaluation, expectations for the research currently under way, and aspirations for the future of QRIS research. By reviewing the types of submissions received for the special issue and addressing methodological and conceptual...

This report focuses on approaches used by QRISs in Indiana and Pennsylvania to connect with and build on the programs and resources that exist within the early childhood care and education system.

This paper combines multiple data sources to study the impact of the minimum wage on service quality and consumer well-being within the child care market. Although child care firms increase teacher pay in response to minimum wage reforms, we find no impact on employment levels. Instead,...

Effective early childhood intervention and child care policies should be based on an understanding of the effects of child care quality and type on child well-being. This article describes methods for securing unbiased estimates of these effects from nonexperimental data. It focuses on...