Facts In Action

"There is simply no doubt that we have a long way to go in appropriately managing the [Massachusetts] child care system, and coming up with fundamental information about who is using care, how they are accessing it, and how they are paying for it is very hard to do. And if you can't answer those questions you can't start having larger discussions about where you want to make improvements."

While a great deal still needs to be done to improve the quality, the accessibility, and the affordability of early care and education, the benchmarks set by Boston EQUIP's community-based advisory have helped shape state and local policy, placing Boston in a league of its own.

Nearly a decade ago, community and state leaders began to recognize the importance of community assessment and planning when developing strategies to promote positive change in the field of early care and education. Communities and states struggled to find ways to measure the supply, cost, and quality of child care to identify gaps in services and set benchmarks to measure progress.

In 1994, Boston was one of four sites awarded a grant from AT&T to help communities develop assessment tools to evaluate the current state of the field and to create innovative strategies for improving quality, access, and affordability of early care and education.

Boston — along with Kansas City, Oregon, and West Virginia — used the funding from AT&T to develop the Early Childhood Quality Improvement Project (EQUIP). Associated Early Care and Education, then Associated Day Care Services, was selected to serve as the coordinating and the managing agency for Boston EQUIP.

From the start, Boston EQUIP drew upon existing relationships and built new relationships with members of the early care and education community to create an advisory committee. Members of the advisory committee worked together to develop a survey that assessed the quality of child care in the city. The final product, the Boston Inventory, surveyed child care centers, family child care, public preschool programs, Head Start programs, and after school programs throughout Boston.

The results from the first survey were shocking. Only 8 percent of centers were accredited, only $500,000 was invested annually to improve child care facilities, and the average hourly wage of child care center teachers was only $9.92.

Members of the advisory committee used the initial data from the Inventory to set Boston EQUIP benchmarks — goals for the field to attain by the year 2000 — for improving services in the areas of accreditation, training, compensation, parent empowerment, and facilities. In 1996, more than 35 groups used the inventory data to plan, advocate, and bring funds into the city. Advisory members also used the data to develop a Boston EQUIP strategic plan to help the community improve the quality of the child care delivery system.

Boston EQUIP has repeated its citywide quality inventory three more times — in 1997, 1999 and 2001 — to document the progress towards the benchmarks and to educate members of the community about the status of early care and education in their neighborhood and citywide. Community members have used this information to help develop community-building strategies to help address the child care needs of families in each neighborhood.

As of the last survey, conducted in 2001, the number of accredited centers went from 8 percent to 29 percent; over $3 million new dollars are invested in facility development and improvement each year - compared to $500,000 from the first report; and the average hourly wage of teachers in child care centers has risen from $9.92 to $12.23.

Massachusetts and Boston are just beginning to deal with the effects of the economic downturn. Based on our current understanding of proposed funding changes, local resources devoted to early care and education will be replaced by direct funding of services by the state. Local decision making about resource allocation will cease to exist or will be dramatically reduced. In light of these changes, it is even more critical to measure the effects of the economy on the quality of early care and education at the local level. It is also essential that members of the community have access to specific information about the child care in their neighborhood. Community members will now have to pull together to educate not only themselves, but also their legislators, about how to best allocate child care resources locally.

In the year ahead, Boston EQUIP will measure the city's progress towards meeting the quality benchmarks we set for early care and education as part of the cycle of measuring, setting new benchmarks, and identifying outcomes.

Facts in Action, March/April 2003