Clarification on Michigan's efforts to explore a School Age Design of Great Start to Quality

DETROIT, Feb. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 2014, with funds provided by the Michigan Department of Education – Office of Great Start (MDE-OGS), the Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC) partnered with American Institute for Research (AIR) to engage local, state and national stakeholders with three objectives:

• Develop a definition of school age with input from Michigan stakeholders.
• Review current school age quality improvement efforts in Michigan and nationally.
• Develop recommendations to inform the work of building a comprehensive quality rating and improvement system for school age programming in Michigan.

Additionally, ECIC worked with AIR to have conversations with eleven states about how their state incorporates programs that serve school age children into their QRIS. As well, national partners offered insight into how Michigan may want to move forward to create a School Age Design of Great Start to Quality offering thoughts about lessons learned, potential pitfalls and suggestions for how best to proceed. The report that summarizes these findings is available on the Great Start to Quality website, www.GreatStartToQuality.org.

As the project moves forward into 2015, ECIC will be engaging stakeholders across Michigan through a series of defined workgroups to develop recommendations on how Great Start to Quality could be expanded to include programs and providers that care for and educate school age (kindergarten entry to age twelve) children and their families. The goal of this stakeholder engagement process is to develop a set of coherent, comprehensive recommendations for the Michigan Department of Education – Office of Great Start.

A series of webpages specific to the School Age Design project have been established on the Great Start to Quality website, www.GreatStartToQuality.org, to share information and updates on progress throughout the project.  Through the website interested individuals can also sign up to receive the Great Start to Quality School Age Bulletin to receive updates on the project directly to their email. Questions about the project can be submitted directly through the Frequently Asked Questions page. Frequently asked questions about the project are updated regularly.

United Way for Southeastern Michigan partners with ECIC, providing the Great Start to Quality Regional Resource Center, which is responsible for implementing quality standards throughout Southeastern Michigan, including the city of Detroit.

SOURCE United Way for Southeastern Michigan

Related Links

http://www.GreatStartToQuality.org

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