Overview
ECQUIP was developed by the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Section as a means to assure quality and accountability among schools receiving state funding through the ECE Section of ADE. There are two parts to the ECQUIP Process:
- an annual self-assessment of the early childhood program conducted by the local district or charter and,
- an ECQUIP validation visit made by ADE every six years in conjunction with Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) and/or Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) monitoring/compliance visits. The ECSE monitoring visits may be conducted in conjunction with Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Exceptional Student Services (ESS) Section.
ECQUIP is intended to be used to guide program planning for on-going quality improvement and provides programs with a framework for implementing quality practices. Although the Department outlines guidelines for conducting an ECQUIP process, the design of each program's ECQUIP self-assessment is left to the local administration.
Programs Required to Participate in ECQUIP
ECQUIP is required for programs receiving any of the following:
- Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG):
- funds used for pre-K programs
- funds that support full-day kindergarten programs
- funds that support K-3 programs
- Title I Even Start funding
- State Family Literacy funding
- Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) funding
ECQUIP Standards
ECQUIP is broken down into Four Standards:
- Standard 1: School and District Leadership
- Standard 2: Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development
- Standard 3: Classroom and School Assessments
- Standard 4: School Culture, Climate and Communication
Part I – Quality and Accountability through the Self-Assessment Process
Step 1 ~ Assemble Team
The first step in the ECQUIP process is to convene an early childhood education team. Each district or charter school determines locally who is to participate on the ECQUIP team. At the minimum, a team should consist of administrative members (Early Childhood Special Education, Early Childhood Block Grant and Family Literacy, principal, coordinators, etc.); Instructional members (preschool, kindergarten, first through third grade, Reading First coach and librarians) and Community Partners (Head Start, local childcare provider, district community education, tribal partner, community representative, parents). Together, the team works to design a self-assessment process that meets the needs of the program as a whole.
Step 2 ~ Choosing a Standard for Improvement
During the initial phases of this process, the ECQUIP team looks at readily available sources of data such as teacher or parent surveys; student test scores; classroom observations; program accreditation materials; or school-wide, school improvement, and district/charter long-range plans to determine program strengths and areas for enhancement in order to choose which standard will be addressed. The ECQUIP team identifies one standard to target for improvement each year. A district or charter may choose to work on a particular indicator for more than one year if the self-assessment data supports that need.
Quality Indicators are included with each standard to assist teams in identifying program needs and areas for improvement (see ECQUIP Standard, Rubric and Evaluation form).
Step 3 ~ Choosing a Tool
Once the team has determined the standard for self-assessment, ADE strongly recommends that the group augment the existing information related to the standard with data obtained from tools designed specifically for program and organizational assessment purposes. While not required, these can provide invaluable information for the team’s quality improvement efforts. Each of the suggested tools aligns with the Comprehensive Guidelines for Early Childhood Programs and has research documenting their reliability and validity.
For example, if a team determines that it wants to plan for improvements in classroom environments, the team may choose to use the ECERS-R tool in the assessment process as it relates to Standard 4.
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ADE suggested tools for assessing program quality include the following:
Global tools that comprehensively assess:
Standard 2: Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development and Standard 4: School Culture, Climate and Communication.
** Also has an administrative practices assessment domain specific
Standard 2: Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development
Standard 1: School and District Leadership
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Step 4 ~ Training
Each member of the ECQUIP Team and other related personnel should have the opportunity to receive training and information about the self-assessment tool chosen.
Step 5 ~ Implementation of tool
Each team determines the breadth and depth of administration of the self-assessment tool in order to gather data useful to the team.
Step 6 ~ Review area identified for improvement
Based on the results of the formal assessment, the team makes decisions related to the program's needs and determines future direction of improvement process.
Step 7 ~ Determine Strategies for Improvement and Create Action Plan
Using the information gathered, complete an ECQUIP Action Plan. The intent of the ECQUIP Action Plan is to assist ECQUIP teams with their long range planning for ongoing quality improvement
The ECQUIP process is meant to be an ongoing quality improvement process, where districts or charter schools will determine each spring an area which they feel their early childhood programs could enhance current practices or processes and decide how they plan to focus their efforts and resources.
Step 8 ~ Reporting
Each district/charter reports on the ECQUIP process each year on their ECBG or ECSE (Preschool Entitlement) Grant Application. Funding distributions on the Grant should be reflective of goals identified by the ECQUIP team. An Early Childhood Administrator participates in the completion of the grant applications. ECSE (Preschool Entitlement Grant) is completed by August 15th and ECBG grant applications are completed by November 30th of each year. These grants should accurately reflect the district/charter early childhood programs.
ADE or ECE will not collect any other documentation or self-assessment results from the district or charter school. Scores and data gathered from the instruments chosen or used for self-assessment are intended for district or charter school use only and are NOT submitted to ADE ~ ECE.
Part 2: Preparing for ECQUIP Validation by Arizona Department of Education
The second part of the ECQUIP process is conducted by ADE ~ ECE staff. The following tool(s) will be used by the ECE staff when conducting annual validation visits every six years. We have provided you with the entire tool for your information. Prior to your visit you will receive contact from an Early Childhood Specialist. Please see the documentation checklist to assist you in gathering information for your program’s monitoring/compliance visit (ECBG and/or ECSE) and the ECQUIP validation visit.
ECQUIP Forms for Validation Visits
ECSE Monitoring/Compliance Forms
ECBG Monitoring/Compliance Forms
Family Literacy Monitoring/Compliance Forms
- Arizona Family Literacy Monitoring/Compliance Template
QUESTIONS
If you have questions about the Program Assessment/ECQUIP process, please do not hesitate to contact an Early Childhood Specialist.
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Early Childhood Education
Arizona Department of Education
1535 W. Jefferson Street, Bin #15
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Tel: 602-364-1530
Fax: 602-542-2730
Amy Corriveau, Deputy Associate Superintendent |
