Identifying Threshold Levels of Structural and Process Quality

描述（由申请人提供）：关于幼儿保育和儿童发展的研究累积证据一致地发现，高质量的幼儿保育可以预测儿童的一系列积极发展结果，包括语言发展、认知功能、社会能力和情绪适应的改善。这导致许多州试图通过分层质量评级系统来提高高质量幼儿保育的可用性。在这一体系下，各州在不同的质量维度上定义阈值或分界点，并根据供应商对质量标准的遵守情况，向供应商提供不同数额的补偿。这些文献几乎没有为各州的政策制定者提供什么地方应该设置阈值的指导，因为很少有研究确定了可以区分不同水平的儿童结果的具体截断点或阈值。因此，尚不清楚各州政策制定者设定的分界点是否真的区分了成绩较好的和较差的儿童。如果提供者因实施不同水平的质量而获得不同数额的补偿，但儿童的结果却没有差异，这可能会引发公平性问题。本研究的目的是通过使用先进的统计方法来确定必须超过的阈值，才能在符合既定质量标准的提供者和不符合既定质量标准的提供者之间观察到儿童结果的显著差异，从而为州决策者提供一些关于潜在最佳截断点的指导。它还将确定高质量投资收益递减的点。我们将使用来自成本、质量和结果研究和早期儿童纵向研究出生队列到2岁的数据，限制使用来检验阈值效应。我们将检查各种质量指标，如员工教育和培训、儿童与教师比例、小组规模（即班级的儿童人数）、ECERS/ITERS和家长参与。儿童的社会、认知和身体健康结果将作为结果衡量标准。这项研究的结果将为政策制定者提供一个更好的指示，说明哪些具体的分界点区别于不同水平的儿童结果。这将有助于对差别补偿战略采取明智的办法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The cumulative evidence of research on early childhood care and children's development consistently finds that higher-quality care is predictive of a range of positive developmental outcomes for children, including improved language development, cognitive functioning, social competence, and emotional adjustment. This has led many states to attempt to improve the availability of high quality early childhood care through a tiered quality rating system. Under this system, states define thresholds or cut-off points across various dimensions of quality, and provide different amounts of reimbursement to providers depending on their compliance with the quality standards. The literature provides little guidance to state policymakers as to where the thresholds should be set, as few studies have identified the specific cut off points or thresholds that can distinguish among different levels of child outcomes. Thus, it is unknown whether the cut off points established by state policymakers actually discriminate among better and worse child outcomes. This can raise fairness questions if providers receive different amounts of reimbursement for implementing different levels of quality, yet there are no differences in child outcomes. The purpose of this study is to provide some guidance to state policymakers about potentially optimal cut off points by using advanced statistical methods to identify the thresholds that must be exceeded before significant differences in child outcomes can be observed between providers that meet the established quality standards and providers that do not. It will also identify the points at which there are diminishing returns in quality investments. We will use data from the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort through 2 years old, Restricted Use to examine threshold effects. We will examine various quality indicators, such as staff education and training, childstaff ratios, group size (i.e., the number of children in the class), ECERS/ITERS, and parental involvement. Children's social, cognitive, and physical health outcomes will serve as the outcome measures. The results of the study will give policymakers a better indication of which specific cut off points discriminate among different levels of child outcomes. This will help inform sensible approaches to differential reimbursement strategies.