Program Quality Support

Program Quality Supports

This page contains specific resources to support program quality in early childhood education. These resources cover a range of topics, including teacher wellness, instructional leadership, trauma responsive care, and classroom support. They offer practical guidance and strategies for creating high-quality learning environments that support the needs of all children.

Quality Recognition and Improvement System (Spark)

Spark is our state’s Quality Recognition & Improvement System. It was created in 2013 to assess, improve, and communicate to families about the quality level of child care, preschool, and school-age care and education programs throughout Oregon.

Spark’s primary goal is to help new and existing programs offer the best care and education services possible to children and families in Oregon. Running a high-quality program requires careful consideration and planning in the following areas:

Children’s learning and development
Health and safety
Personnel qualifications
Family partnerships
Administration and business

We call these areas “domains” and each domain includes a set of standards. Standards are a set of guidelines that describe what high-quality care and education programs should be doing to support children, families, staff, and their businesses. Most standards have three levels of varying difficulty.

Spark offers a structured process for assessing each standard, creating plans for improvement, and offering financial support to help programs implement their plans. The process also includes a portfolio that programs complete to show how they are meeting each standard.

When programs have completed their portfolios, they can submit them for review. Programs that meet or exceed the requirements for each standard will receive a 3-, 4-, or 5-star rating as well as an incentive payment.

Available Support

Programs do not have to go through the Spark process alone. Guidance and support are available in many ways including, but not limited to, Quality Improvement Specialists that work at Child Care Resource & Referral offices and the Spark Team at Western Oregon University.

Spark Redesign

Since 2013 hundreds of programs have compiled portfolios to showcase improvement in their early care practices, earn funds to put into their programs, and obtain recognition through CQ2, 3-, 4-, 5- star ratings. Throughout that time providers as well as communities have given feedback on how well Spark works in some areas and how Spark is not working as intended in others. This led to an opportunity to reexamine Spark and work with communities to redesign the system entirely.

The redesign process began in the spring of 2023 with a mission to make Spark a more equitable, inclusive, anti-racist, and accessible system. The first stage consisted of statewide engagement efforts, led by families and early learning and care professionals in partnership with the Spark Team at Western Oregon University and DELC, to gather input from communities across Oregon. Those workgroups listened to over 2,600 individuals, reviewed findings and created recommendations. The second stage involves the Accountability Team, made up of leaders from the listening workgroups, discussing and formulating plans for the redesigned system based on data from the listening sessions, presentations and reports.

The Accountability Team, with the support of the Spark Team at Western Oregon University, has done a great job in challenging dominant narratives and centering community needs. A recentreport written by researchers at Portland State University explores the experiences and recommendations of those involved in Early Childhood Education systems. The Accountability Team’s work aligns with the findings in this innovative report. Including intentions to build a system that center the wisdom of families and providers while still ensuring health and safety for children. In addition to building authentic partnerships with providers, families, and DELC in order to include the array of experiences of Oregonians across the state. The Spark redesign work is still in progress, and we anticipate incorporating recommended changes beginning in 2025. We hope the changes that are made make Spark more equitable, inclusive, anti-racist, and an accessible system for providers and families!

Explore the links below for more information:

Spark website with further information about the redesign:Spark Redesign

Report from Portland State University:

Mitchell, L. , Green, B. , Rodriguez, L. , Lee, Y. , Shammel, K. , Richardson, A. , & Guevara, A. (2024, January). Reconceptualizing quality: Centering community wisdom and power and putting the early childhood education technocracy to bed. [Submitted to the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, January 25, 2024]. Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services, Portland State University.

Trauma Responsive Care

A trauma-responsive approach recognizes and responds to the impact of traumatic stress on children, families, and caregivers by increasing trauma awareness, knowledge, and skills and incorporating these into program policies and practices (Child Care Technical Assistance Network, 2023). This approach also focuses on collaboration to maximize physical and psychological safety and support the ability of the child, family and caregiver to thrive.

Local Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies are equipped to deliver training in Trauma Responsive Care for Infants and Toddlers in Child Care. To locate a training near you visit this link or contact your local CCR&R.

When discussing the topic of trauma, practicing mindfulness can help reduce stress and enhance our wellbeing. This free toolkit from ZERO TO THREE provides information about implementing mindfulness in early childhood, strategies for doing so and stories of others who have incorporated mindfulness into their work.

Remember, the single most common factor for children who develop resilience is at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver or other adult. That could be you! To learn more about the science of resilience, visit Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child webpage. [link to: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/resilience/]

For additional resources in English and Spanish related to trauma-responsive care for infants and toddlers, as well as resources applicable for caregivers and older children, visit the Child Care Technical Assistance Network (English) (Spanish)

For resources around fundamental skills for self-care as a way to support resilience in multiple languages, visit Proquol.org

Instructional Leadership (Start Early, Essential Fellowship)