Child Care Resource and Referral Staff Better Trained to Work with IN-Home Providers using the FDCRS and ITERS-R Environment Rating
Field Specialists: Mary Hughes, Pat Anderson, Donna Donald, and Sharon Mays

Problem:
Child Care Resource and Referral in Southwest Iowa staff make training and educational visits to help home and center providers improve the quality of care for young children. To receive grants funded by the Empowerment Area Boards caregivers are to be pre-and-post assessed using the Environment Rating Scale applicable to the type of care they provide. CCR &R staff were not trained to use these scales, and were learning ‘on the job,' with various results that depended on the staff's individual understanding of the scales. ISU Extension field specialists were asked to provide training so that CCR &R staff could provide more consistent and higher quality pre-post assessments.

Response:
Families Field Specialists, Pat Anderson and Mary Hughes, designed and conducted two, two-day trainings for CCR &R staff. The goal for training one was to increase CCR &R staff's understanding of the environment ratings scales. The goal for training two was for participants to do an observation and check their application of the environmental scales with each other through discussion. Two additional family life specialists were called in to provide the anchor for the observations for training two. (Participants were apprised that this training process did not certify them as inter-rater-reliable).

Impact:
15 individuals attended training one with 9 completed evaluations turned in. Five objectives were measured on a scale of 1 (below average) through 4 (far above average). The results and a sample comment are shared below:

 

Item evaluated	Pre-training rating	Post training rating	Comment
Understanding of vocabulary used in the scales	6 ranked self as average or below	9 ranked self as above average or far above average	“Understanding the vocabulary used will help me be more objective and careful in my assessments.”
How to score the FDCRS & ITERS-R	6 ranked self as below average	7 ranked self as above average	“I learned to make more notes, and process the scale more thoroughly.”
How providers can use the scales to self-assess the quality of their care	4 ranked self as above average	6 ranked self as above average	“Discussing the reasons for the scores after observing will improve how I work with the providers.”
How the FDCRS and ITERS-R can help improve the quality of childcare	1 ranked self as above average	6 ranked self as above average	“The scale is more objective than other ways of measuring quality … when you understand the items on the scale.”

Thirteen of 15 participants returned for the second training with 13 evaluations completed. For each objective, staff reported an improvement in their knowledge, resulting in a 1-2 point higher mean score on each of the following items.

•  how to group items for presentation to providers

•  how to begin and end an observation report with positive results (the sandwich approach)

•  how to involve providers in setting goals and making plans for quality improvement

•  how providers can monitor and reinforce changes they are making in behavior practices

•  My comfort level with reporting observation results to providers:

Comments included: “…very informed trainers; need confidence in myself – this will come with time – thank you; I am so pleased to have a clear and clean method of presenting observation results to providers. It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I used to dread preparing reports. Thank you, thank-you, thank-you!”

Contacts:

Pat Anderson Nutrition and Health Field Specialist East Pottawattamie Extension Office 321 Oakland Avenue, Box 187 Oakland, IA 51560 Phone 712-482-6449; Fax 712-482-6440 Email pander@iastate.edu	Mary L. Hughes Field Specialist, Family Life 3501 Harry Langdon Boulevard, ISD Campus Careers Bldg, 2nd Floor Council Bluffs, IA 51503 Phone 712-366-7070; Fax 712-366-7024 Email mhughes@iastate.edu
Donna K. Donald 309 North Main Leon, IA 50144 Phone 641-446-4723 Fax 641-446-6142 Email ddonald@iastate.edu	Sharon Mays, Family Life Field Specialist Iowa State University Extension 5201 NE 14th Street, Suite A Des Moines, Iowa 50313 Phone 515-261-4217; Fax 515-263-2704 E-mail smays@iastate.edu

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