Family-provider partnerships: Examining alignment of early care and education professional and performance standards, state competencies, and quality rating and improvement systems indicators in the context of research

Interest in the quality of provider-family relationships in early care and education (ECE) settings has sharpened the focus on defining and measuring elements of these relationships across settings for program improvement purposes.  In this brief, authors examine the alignment of research-based elements of family-provider partnerships with professional and performance standards from three national ECE organizations as well as selected professional competencies and Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) family partnership indicators from two states. The purpose is to inform the development of common definitions, expectations about what providers need to know and do, and measures that more closely capture quality in this domain across systems. (author abstract)