Texas Rising Star provides professional development resources and mentoring to sustain and improve the quality of child care and early learning in Texas Rising Star certified facilities. Texas Rising Star–certified programs have access to three types of technical assistance: Continuous Quality Improvement Plan (CQIP), Service Improvement Agreement (SIA), and targeted assistance for programs on Texas Rising Star screening impacts, to include probation or suspension status. The three types of assistance are summarized below.
Continuous Quality Improvement
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) provides a systemic and intentional process for improving quality in child care and early learning programs and increasing positive outcomes for children. Texas Rising Star–certified programs and Entry Level-designated programs have the ability to work closely with a Texas Rising Star mentor to engage in a cyclical process that includes self-reflection, continuous learning, practice, and evaluation. CQI helps programs attain certification, achieve increasingly higher levels of quality, sustain high quality over time, and ensure high quality across classrooms and age groups.
For Texas Rising Star–Certified Programs
CQIPs are designed to assist programs in increasing the quality of the child care and early learning experiences they provide with the goal of maintaining or increasing the program’s star level. A CQIP contains improvement goals for a targeted number of Texas Rising Star measures and/or categories, as well as resources to help reach those improvement goals, including professional development coursework, coaching from a Texas Rising Star mentor, and identification of other available resources and training material.
CQIPs can also address key areas for improvement that are not directly measured by Texas Rising Star but are still important indicators of quality, such as implementing inclusive caregiving practices, working with English language learners, and developing policies to prevent suspension and expulsion. Mentors work with programs to determine their specific needs and the best goals to incorporate in the CQIP over time. Mentors may provide direct support to help programs meet their goals or they may help identify and access appropriate resources to support improvement efforts. Mentors and programs work together to reach agreement on what goals and strategies are included in the CQIP.
CQIPs for Texas Rising Star programs are developed upon initial acknowledgment of desire to participate in Texas Rising Star and again after the first full assessment. CQIPs can be further refined at annual visits with the assistance of the mentor. Additional technical assistance plans for Texas Rising Star programs are automatically generated after each assessment for each classroom and the facility as a whole and can be used to further refine the CQIP. Participation in a CQIP is required.
The set of professional development resources available to Texas Rising Star programs, including many hours of online learning modules featuring extensive video-based demonstrations of effective instructional practices for responsive interaction, language and literacy, mathematics, and science. Through the CQIP, mentors may recommend specific courses for Texas Rising Star programs and their teachers to complete depending on their quality improvement needs.
Mentors will be provided to work with directors and teachers in all Texas Rising Star measures, both points-based and required. The amount of time a mentor spends on-site at the facility will vary based on their caseload and the program’s needs. At a minimum, the mentor will visit the program once a month, either in person or through a scheduled call or virtual meeting.
For Programs Not Currently Texas Rising Star Certified
Child care and early learning programs who are not yet eligible for Texas Rising Star certification or that may not be ready to request an assessment can still participate in technical assistance provided by their local Board and/or assigned mentor. Some professional development resources are available through the CLI website (https://public.cliengage.org/). Contact the appropriate Board or the program’s assigned mentor for more information. At a minimum, the mentor will visit the program once a month, either in person or through a scheduled call or virtual meeting.
Self-Developed CQIPs
Child care and early learning programs are assigned a mentor upon initial interest when starting the Texas Rising Star Certification Process; however, programs may elect to move through the Texas Rising Star certification and maintenance process without a mentor. The program is still responsible for meeting all eligibility, CQIP, and ongoing requirements (annual monitoring visits and recertification to include updated CQIPs). To assist these programs in creating a self-developed CQIP, the CQIP Desk Aid is available on the Texas Rising Star Tools tab. The self-developed CQIP must be submitted with the Certification Request documents and updated at Recertification and as needed or applicable. Mentors will still be available to provide resources and supports.
Service Improvement Agreement
Texas Rising Star assessors conduct unannounced, annual monitoring visits (annual monitoring) to ensure Texas Rising Star- certified providers are maintaining the level of quality reflected in their current star-level certification. If a program does not maintain their certified star level during their annual monitoring, an SIA will go into effect for six months to assist the program. Texas Rising Star-certified programs retain their current star level while on the SIA, and technical assistance is provided by a mentor through the SIA and an updated CQIP which will focus on the Texas Rising Star categories that resulted in a lower overall calculated star level during an annual monitoring. For programs that participate in self-developed CQIPs, an updated CQIP is required to address the impact.
After the six-month SIA, an assessment of the categories originally observed as deficient will be conducted for all classrooms/staff, as applicable to the category. A new star level may be determined, based on the observations at the end of the SIA assessment, resulting in a higher or lower star level. SIAs are not considered a full assessment unless all categories are assessed.
Texas Rising Star Screening Impacts
A Texas Rising Star–certified program can be put on Texas Rising Star screening impact (star level drop, probation, or suspension) for six months based on licensing deficiencies incurred.
- Probation A occurs when the program is cited for any one of the noted licensing deficiencies within Section 4 of the Texas Rising Star- Certified Screening Form.
- Probation B occurs when the program has incurred 26-40 total points from licensing deficiencies weighted high or medium-high which have been cited in the most recent six month period.
- Suspension occurs when the program falls below Two-Star.
During any type of this screening impact, a program may receive technical assistance from their assigned mentor to assist with issues that have caused the deficiencies, as noted in their CQIP. Texas Rising Star staff should collaborate with the program’s CCR representative for guidance on what technical assistance can be provided, as applicable. For programs that participate in self-developed CQIPs, an updated CQIP is required to address the impact(s).
CLI Engage – Free Online Resources for Texas Rising Star Programs
TWC has partnered with the Children’s Learning Institute (CLI) at the UT Health Houston to provide free professional development tools and resources through an online platform – CLI Engage for child care and early learning programs pursuing Texas Rising Star certification and for those who have already attained certification. These tools and resources will help to improve the quality of child care and early education that programs provide.
Features of CLI Engage Include:
- Professional development courses, to include tracking completion of teacher’s professional development
- Child development and progress monitoring tools that provide data to target instruction and monitor child progress
- Classroom activity collection to include access to hundreds of lesson plans for classroom activities in the key learning domains (available in English and Spanish)
- Video exemplars to help teachers learn best practices for implementing lessons
Access to CLI Engage:
To access CLI Engage resources and tools for Texas Rising Star programs, programs must register. Programs will be invited via email invitation from the assigned mentor after expressing interest in achieving Texas Rising Star. A link in the email invitation will go to the CLI Engage login screen. After logging in to CLI Engage, the user will be taken to the school summary page, where information about their program can be reviewed.
Tools for Texas Rising Star Staff:
CLI Engage provides a certification management and technical assistance tracking system for Texas Rising Star mentors and assessors. Texas Rising Star mentors use program information on CLI Engage to provide targeted technical assistance. Texas Rising Star mentors use program information on CLI Engage to provide targeted technical assistance. Texas Rising Star assessors use CLI Engage to capture scores and generate reports on all Texas Rising Star measures after all assessments. Texas Rising Star mentors use these assessment reports to generate CQIPs through the CLI Engage online platform.
For more detailed information about CLI Engage, visit: https://cliengage.org