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 probation. 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 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 that is reflected in their current star-level certification. If an assessor finds that a program is unable to maintain certified (calculated) star level during these visits, an SIA will go into effect. SIAs are six-month mandatory agreements designed to assist Texas Rising Star programs in maintaining their current star level. Technical assistance through the SIA will focuses on the Texas Rising Star categories that resulted in a lower overall calculated star level during an annual monitoring. SIAs are put in place alongside the program’s current CQIP. For self-developed CQIPs, the program will be required to provide an updated CQIP to address this impact.
Texas Rising Star-certified programs retain their current star level while on the SIA. After the six-month SIA, an assessment of the categories originally observed as deficient is conducted for all classrooms/staff, as applicable to the category. If deficiencies persist, a new star level will be determined, based on the observations at the end of the SIA assessment.
Texas Rising Star Probation
A Texas Rising Star–certified program can be put on Texas Rising Star probation for six months based on licensing deficiencies incurred. Probation A is when the program is cited for any one of the noted licensing deficiencies within Section 4 of the screening form. Probation B is when 10–14 total Texas licensing deficiencies weighted High and/or Medium-High are cited within a 12-month period (15 or more deficiencies result in a loss of Texas Rising Star certification; see §809.132).
During either type of this probationary period, a program may receive technical assistance, as noted in their CQIP, from their assigned mentor to assist with licensing issues, as appropriate. Texas Rising Star staff are not trained by CCR in the minimum standards for licensed child care, therefore, Texas Rising Star staff should collaborate with the program’s CCR representative, to ascertain what technical assistance can be provided. For self-developed CQIPs, the program will be required to provide an updated CQIP to address this impact.
If a Four-Star or Three-Star Texas Rising Star–certified program is cited for any deficiencies within Section 4 or 5 of the screening form while on probation, the programs will lose a star level and be placed on a second probation. The program is eligible for reinstatement to its former star level at the end of a six-month period if deficiencies within Section 4 or 5 are not cited. If any new deficiencies are cited during this second probationary period, the program will be placed on suspension status.
If a Two-Star Texas Rising Star-certified program is cited for any deficiencies within Section 4 or Section 5 of the screening form while on probation, the program will be placed on suspension status.
A program that has been placed on probation must finish out the six-month probation (and not be placed on an additional probation) to be eligible for a Star-Level Evaluation and/or Category Reassessment. The program may request a Star-Level Evaluation or Category Reassessment during that six-month time frame; however, the assessment cannot be conducted until the conclusion of the probationary period.
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 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. CLI Engage offers free professional development tools and resources to improve the quality of child care and early education that programs provide.
CLI Engage hosts free professional development courses, offers child progress monitoring tools, and provides a classroom activity collection for Texas Rising Star–certified programs and programs pursuing certification. Program directors can track completion of staff professional development in language and literacy instruction; science, technology, and engineering instruction; classroom management; and more. Teachers have access to hundreds of lesson plans for classroom activities that address key early learning domains and are available in both English and Spanish. Many activities also include video exemplars to help teachers learn best practices for implementing lessons. Additionally, teachers have access to age-appropriate child assessment tools that provide real data to target instruction and monitor child progress over time.
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.
Texas Rising Star mentors use program information on CLI Engage to provide targeted technical assistance. CLI Engage provides a certification management and technical assistance tracking system for Texas Rising Star mentors and assessors. 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 reports to generate CQIPs through the CLI Engage online platform.
For more detailed information about CLI Engage, visit: https://cliengage.org