8/2015

The goal of the FPTRQ project is to develop new measures to assess the quality of the relationship between families and providers/teachers of early care and education for children birth to 5 years of age. The measures will examine this relationship from both the parent and the provider/teacher perspectives, and capture important elements of family-provider/teacher relationships such as attitudes of respect, commitment, and openness to change and practices such as bi-directional communication, sensitivity, and flexibility. The project aims to develop measures that are appropriate for use across different types of early care and education settings, including Head Start and Early Head Start programs, center-based child care, pre-k classrooms, and home-based child care. In addition, a high priority of the project is to make the new measures culturally appropriate for diverse populations, including lower-income and higher-income families, ethnically/racially diverse providers and families, and non-English speaking families and providers.

Tasks for the FPTRQ project include (1) reviewing literature on family and provider/teacher relationships; (2) developing a conceptual model of the key components of family-provider/teacher relationships that promote family engagement and lead to better family, child and provider outcomes; (3) reviewing existing measures; (4) consulting with experts in relevant fields on possible content and format of the measures; (5) holding focus groups with parents and providers/teachers, developing items, and piloting the measure; (6) development of final measures for extensive data collection in a variety of care settings; (7) psychometric and cognitive testing to ensure the soundness of the measures; (8) the development of a sustainability plan regarding training on the measures and production of future editions of the measures as needed; and (9) developing, conducting cognitive testing, and pilot testing measures to assess the relationship quality between Family Service Staff and parents in Head Start/Early Head Start.

Source:  Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families

Available at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/research/project/development-of-a-measure-of-family-and-provider-teacher-relationship-quality-fptrq