OCDEL Releases New Keystone STARS Internal Assessment Process (IAP) Guide

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning has released the newly developed Internal Assessment Process (IAP) Guide for Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs in Keystone STARS working toward STAR 3 and 4 designation.

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For fiscal year 2020 (FY 2020), OCDEL suspended the requirement for STAR 3 and 4 programs to have an external Program Quality Assessment in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In place of an external PQA, STAR 3 and 4 programs will work with their ELRC Quality Coach and a member of the Pennsylvania Key Program Quality Assessor (PQA) Team to develop an IAP. This IAP will help to guide the program’s Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) plan and activities.

The IAP outlines the key elements in successfully observing program practices and how the feedback collected will be used to inform goals for growth in classroom and leadership/management practices.

The Keystone STARS IAP Guide has been developed to support programs:

  • in selecting a focus for CQI

  • in selecting an approved POI(s) for use in the program’s internal assessment

  • in planning how to use the information collected to inform the program’s CQI Plan and activities

  • in the ongoing CQI cycle of developing, implementing, and evaluating.

For complete details, read OCDEL’s full announcement.

Supporting documents include:

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