ELEVATE:
a Quality Support System
Please take a moment to read this welcome letter from Dr. Chad Allgood, Director of the Division of Early Childhood Care and Development at the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
What is ELEVATE?
ELEVATE is Mississippi’s Quality Support System for child care and early childhood education. ELEVATE is designed to provide families and child care programs with the support needed to established and recognize what early childhood education should look like for our littlest Mississippians, our children.
What makes it different?
ELEVATE was designed to ensure participating child care facilities receive personalized guidance during every stage of the Quality Support System implementation process. ELEVATE is a partnership between the state of Mississippi Department of Human Services’ MS Lift Network and child care programs statewide. This partnership is built upon the foundation of solid, consistent support from the MS Lift Network and input by child care programs.
Why is quality and recognition of quality important?
High quality child care is essential in meeting the needs of Mississippi families. In the first year of life a child’s brain doubles in size. By age five, the human brain is nearly full grown. The excellent care being provided throughout the state positively contributes to the growth and development of Mississippi’s children. Recognizing child care programs for their quality programs highlights the importance of this stage in human development and contribute to children outcomes.
How will ELEVATE help parents and families with young children?
ELEVATE provides parents and families with an accessible and easy to understand platform that clearly identifies the types of quality child care programming available. This allows families to make more informed decisions about which type of quality programming best meets their needs. Young children in participating child care programs are receiving high quality instruction in environments that have been evaluated and supported through the ELEVATE Quality Support System.
How will ELEVATE support child care and early childhood education?
ELEVATE is a holistic system designed to provide personalized support and guidance for participating child care programs. These supports include one-on-one coaching, group coaching, on-site technical assistance, and on-going professional development to ensure best practices are being implemented. All of which ELEVATE the profession of child care and early childhood education!
Who will be the one making decisions?
Child care and early childhood education programmatic decisions are made by the child care providers for themselves. Decisions regarding ELEVATE are made by the MS Lift support team using feedback and data collected through the ELEVATE process.
How will quality be measured ?
In the first year of Elevate, child care facilities will work to earn the foundational Quality Badge of Teacher-Child Interactions, supported by the State (Lift ED) team. Year two and year three metrics are currently being developed in collaboration with child care providers and other early childhood stakeholders and experts.
How do you sign up for lift-ED?
The Mississippi LIFT Needs Assessment & Strategic Plan Resource Guide was developed to:
Highlight the major findings of a Needs Assessment of the Early Childhood Education System in Mississippi
Share the strategies associated with the Needs Assessment findings
Provide contact information an timeline of individual services offered by the Mississippi LIFT project
