Perspectives on quality and supporting quality improvement from early childhood technical assistants working with family child care educators

Onsite, individualized support for early care and education providers has emerged as an effective strategy for supporting quality improvement. We explored how Technical Assistants (TAs) working with family child care (FCC) educators in a voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System perceive FCC quality and the challenges they face in supporting quality improvement. We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with 11 TAs providing support to FCC educators. Transcripts were analyzed using open coding to identify categories related to quality and quality improvement. TAs identified numerous components of FCC program quality that inform their work and two main challenges they face related to supporting quality improvement. Results suggest TAs may benefit from additional training and ongoing support to help them meet FCC educators’ specific quality improvement needs and view FCC quality through a strength-based lens. These results can inform how TAs and other specialists are prepared and supported to work with FCC educators and how quality improvement supports can be tailored to the unique context of FCC.