What Is a Quality Improvement System?

A Quality Improvement System (QIS) is the infrastructure a state builds to assess, support, and communicate about the quality of early care and education programs. Most systems include five common elements:

• Standards that describe quality at different levels, usually aligned with state early learning standards.
• Assessment, which may include a rating or other recognition of a program’s progress.
• Improvement supports, such as coaching, technical assistance, and professional development for educators.
• Financial resources, such as grants, bonuses, or higher child care assistance rates for programs meeting higher standards.
• Information for families about program quality.

Child care leaders first designed these systems in the 1990s to close the gap between the minimum standards required to operate a child care program and the level of quality that best supports children’s development and learning. The federal Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge accelerated this work, and today nearly every state and many U.S. territories have some version of a QIS.

Many states first called these systems Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). BUILD now uses the term Quality Improvement System to reflect a shift in emphasis from rating programs to supporting their improvement.

Why Quality Improvement Systems Matter

Federally funded Head Start, Early Head Start, and some state pre-K programs offer a model of high quality, pairing comprehensive services with research-based federal standards for staffing, educator qualifications, and family supports. Their reach is limited, however. In 2025, Head Start Preschool served only 28 percent of eligible 3- to 5-year-olds, and Early Head Start only 13 percent of eligible infants and toddlers (First Five Years Fund, 2026). Most families rely on child care programs operating without those same resources or standards.

That gap is why quality improvement matters. States and communities are working to ensure all families can find care that supports their children’s development, in the settings that best fit their needs.

Quality improvement systems work best when they focus on growth rather than ratings, and when they are designed with providers and families, not just for them.

Quality Improvement Systems as a Lever for Systems Change

From the start, BUILD saw quality improvement systems as a lever for systems change. BUILD believed these systems could align state efforts around practices supporting children’s healthy development and learning, including:

• Engaging families and responding to what they want and need for their young children.
• Offering educators professional development and clear pathways for growth.
• Using program and educator standards, aligned with state early learning standards, to define research-based practices.
• Providing technical and financial assistance so programs and educators have the skills and resources to deliver high-quality care.

Over two decades of state investment, child care quality has improved significantly. But some challenges were built into these systems from the beginning.

Ratings were meant to serve two purposes: assure public funders that dollars were going to quality programs, and help families make informed choices. In practice, the differences between rating levels can be hard to see, and not every measure of quality applies equally to every program. Research shows programs at the higher levels of a state’s quality continuum do outperform those at lower levels in important ways. But a single score can miss a lot. A program in an older building may score poorly on environment measures while offering experienced, nurturing educators. Families also weigh many factors ratings do not capture, such as hours, location, and the languages educators speak. And because supply is limited and care is costly, many families have few real choices.

Over time, accountability has often overshadowed improvement. Rating processes can become burdensome checklists that lose sight of why the work matters. Most states have also never funded their systems at the level needed to cover the true cost of quality, including fair wages for educators, professional development, adequate facilities, and comprehensive services.

Reimagining Quality Improvement

States now have an opportunity to rethink the purpose of their quality improvement systems and whom they serve. Rating systems tied to funding have often directed more resources to programs that already had them, widening racial and economic disparities in access to high-quality care. Leaders across the field are calling for systems that:

• Focus on growth and improvement rather than ratings and compliance.
• Recognize multiple paths to quality across different settings, including home-based child care.
• Are designed with providers and families, not just for them.
• Direct resources to the programs and communities furthest from opportunity.
• Hold the state system itself accountable for giving programs the resources, support, and time they need to succeed.

BUILD partners with state leaders to put these principles into practice.

How BUILD Provides Support

BUILD offers three levels of engagement, from broad learning to sustained partnership.

Universal Engagement. The annual BUILD Conference draws more than 1,000 leaders from across the country, including child care and QIS administrators, technical assistance providers, researchers, state and local officials, advocates, national experts, and systems builders. The conference focuses on quality improvement as part of building comprehensive, equitable early childhood systems. BUILD also offers webinars and publications on a wide range of quality topics.

Targeted Engagement. Peer learning tables and communities of practice bring defined groups of state leaders together to work through shared challenges and learn from one another.

Intensive Support. BUILD staff and consultants partner with states over time on planning, strategy, implementation, and leadership development. This individualized technical assistance supports leaders in designing systems beyond past practice and current resources, toward more equitable opportunities and outcomes for young children and families.

How BUILD Partners With States on Quality Improvement

• Partner with states to build equitable, high-quality early childhood systems.
• Support state leaders and advocates in redesigning early care and education around families, addressing the structural causes of disparities and tailoring supports to children and families furthest from opportunity.
• Sustain a community of state leaders who share lessons across every stage of designing, implementing, and improving quality improvement systems.
• Create intensive learning opportunities, such as think tanks and communities of practice, to foster new approaches.
• Partner with leaders to recognize quality can look different across programs, and to support improvement efforts reflecting each program’s community, culture, and families.

Impact

BUILD has partnered with states to position their quality improvement systems as one part of a broader, comprehensive early childhood system. In such a system, children have access to care and learning alongside health and mental health supports, social supports, and family engagement. Quality improvement shares responsibility for children’s outcomes with other early learning strategies, with systems such as health and education, and with communities and families.

Lasting change depends on leadership. BUILD invests in early childhood leaders at every level, from home-based child care providers to state agency heads, who:

• Reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the children and families they serve.
• Understand the structural barriers to equity and the levers for change.
• Act within their own roles and spheres of influence.
• Build systems prioritizing children and families furthest from opportunity.