The Quality Interventions for Early Care and Education (QUINCE) study is a multi-state study of two assessment based, individualized on-site consultation models: The Partnerships for Inclusion (PFI) consultation model, to be implemented in California, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Carolina, and the Rameys Immersion Training for Excellence (RITE) consultation model, to be implemented in Mississippi. The consultation will consist of child care provider training for providers and teachers in both centers and homes, but will have a special emphasis on providers in family child care homes, including license-exempt care. The goal of this research is to determine the conditions under which very specific assessment based, on-site consultation models of child care provider training will enhance the quality of the family home or child care classroom and will also result in positive child change.

The FPG Child Development Institute (FPG) at UNC-Chapel Hill will manage the North Carolina site as well as act as the coordinating center for the 5 states evaluating the PFI model. The other 4 study sites and their administrative homes are California (University of California-Los Angeles), Iowa (Iowa State University), Nebraska (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and Minnesota (Child Trends, Inc. and University of Minnesota). Each state has partnered with 2-5 state or community agencies that currently provide training to family and/or center-based child care providers. The agencies have committed to allowing their consultant staff to participate in the proposed evaluation, including agreement to random assignment of participating consultants to treatment (PFI) or control conditions. The study will begin recruiting child care providers in September 2004 and will continue until September 2007.