The Forum's latest report on early childhood and afterschool care in Milwaukee County - released in late February - reveals that afterschool programs disproportionately struggle to meet staff education standards prescribed by YoungStar, the state's child care quality rating and improvement system. In fact, less than 1% of afterschool providers that have been rated in the county have achieved high-quality 4- or 5-star ratings, while nearly three quarters have received 2-star ratings that indicate lack of proficiency.

 

Beginning in 2012, providers of afterschool care were required to be evaluated and rated by Youngstar to be eligible for reimbursement under Wisconsin Shares, the state's child care subsidy program. The staff educational criteria used for afterschool programs were based on those already in place for early childhood settings.

 

"These findings raise questions as to whether school-age programs are indeed of lower quality than early childhood care programs in Milwaukee County, or whether modifications may be needed to better adapt YoungStar's evaluation criteria to school-age programs," says Forum researcher Joe Peterangelo, the report's lead author. "In either case, it would appear that the goal of providing parents with quality ratings as a means of empowering them to select high-quality afterschool programs is not being met."

 

Under YoungStar, all providers that receive funding from Wisconsin Shares are required to be evaluated on a five-star rating scale. Quality ratings are issued - and childcare subsidy rates are determined - based on a provider's success in meeting several criteria related to the educational qualifications of employees, learning environment and curriculum, professional practices, and the health and well-being of children.

 

The Forum's latest report - Reaching for the Stars - builds on a previous research finding that the biggest hurdle faced by afterschool providers who are seeking to improve their ratings often involves the educational qualifications of program staff. The following key observations emerge:

• School-age programs in Milwaukee County have disproportionately low YoungStar ratings relative to group child care centers. Nearly three quarters (72%) of school-age programs have received 2-star ratings, as compared to 42% of group child care centers, which primarily serve children under the age of five. In addition, less than 1% of school-age programs in Milwaukee County have received ratings of 4 or 5 stars (indicating high quality), while 16% of group child care centers have done so. 

• YoungStar's staff education requirements are a major obstacle preventing many school-age programs in Milwaukee County from receiving proficient (3 stars) or high-quality ratings (4 or 5 stars). YoungStar has specific staff education requirements for program directors and teachers that must be met to qualify for ratings of 3, 4, or 5 stars, and those standards are based largely on those that exist for early childhood care providers. Very few school-age programs currently have staff with the educational credentials needed for their program to improve their YoungStar rating. Among the 96 school-age programs in Milwaukee County with 2-star ratings, for example, only nine have the staff education credentials needed to qualify for a rating of 3 stars or higher.

• Efforts to advance the YoungStar ratings of school-age programs in Milwaukee County from 2 to 3 stars and from 3 to 4 stars would require a large investment in credit-based workforce training. The educational gaps preventing school-age programs in Milwaukee County from earning high-quality ratings of 4 or 5 stars are significant. Collectively, the report estimates that teachers would need to earn at least 853 additional credits and program directors would need to earn at least 2,293 additional credits for all programs to qualify for 4 stars. The estimated cost for tuition alone to provide this training would be between $430,000 and $1.1 million.

The report notes that afterschool programs face several challenges with regard to cultivating and maintaining a well-trained staff. Since afterschool programs operate during limited hours of the day, their teachers tend to be part-time, which causes many individuals to view the positions as temporary. Low wages and relatively little potential to earn higher wages by advancing to program director positions also appear to be factors potentially limiting professional development efforts among Milwaukee County's afterschool workforce.

 

"Afterschool programming is an important component of Milwaukee County's educational framework that demands an emphasis on quality, but it is unique in ways that may inhibit efforts to define quality per the standards used for early childhood care," says Peterangelo. "With this report, we hope to further clarify the on-the-ground impacts of one of the key quality measures used by Youngstar to assess afterschool program quality so that policymakers can better understand its application and its effectiveness in meeting legislative intent."  

 

The report was sponsored by the Argosy Foundation, the Herzfeld Foundation, LISC Milwaukee, and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation.