The Boston Early Education Quality Improvement Project (Boston EQUIP) is a project of Associated Early Care and Education with a broad goal and mission - to collaborate with members of the Boston early education community to systematically evaluate, set goals for, and improve upon the quality of early childhood programs. Launched in 1994, Boston EQUIP has been providing the community with objective data and rigorous analysis about the supply, demand, and quality of early care and education in Boston for over a decade.

Just published! The Fifth Inventory of the Boston EQUIP Quality Benchmarks. Since 1995, Boston EQUIP has been tracking quality in five benchmark areas. Call or email us to receive a copy of the brochure!

1) Boston Early Care and Education Fact Sheet - March 2007

2) Current Boston Early Care and Education Capacity

3) Early Care and Education Capacity 1999-2007

Boston Quality Inventory

To provide a comprehensive picture of the quality of Boston’s early care and education programs with the goal of informing strategic planning, Boston EQUIP and the Boston Child Care Alliance worked with the Wellesley Centers for Women to create the Boston Quality Inventory. Three reports were generated about Center-Based Preschool classrooms, Infant and Toddler Center-Based classrooms and Family Child Care.

Boston Quality Inventory – Preschool
Executive Summary
Full Report
PowerPoint presentation

Boston Quality Inventory - Infant and Toddler
Full Report

Boston Quality Inventory - Family Child Care
Full Report
PowerPoint presentation

Child Assessment Tools in Boston Early Care & Education Programs

The use of child assessment tools is becoming increasingly popular as a means to improve early care and education quality and demonstrate accountability. Curious about where Boston programs and providers were with respect to implementing and using child assessment tools, Boston EQUIP recently conducted a survey of Boston ECE programs. See the results here:
Summary of Findings
Methods

"Where are the children?!"

This fall we were hearing from many programs in the community that they were having a hard time filling their enrollment. Everyone we talked with had a hypothesis about why this might be happening, so we set out to test the hypotheses using data, and to find out where are the children?!
Executive Summary
Data & Results

Education Barriers and Supports for the Early Care and Education Workforce.

This report describes the supports and barriers to post-secondary education in the voices of Boston's early care and education workforce members themselves. These data are complemented with lessons learned by other entities, evidence-based best practices, and policy recommendations. This information is all summarized in tables that include actionable steps to assist all levels of stakeholders in supporting the post-secondary education of Boston's ECE workforce.
Executive Summary