PCG’s early childhood consulting services help to inform policies and practices. They also provide practical strategies and processes to support state and program compliance and positive outcomes for children, families, and programs.
Our team is passionate about providing meaningful solutions that improve the lives of the people that our communities, programs, and agencies serve.
Examples of our services
Analysis of Program Design
Program models can contribute to- or detract from- achieving funding, program goals, and improved outcomes.
PCG works with clients to conduct evaluations of early childhood program models and provides recommendations for changes to governance, systems structure, financing, and policy/procedure design. Recommendations are generated based on analysis of stakeholder input, a wide range of data, literature reviews, and reviews of the experiences of models in other states.
Child Care Licensing Supports and Evaluation
We can provide:
- Differential monitoring and enforcement planning
- Design and facilitation of rule making
- Licensure alignment with national quality standards
and more.
Organizational Assessments, Strategic Planning, and Communication Outreach
A significant challenge that states, organizations, and programs encounter is how they effectively deliver complex programs and services to a diverse set of stakeholders with unique goals and needs. It is essential for organizations to have a clear strategy.
PCG’s strategy consulting is driven by ‘Sustainable Change,’ our proprietary bundle of knowledge and tools that support the growth, change, and revitalization of organizations. We help agencies and their leaders take control of their work, design and execute strategy, and produce “change that sticks.” Our experts also have experience in communications specific to the field of early childhood.
We can help with:
- Organizational assessment and strategy
- Change management
- Stakeholder communications strategy and campaigns
Program Evaluation
PCG supports early childhood programs through evaluations and continuous quality improvement reviews. Our scope of work includes qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis, and reporting. Evaluations and reviews also include actionable recommendations for areas of improvement. In addition, we provide software testing, and federal, state, and local benchmark reporting.
Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Support
Measuring and improving quality matters. QRIS is intended to improve the quality of early childhood programs through the alignment and coordination of systemwide initiatives. PCG supports state QRIS initiatives to:
- Increase the quality of early care and education services
- Increase parents’ understanding and demand for higher-quality early care and education
- Increase professional development opportunities, benchmarks, and incentives for a range of early-care and education practitioners and providers
- Create a cross-sector framework that links standards, technical assistance, monitoring, finance, and consumer engagement for programs in a range of settings
- Support QRIS alignment to child care licensing, Head Start performance standards, national program accreditation, early learning guidelines, and other state quality initiatives
Strategies for Local Systems Coordination
Build successful coordination across early childhood programs, funders, and sectors to ensure positive outcomes for children, families, and communities. PCG can help analyze the local landscape, identify collaboration opportunities and barriers, and help create systems designed to support children and families.
Professional Development Support
The ability of any organization to accomplish its mission depends on a knowledgeable and skilled workforce. Our team of subject matter experts are available to provide training and technical assistance in person and/or virtually–depending on our clients’ needs and preferences.
Our training and technical assistance cover a variety of early childhood content areas for program administration and leadership. We work closely with our clients to customize the professional development needs of states, communities, agencies, and organizations.
Professional Development Registry
Building the professional capacity of the early childhood education workforce is essential to increasing the quality of child care programs. PCG is a proven professional development and training provider through:
- Provider training curriculum development, implementation, and monitoring
- Professional development registry management operations
- Management of a central repository of education, training and work experience
- Career lattice information and resource management
- Instructor approval
- Provider technical assistance
- Payment and scholarship processing
Workforce Registry Support
PCG has experience and expertise in helping states to implement early childhood and school age workforce registries and evaluating the effectiveness of existing workforce registries.
Our team supports states by:
- Defining the registry framework and creating buy-in for it in the early childhood industry
- Developing a statewide career pathway that provides a road map for early childhood professionals to advance in their careers through increasing levels of education, experience, demonstrated competencies, and compensation
- Promoting data-driven policies and programs for the workforce
- Building scholarship programs for early educators
- Monitoring and tracking training agencies and trainers supporting the workforce
- Creating better alignment of training initiatives
- Connecting to the National Registry Alliance Partnership Eligibility Review (PER) to support involvement in data-related projects at the national level that inform policy or support quality initiatives