Partners in Quality

Partners in Quality for Early Childhood Education is the key community collaboration body for early learning in the Greater Kansas City region. Established in 1996, PIQ members represent key civic institutions, philanthropic foundations, school districts, post-secondary educational institutions, early learning centers, public and private agencies, and other stakeholders. PIQ aims to build a nationally unsurpassed early learning system in our community. Through its strategic plan, PIQ works to develop and implement a coherent, viable and high-quality system of early learning programs that benefit all children in the community. 

Workgroups

Partners in Quality organizes several work groups to focus on advancing critical aspects of early learning programs.

Public Policy Work Group

Public Policy Work Group is a work group for PIQ that generates policy priorities and recommendations to advance early learning initiatives at a state and federal level. Partnerships with advocacy groups such as Kids Win Missouri, Kansas Action for Children and Aligned are leveraged to build consensus around priorities. Members of the work group include center directors, school districts, advocacy organizations and mission aligned partners such as The Family Conservancy, Start at Zero, and Turn the Page KC. 

Quality Enhancement Work Group

The Quality Enhancement Technical Work Group improves program quality and teacher practices and intentionality in early learning programs. Members of the work group include: early learning support agency administrators, Head Start and early childhood program directors, child care licensing administrators, Parents as Teachers representatives and school district administrators.

School Readiness Work Group

The School Readiness Work Group identifies goals and strategies to promote school readiness for young children. These goals are organized around five essential domains of early learning and development: physical development and health, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language and literacy, cognition and general knowledge.

Workforce Development Work Group 

The Workforce Development Technical Work Group is developing a career pipeline and compensation strategy to attract and retain qualified professionals to the field early childhood education. Members of the work group include: faculty and chairs of early childhood education at area two-year and four-year institutions, professional development administrators, and directors and administrators from area Head Start and large community-based programs in the region. 

 

Public Policy Priorities

MARC supports public policies and investments that will increase access to affordable high quality early learning programs for children and families in the region.  

Each year MARC and Partners in Quality work together with a wide array of local, state and national advocacy partners to support policy and legislative initiatives aimed at improving the early learning system at the state and federal levels.

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