Education Quality Assurance (EQA) Improvement System
Education Quality Assurance (EQA) Improvement System is the systematic and continuous review of DYS educational programs to ensure that acceptable standards of education program quality are maintained.
Historical Overview
Over the past five years, the Commonwealth Corporation (CommCorp) and the Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC) have partnered on behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) to provide high quality education and employability services to youth. This partnership is referred to as the Comprehensive Education Partnership (CEP). One of the goals of the CEP is to develop an accountability plan to monitor education program quality in DYS educational facilities.
Under the CEP, the CommCorp DYS project team committed staff time and contracted consultants to implement three field assessments in 2004, 2005, and 2007. The field assessments gathered quantitative data that identified program strengths and challenges in implementing the minimum requirements for education in DYS educational facilities. The field assessments established a standard of expectation regarding program quality for vendor programs that did not exist prior to this process. As a first-generation baseline assessment of educational program quality, the field assessments provided the impetus for further evaluation of DYS educational programs, as well as a foundation for what to collect and how to obtain education program data in DYS.
Click here for the EQA Pilot Project Initiative.
Based upon field assessment data analysis and strategic recommendations from the UMass Donahue Institute Evaluation of the DYS Education Initiative Executive Summary Report (February 2008), the CEP group established expectations for the next generation of field assessments which included program compliance to minimum education requirements, as well as a comprehensive evaluation process covering more subject themes and supporting continuous education program improvement, and a strategy for measuring student achievement outcomes. In April 2008, the CEP entered into a second phase of education reform with the submission of the RFR proposal to DYS regarding the revision and broadening of the field assessment process. The proposed scope of work included hiring a program manager to provide leadership in the development and implementation of an education quality assurance improvement system. The goals laid out by the CEP in the RFR proposal to DYS stated the following:
EQA goals
- Determine if minimal educational standards are being met in each program,
- Provide an overall performance rating of each program,
- Provide the basis for corrective action steps that DYS can use with programs that receive a low rating or do not show improvement over time, and
- Identify opportunities for technical assistance that would be provided under the auspices of the CEP.
Key EQA themes and criteria:
- Statewide, comprehensive, multi-step approach
- Process for assessing critical education initiatives of DYS
- Process for monitoring student achievement outcomes
- Follow-up technical assistance and resources
- Corrective action process
The EQA initiative is being developed with an intentional focus on asset-based and developmental approaches to teaching and learning, as well as identifying educational practices in DYS resulting in positive student outcomes.
Recommendations for moving EQA work forward in the fiscal year 2010 includes:
- Develop EQA Working Group to help shape EQA framework
- Solicit input from DYS Stakeholders
- DYS Vendor Strategy
- Launch DYS Pilot Project to collect baseline data about current DYS educational practices
- Refine EQA standards and indicators, and develop quality rubrics
- Select a team of individuals to support EQA initiatives
(e.g., consultants, research interns, etc.)
- Focus on promising and “best” practices in DYS educational settings
