When Vermont’s STep Ahead Recognition System (STARS) was being developed, the state presented rating systems based on building blocks and points to the early childhood community in a series of focus groups. The consensus was to use points. Blocks were seen as “making us all do the same things” whereas points “recognize us for our varied strengths and the different ways we operate.” A point system was more flexible than a block system and fit the Vermont ethos of independence.
In STep Ahead Recognition System (STARS) Standards a maximum number of points was assigned in five arenas (categories of standards): regulatory history (three points), staff qualifications and training (three points), families and community (three points), program practices (five points), and administration (three points).
Vermont continually reviewed its system and made program practices the arena in which the most points could be achieved. Vermont also created customized applications based on program type. For example, the family child care home provider application noted only program assessment tools pertinent to family child care in the application, and the administration arena documentation reflected the home context. Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) and the Youth Program Quality Assessment were added to the menu of approved tools to assess programs. Teaching Strategies Gold was the child assessment tool that had to be used in early childhood programs at the four-point level in the program practices arena, but all public prekindergarten programs had to use this tool at each point level.
Vermont intentionally prepared programs for a change to STARS that requires third-party onsite program assessment (two points in program practices) before the program could attain three stars. This would require a formal change in STARS rules. Vermont prepared the field by providing more training on the Environment Rating Scales and providing an onsite mentoring visit at the two-point level in the program practices arena.