Redefining Quality to Center the Capabilities of Young Children

In this article, we offer a justice-centered approach to measuring and documenting instructional quality that counters traditional teacher evaluations models commonly used in states' Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS). We tell the story of two early care and education practitioners - one teacher and one school leader - who participated in a professional development that focused on learning to observe young children in agentic contexts and finding more ways for young children to showcase, demonstrate, strengthen, or contribute their capabilities. Through these stories, we show how focusing on children's capabilities served to counter the reductionist, hierarchical, and dehumanizing approaches of commonly used teacher evaluation tools. By focusing on the capabilities of children, educators were able to define for themselves what they regarded as high-quality practice and implement meaningful shifts in their work. We argue that QRIS teacher evaluation models need to be revised to center young children and their capabilities.