Director of Program Quality Improvement

This position offers some flexibility of office location within the hybrid work model currently being observed.

The Education Secretariat is committed to equity and valuing the unique and diverse characteristics and experiences of every member of its workforce. We encourage an authentic workplace where colleagues show up as their full selves, where collaboration, innovation, and connections are key to realizing our mission that all children, youth, and families thrive socially, academically, and economically. We seek teammates who are committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive work environment, where everyone is valued and engaged. We encourage you to apply and identify your strengths in these areas.   

EEC provides services for more than 275,000 children each day through a mixed-delivery system that includes public, private, nonprofit and for-profit preschools, child care centers, nursery schools, preschools operating within public and private schools, Head Start programs, out of school/after school programs, and independent and system-affiliated family child care homes.  EEC is responsible for licensing early education and care and out-of-school time programs throughout the Commonwealth and for administering child care financial assistance to low-income families with children ages birth to 13 years.  In addition, EEC provides support for information and referral services, inclusive programming for children with special needs, parenting and family support, and professional development opportunities for thousands of educators in the early education and out-of-school time fields.  In its broadest role, EEC also serves as a source of information to more than one million families in Massachusetts.   

Central to EEC’s mission is a goal of ensuring families have access to high quality programs across the state.  Massachusetts has some of the highest quality licensing standards and a commitment to building an accessible statewide system of high-quality early education and care for all families.  To achieve this goal, EEC is developing a coordination across the regions of a statewide program quality support system to provide programs the resources to ensure quality services and align improvements with a clear vision for quality goals for programs of all types, including family child care, center-based early education and out of school time programs. 

The Director of Quality Improvement is responsible for working with the leadership of the Workforce, Program Supports and Innovation division to support the ongoing development of aligned expectations for workforce qualifications and program quality while managing the development and implementation of the regional system of program supports. This includes managing a team of five (5) program quality specialists to coordinate the regional collaboration and ensuring effective communication across program consultation and support systems, inclusive of external vendors contracted by EEC .  

Key Responsibilities:

Overall management of the Program Quality Unit and the development and implementation of a regional system of program quality supports in Massachusetts. This includes supervision of staff, setting direction for the ongoing development and implementation of the quality support system, monitoring and measuring progress, providing direction and oversight of supports offered to all early education, public preschool and out of school time programs interested in and/or involved with EEC’s quality support systems, integration with all divisions of EEC, and communication both internally and with external stakeholders.

Research: Having a working knowledge of current research into early education and out of school time program quality, particularly quality practices and measurement tools that have been shown to predict positive child outcomes, different quality system structures for both support and accountability and experience with the implementation of evidence-based quality improvement practices.

Development of Standards, Policies and Supports: Management of the process for the ongoing development