Quality Circle

Professionals working to improve quality in early care and education settings

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About Us

The Circle

This circle was called to organize the people who are working to improve the quality of care and education for young children. Technically, we are forming a professional association. Practitioners who come together on their own behalf suggest an exciting potential; a sign of a maturing profession. The need for support for those who are charged to increase the quality of child care is not new. For years, front-line quality improvement personnel have struggled to find the information and the skills they need to create and sustain complex change in early childhood settings. Effective quality improvement practices and resources have been developed but operate in isolation, unable to inform all of our work. Our goals are to connect us to each other, to collaborate, to advocate, to close the learning circles we have started and to begin new cycles of change and support.

Our History thus far...

For a number of years, whenever people who work to improve quality crossed paths, we frantically shared stories and resources and wished we had more time to talk and process our experiences. Brenda Dennis at Partnerships for Inclusion kept a quarterly meeting going for on-site consultation trainees for central NC. Some counties arranged some local gatherings. Two small conferences, Quality Matters, were held in 2000 and 2001. These were all great, but not enough.

In the Fall of 2005, a number of quality improvement "folk" (who knew what to call us??) decided that what was needed was a professional association to meet our specific needs for information, training and networking. We invited a small circle of people to check out the idea and found encouragement and enthusiasm. One of those consultants was the NCPC (Smart Start) early childhood specialist, Jani Kozlowski, who recognized that this idea was related to the work going on in the Collaboration Council that she convened quarterly. She invited us to bring this idea to the Support and Mentoring sub-committee of the Council, where it was welcomed and encouraged.

Three Leadership Circles of the emerging Quality Circle met between Nov 2005 and March 2006 and tackled the first steps of reaching out to colleagues and existing organizations. Those working on the NC Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center were talking about "TA Systems" in a number of states and they shared the notion of a professional association with folks in South Carolina, who recognized their movement in the same direction. Jani and Anne Mitchell convened a circle for exploring interest at the Smart Start Conference in March 2006. Thirty-two folks showed up and yet another level of enthusiastic interest emerged.

Now there were members of the Leadership Circle on the Collaboration Council and conversations continued with friends and colleagues at the NC Professional Development Institute, More at Four, local Resource and Referral agencies, colleagues who do TA in related fields, our state experts and researchers on TA. Interested colleagues from South Carolina came up for a meeting and endured conference calls to find our common ground. Local Smart Start Partnerships offered support and helped spread the word.

Margie Carter and Deb Curtis were scheduled to come to NC in June 2006 and the Leadership Circle saw a wonderful opportunity to kick off the Quality Circle professional association with a day of their inspiring training. Planning for this conference began in earnest and members of the Leadership Circle stepped up to do what they do so well--collaborate and share! The QE staff at the Cumberland County Partnership for Children offered their expertise and they found us a fabulous training site.

Conference attendees and members were invited to come to a facilitated Organizational Retreat at the Winston-Salem State University Child Development Center/Lab School in August. Twenty dedicated folk worked hard on focusing our intention on who we wanted to be and what we wanted to do. The work carried on into the next months and resulted in the Purpose and Goal Statements. Regions have been identified, leaders volunteered, for regional meetings in February 2007. A conference committee is working on next year's annual conference. A newsletter will be ready to email in December 2006.

Our membership today numbers 130 in North and South Carolina. There are always at least 12 people who show up when they can at Leadership Circle meetings. All of this planning has been in the company of great thinkers and passionate professionals who enjoy each other's opinions and are happy to debate! The energy is infectious, the intent is quite serious, and at every turn there is a reason to laugh! What a wonderful way to work!

© Copyright 2006-2010 Quality Circle. All rights reserved.
Quality Circle · PO Box 5101 · Cary, NC · 27512-5101