Virginia launches statewide VQB5 quality profiles for early childhood programs

The Virginia Department of Education on Thursday released quality profiles for 3,293 early childhood care and education sites across the Commonwealth under the Virginia Quality Birth‑to‑Five (VQB5) system, Superintendent Gullickson and chief of early learning Jenna Conway told the Board of Education.

The rollout, which the department said produced 31,258 CLASS observations and roughly 2,200,000 minutes of classroom observation, puts an individualized three‑digit quality score for each site on the department’s family portal and identifies nearly 500 sites on honor rolls for excellence or improvement, department staff said.

Why it matters: VQB5 is the state’s measurement and improvement system for any program that receives public funds for birth‑to‑five services. Department leaders said the system is intended to give parents apples‑to‑apples information about classroom interactions and to drive targeted supports to low‑performing sites while elevating exemplars for the sector.

Department officials described the profile release as the second year of full implementation and said more private providers are participating than when…