Author Archives: Dr Fiene

The attached paper provides a more generic view of licensing measurement and monitoring systems moving from a more restricted early care and education lens to a much broader lens to assess regulatory science’s influence on human services regulatory administration. This … Continue reading →

Attached below please find a new Early Childhood Program Quality Scale: ECEPQI – Early Childhood Education Program Quality Indicators.

Several regulatory scientists asked if I could post the database outputs that were used to generate the ECE Program Quality Indicators. Please find the database output below as an SPSS data output file. It is rather long (150 pages of … Continue reading →

The above graphic displays the Early Childhood Program Quality Improvement and Indicator Systems Model (ECPQI2M) that has been described in a previous blog post. In this blog post, there is the need to cross-reference the model with the various monitoring … Continue reading →

The first answer is probably the most controversial but at the same time the most important from a public policy point of view, the Ceiling Effect, the Regulatory Compliance Theory of Diminishing Returns. Without a doubt this is probably the … Continue reading →

Attached is a listing of the various databases available via Mendeley Data for interested licensing researchers and regulatory scientists. The databases will provide the raw data demonstrating the relationships between regulatory compliance and program quality and have many quality initiative … Continue reading →

In a previous blog post, I presented the ceiling effect/diminishing effect, the regulatory compliance scale, and the program quality indicators scale. In that post, I said I would be doing additional data mining of the very rich database that was … Continue reading →

A relatively short technical research note on the results from a study supporting the use of the Regulatory Compliance Scale and the Program Quality Indicator Scale and the fifth validation study supporting the Ceiling Effect/Diminishing Returns related to the theory … Continue reading →

Attached is the Saskatchewan Quality Indicators Study (The Saskatchewan Early Care and Education Quality Indicators Tool and Validation) which validates the new program quality tool developed in this Canadian province. An excerpt taken from the Report’s Abstract: This validation study … Continue reading →

The downloadable file below contains the final report of the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Program Quality Indicators Validation Study. The report contains the results from the validation study and analyses as well as the Program Quality Indicators Scale. It is the … Continue reading →

The following attachment contains five studies providing the empirical evidence supporting the regulatory compliance diminishing returns effect or ceiling effect that is the cornerstone of the theory of regulatory compliance as proposed by Fiene (2016, 2019). The studies were completed … Continue reading →

Here are two CLEAR: Council on Licensing, Enforcement and Regulation Webinars coming up this month and next that may be of interest related to regulatory compliance and big data.

Here is a new NARA: National Association for Regulatory Administration Webinar coming up next month that people may be interested in: How Regulatory Agencies are Using Big Data to Predict Non-Compliance.

In several posts on this site, I have provided updates related to the comprehensive project and research study occurring in the Province of Saskatchwan’s Ministry of Education child care programs involving their development and implementation of a differential monitoring approach … Continue reading →

Displayed in the attached document is a comparison of regulatory compliance metric principles, prevailing paradigms and a continuum of quality matrix. These principles and key elements have been presented in previous posts but here they are presented side by side … Continue reading →

A technical research note/abstract combining research from several regulatory compliance metrics over the past decade into one abstract emphasizing the public policy implications of this research. From the introduction to the abstract “This technical research note/abstract provides a data matrix … Continue reading →

A short paper is posted proposing ten principles to consider when dealing with regulatory compliance measurement within the regulatory science field. It is based upon 50 years of research diving deep into regulatory compliance data at the state, national, and … Continue reading →

Here is a link to the Licensing Measurement and Monitoring Systems eHandBook online for easy access via a digital publishing site.

Here is a new report on monitoring practices used in child care and early education licensing published by OPRE’s TRLECE: The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education Project. This is a wonderful new resource which will help to … Continue reading →

Here are the eHandBook and the Powerpoint Slide Deck for Licensing Measurement and Monitoring Systems that can be used by licensing administrators, regulatory scientists, licensing researchers, and licensing program staff. These contain the latest research updates. For those interested, please … Continue reading →

Below is the second edition of the Licensing Measurement and Monitoring System eHandBook: Regulatory science applied to human services regulatory administration for regulatory scientists, licensing researchers, regulatory administrators and their policy and program staffs.

The purpose of this blog post is to point out the intersections, differences and similarities of integrative, differential/inferential and coordinated monitoring as used in the monitoring of human service programs. Program monitoring has changed over the years in that not … Continue reading →

Kenya, in particular researchers from Kisii University, is using the theory of regulatory compliance in a very useful way to impact their regulatory environment and to promulgate effective and efficient regulations related to various industries. This study by Dr Wilfred … Continue reading →

Here are two articles from the past that highlight early care and education professional development and accreditation and other program quality initiatives that are still pertinent today, that is why I am sharing them today. Take a look at the … Continue reading →

As we begin a new year and reflect on where early care and education (ECE) is headed, we may need to acknowledge a new normal for the field. I am sure many of my colleagues in ECE will not be … Continue reading →

Creating national standards for any industry based upon empirical evidence is possible in analyzing research over the past 50 years in human services. Research completed in human service regulatory science gives a pretty good blueprint in how this can be … Continue reading →

An interesting article about ways to improve compliance measures and implementation in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to study relatively new phenomenon of compliance (Theory of Regulatory Compliance, Fiene, 2016, 2019) for Ukraine and to identify its priority … Continue reading →

There is the need to revise the risk assessment methodology that has been used in the differential monitoring approach. In the past risk assessment has always been listed along with the key indicator methodology as the two approaches for differential … Continue reading →

Here is a letter from over 400 Penn State Faculty members concerned about a leadership decision to not follow through with its commitment to creating a Center for Racial Justice. Please see the following letter for the issues and the … Continue reading →

I learned today that I am in the top ten clubs: (top 10% of authors) and top 10,000 downloaded papers (Theory of Regulatory Compliance) on SSRN, the repository for new research in the social sciences. See the two notifications below:

I received this email today: Congratulations on your nomination and initiation into Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society! More information about your membership will be sent to your email soon. If you have any questions concerning Sigma Xi, please … Continue reading →

Sometimes we have a tendency to push the envelope too far and the contents of the envelope gets lost in the process. You can tell that there is high inflation because the “money stealer wildflowers” are really bad this year. … Continue reading →

For those of you who are interested in the NARA Licensing Measurement Course I wanted to provide a location map on where you can find all the resources for the course because they have grown a great deal over the … Continue reading →

Here is the link to a poster presentation with Dr Sonya Stevens, Daniel Blevins, and Amber Salzer entitled: Identifying Predictive Indicators: The State of Washington Foster Care Home Study. The poster presentation was at the National Research Conference on Early … Continue reading →

Below is the National Research Conference on Early Childhood Program Book which gives the details of the 2022 conference with all presenters and their sessions. The conference will be held June 27-29, 2022. NRCEC presents the latest research on early … Continue reading →

Below is a Licensing Measurement & Program Monitoring Systems eHandBook to accompany the NARA Licensing Measurement and Systems course. It is recommended to be read along with taking the NARA course but it can be read as a stand alone … Continue reading →

The attached report is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago; it is a synthesis of major issues, policy questions, available research findings and information needs in child care policy, presented in a form that can provide a … Continue reading →

This is an older report but I thought it was still relevant today, so I wanted to post it for other ECE researchers and regulatory scientists to review and use. The Better Care for the Babies (BCTB) Project was initiated … Continue reading →

Below is a brief technical research note providing an example of a data analysis plan utilizing risk assessment indicators. It provides a means for thinking about how best to implement such a plan from initial design to validation of the … Continue reading →

Here are five studies that demonstrate validation of the Licensing Key Indicator (LKI), Risk Assessment Methodology (RAM), and Regulatory Compliance Theory (RCT). The studies were done in the states of Georgia (RAM, RCT), Washington (RAM, RCT) national with Head Start … Continue reading →

Here is a recently published article on comparing online mandated reporter trainings which highlights the iLookOut Child Abuse Prevention Training program. Very interesting state by state comparisons.

This article was published in 2002 in Child and Youth Care Forum. This article built off several studies in Pennsylvania which clearly demonstrated the lack of an effective professional development system, especially involving infant toddler caregivers. The mentoring/coaching intervention as … Continue reading →

This article was published in 1980 in NARA News as a licensing measurement enhancement. It really grew out of the regulatory compliance need being addressed at the national level with the changes being made in the Federal Interagency Day Care … Continue reading →

This article appeared in the Child Care Information Exchange in the mid 1990s. In the early part of that decade, Gwen Morgan, one of the pioneers of early care and education (ECE) regulatory science and administration, proposed the child care … Continue reading →

This article published in the International Journal of Child Care and Educational Policy in 2013 compared the regulatory compliance within the USA with approximately 20 other countries to determine the emphasis placed upon rules and regulations in the respective countries. … Continue reading →

This article published in the Journal of Regulatory Science in 2019 has helped to create an interesting heuristic problematic for the regulatory science field. The essence of the treatise is moving regulatory policy from full compliance with all rules to … Continue reading →

This is an article written back in 1985 that really tied licensing measurement together into a quantitative approach of instrument based program monitoring rather than case anecdotal records and proposed the use of key indicators/predictor rules, risk assessment/weighting of rules, … Continue reading →

Attached are several examples of Federal, national, and state reports on state of the art licensing and differential monitoring initiatives. These reports have helped to shape the research efforts as we move forward with licensing and differential monitoring in early … Continue reading →

This blog post will attempt to place the Regulatory Compliance Theory of Diminishing Returns into everyday terms addressing its potential implications beyond the human services and suggest how it can be applied anywhere in which standards/regulations/rules are utilized in the … Continue reading →