Category Archives: RIKI.Institute@gmail.com

Here are key elements that should be present in a high quality early care and education (ECE) program that any parent should be looking for when selecting their child care arrangement:

Over the past decade in utilizing the Regulatory Compliance Key Indicator Metric (RCKIm) it has become very clear that false negatives needed to be controlled for because of their potential to increase morbidity and mortality. When dealing with regulatory compliance … 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 →

On the 200th RIKINotes Blog Post, I thought it would be useful to summarize the previous blog posts by the major areas of research because the research fits into neat overall buckets. The buckets build off the title of this … 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 →

Two previous posts introduced the Theory of Space as consisting of four states. This post applies the specific concept of time as empty space in motion from the Theory of Space and substitutes that concept within the General Theory of … Continue reading →

This post will follow up and build off a previous post on the four states of space. In the four states of space it is conjectured that the basic building blocks of the universe can be dealt with by only … 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:

Presented here is a 2 x 2 matrix depicting the four state of space theory which has been posted on this blog previously. Here is how the above matrix fits into the original technical research papers on the same topic.

The essence of the theory of regulatory compliance has to do with the law of diminishing returns as one approaches full 100% regulatory compliance. This effect related to diminishing returns applies to all industries and not just to the human … Continue reading →

Here are the most recent issues of the Aware Newsletter for the Weather Ready Nation initiative of the NOAA in chronological order. Must reading for anyone who is concerned about local weather events.

Many of you have asked about the origins of the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Program Quality Indicators (SKECPQI) Tool. The tool originated based upon the extension of the key indicator methodology into more program quality initiatives that have sprung up in … Continue reading →

Starting this Fall-Winter 2022-2023, the Province of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Education will be conducting a study with the assistance of the National Association for Regulatory Administration on a Quality Indicators Tool (the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Quality Indicators Tool). The Ministry … Continue reading →

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 →

Here is the September issue of the Aware Newsletter for the Weather Ready Nation initiative of the NOAA. This is particularly timely given Hurricane Ian moving up the east coast. Must reading for anyone who is concerned about local weather … Continue reading →

Below is a presentation done by NARA – National Association for Regulatory Administration consultants regarding the Minnesota Department of Human Services Child Care Regulation Modernization Project, an innovative and cutting edge licensing and program monitoring initiative.

Here is a very interesting article utilizing the theory of regulatory compliance in assisted living monitoring and enforcement via a national survey: Promoting Quality of Life and Safety in Assisted Living: A Survey of State Monitoring and Enforcement Agents. Our … Continue reading →

With peak hurricane season approaching, extreme heat out West, and communities around the country ravaged by flood events this summer, now is always the right time to prepare. (1) WRN Fall Safety Campaign Three actions to stress include preparing on how … Continue reading →

I have been doing a great deal of reading and discussing with others about severe weather predictions this summer. It is something I have been interested in for some time and an area that needs some major improvements since the … Continue reading →

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published an important report (WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, 2021) recently which highlighted the need to increase the number of on-the-ground sensors for determining weather conditions, especially … Continue reading →

A new designation for RIKI today, we are honored to be part of the Initiative: Welcome to the NOAA Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™  initiative. Your organization has been accepted as a NOAA Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador.  http://www.weather.gov/wrn/ The Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador initiative … Continue reading →

Here is a proposed Meteorological Decision Matrix that I thought would be helpful in looking at historical TDS: Tornadic Debris Signature data or any severe storm data in general. This 2 x 2 Matrix is a common tool used within … Continue reading →

I became a member of the Royal Meteorological Society recently and a SkyWarn Spotter by completing the NWS/NOAA Basic SkyWarn training.

As I promised in my earlier post, I said I would highlight some of my discussions and my research journey into meteorology. So here is the first such post dealing with a couple of very interesting discussions I have been … Continue reading →

I have always had a keen interest in meteorology but never had the time to really get into it because of my research work as a research psychologist and regulatory scientist. But now in retirement from Penn State and RIKI … 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 →

Below is a graphic that depicts the key thresholds for the use of the Fiene Key Indicator Coefficients in a differential monitoring approach. The graphic provides an illustration of the Fiene Key Indicator (FKI) values and the number of compliant/non-compliant … 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 →

I have posted on licensing metrics in this blog several times and wanted to provide an update to the latest thinking related to the relationship between these two methodologies based upon a hypothetical risk assessment scale. This is provided for … Continue reading →

There are three theories of regulatory compliance that I would like to introduce and probably will spend some time describing in future blog posts but for the time being let me just introduce them. The three theories of regulatory compliance … Continue reading →

I have posted several blog-feeds previously on how Kenya has been very creatively utilizing the regulatory compliance theory of diminishing returns in several industries when it comes to regulatory development and analyses. It has become evident in theses being produced … Continue reading →

Improving medical records documentation among the health workers remains amajor challenge to achieving compliance to medical records documentation SOP inmany developing countries. Compliance to medical records documentation SOP canbe used to improve health care and protect people against catastrophic health … Continue reading →

Here are two additional studies utilizing the theory of regulatory compliance from Kenya published in International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management and the Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs by Dr Wilfred Ochieng Omollo.

The study examined the relationship between procurement process compliance and procurementperformance of public procuring entities in Rwanda. The objective of the study was to assess the effects of procurement planning on procurement performance; to assess the effects of procurement sourcing … 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 LMS eBook containing the original handbook, the webinar slides with notes, the NARA reports, and the technical research notes all together in one volume rather than having them in different posts and in different sections of the … 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 →

Last month several regulatory compliance validation studies were posted (May 22nd). For regulatory science and licensing researchers who are interested, the SPSS databases are available through Mendeley Data (Fiene, Dr Richard (2022), “Regulatory Compliance Theory of Diminishing Returns”, Mendeley Data, … Continue reading →

Below are several national and state/provincial (Massachusetts, Minnesota, Alberta) presentations involving differential monitoring and key indicators.

Here is an analysis performed by statisticians from the Province of British Columbia, Fraser Health, Population Health Observatory utilizing SAS rather than SPSS which is the best example of this approach. In this technical research note it outlines very nicely … Continue reading →

Below is a policy commentary article just published in the Journal of Regulatory Science, Volume 10, Issue 1 on regulatory science monitoring paradigms and the relationship between regulatory compliance and program quality. Eighteen key elements are introduced in a series … 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.

The 2 x 2 matrix format has been used in many different contexts when it comes to decision making. I have found the 2 x 2 matrix very useful in regulatory science especially when it comes to measuring regulatory compliance … Continue reading →

Two of the most widely used early care and education program quality tools used in the field are the CLASS: Classroom Assessment Scoring System and ERS: Environmental Rating Scales. Is there an advantage to using one versus the other. In … Continue reading →

I get asked all the time about what is the difference between the Key Indicator and the Risk Assessment methodologies. Generally I reply with a very academic type of response either explaining the difference given the research literature or the … Continue reading →

I have discussed licensing measurement a great deal in this blog. Today, I want to introduce a new term to basically describe what I have been discussing with licensing measurement, called Regulatory Metrics or RegalMetrics for short. The reason for … Continue reading →

Below are a series of resources for the licensing measurement/regulatory science course that are organized as anthologies and summarizing information from the RIKI Publications webpage. 1. Class Syllabus: Lists the 13 classes with a brief summary of what is to … Continue reading →

Attached please find an anthology that contains technical research notes from the past decade on regulatory science, differential monitoring and licensing measurement. I thought it would be helpful to regulatory scientists and licensing researchers to have all these various research … Continue reading →

Here is a policy commentary manuscript that delineates the key elements or alternate program quality paradigms and their subsequent implications for regulatory compliance measurement and program quality that has been submitted to the Journal of Regulatory Science. This manuscript is … Continue reading →

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 →

The history of licensing measurement and regulatory compliance has actually a rather long lineage but is still in its infancy in terms of development. In the early stages most licensing visits and inspection results were recorded via anecdotal records/case records … Continue reading →

A technical research note is provided for other licensing researchers and statisticians who are interested in replicating the methodology through the use of a alternate statistical software package, such as SPSS, Systat or SAS. The research note provides all the … Continue reading →

This technical research note will integrate the Key Indicator Matrix (KIM) and the Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) into one platform to clearly demonstrate their statistical modeling overlap.  Key Indicators deal with the ability to predict overall compliance or performance based … Continue reading →

Here are two documents, one, a technical research note on the latest version of the Early Childhood Program Quality Improvement/Indicator Model (V5)(ECPQIM5a) and two, a powerpoint slide presentation on Licensing Measurement (PPT189).

Attached to this post is a new land use study completed in Kenya utilizing the Theory of Regulatory Compliance. It was published in the International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management: Planning implication of universities growth on land use: … Continue reading →

I have been reading about the Tennessee Study regarding their Pre-K program and their lack of success. Unfortunately, the goals of the program to help very disadvantaged children gain and sustain those gains overtime did not come to fruition according … Continue reading →

In a previous RIKINote (4-8-2018), linear and non-linear models were discussed on a very broad scale. In this note, the Theory of Regulatory Compliance is being suggested as a non-linear paradigm to the dominant neoclassical economic theory and the linear … Continue reading →

This blog post will propose a new Regulatory Compliance Scale (RCS)(Fiene, 2022) which should help in making comparisons between regulatory compliance and program quality systems, such as Environmental Rating Scales and Quality Rating & Improvement systems. The proposed scale builds … Continue reading →

The major publications surrounding Caring for Our Children dealing with risk assessment and key indicators along with their respective checklists/tools. Each of the publications are listed here for your convenience.

Here is the July 2019 National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education Guide for parents in choosing safe and healthy child care. It is a really nice checklist that should help parents in comparing … Continue reading →

It all started in and around 1965 when the Federal government got into early care and education (ECE) in earnest with Head Start and federally funded day care for low-income families.  It started off slowly but began to pick up … Continue reading →

Two technical research notes dealing with a paradigm shift related to program monitoring and its subsequent impact on regulatory compliance and quality. These research notes help to develop the key elements, principles, and dimensions when thinking about designing and implementing … Continue reading →

Attached below are two reports from Saskatchewan and Florida which delineate their respective experiences with developing differential monitoring systems.

Below is a series of technical research notes dealing with licensing measurement paradigm considerations involving performance assessments, regulatory compliance modeling, risk assessment and weighting. It provides some of the latest thinking related to regulatory compliance and performance assessments as a … Continue reading →

Here are two papers dealing with the licensing key indicator predictor methodology, regulatory compliance and licensing management that help to round out some of the latest research in regulatory science utilizing an international database from the Early Childhood Program Quality … Continue reading →

Starting this Fall 2021, NARA – National Association for Regulatory Administration in conjunction with the Research Institute for Key Indicators (RIKI) will be offering a new course, Licensing Measurement and Systems. The course is being developed by Dr Richard Fiene, … Continue reading →

This past January 2021, the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) and the Research Institute for Key Indicators (RIKI) renewed their exclusive licensing key indicator agreement for 5 additional years. The new agreement has several interesting enhancements. Probably the most … Continue reading →

Here is the series of regulatory compliance and performance papers organized into an anthology for easy reading. I included the original paper as reference but after that paper all the other papers support and add to this original paper. Also, … Continue reading →

Here is a short paper addressing the issue of rule compliance and rule performance which is being discussed a good deal in regulatory science circles. The paper addresses some of the major measurement principles of regulatory compliance, licensing and monitoring … Continue reading →

Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) has published a very significant new publication: The Child Care Licensing Benchmark Project building on the very important work they have been doing over the past 15-20 years related to child care center and … Continue reading →

Here is a proposal for a new approach for reinventing early care and education in the post COVID19 Pandemic era. It is very controversial but one that needs to be put on our radar screen. After being in the early … Continue reading →

Here are three examples (all dealing with staff to child ratios) of using science in an innovative way to help formulate and guide early care and education (ECE) policy and standards/rules/regulations. -> The use of developmental play patterns in determining … Continue reading →

Several previous posts presented a new contact hour metric for measuring compliance with staff child ratios and for monitoring potential COVID19 infection rates. However, a conversion table had only been proposed for the staff child ratios but not for the … Continue reading →

A program quality enhancement is presented in the following Technical Research Note which should help to mitigate the limitations of the regulatory compliance law of diminishing returns. It has been noted that there is a ceiling/plateau effect when comparing regulatory … Continue reading →

Here is the link to register for NARA’s Webinar on their Licensing Key Indicator Methodology which will be aired on October 28th: https://www.naralicensing.org/webinars.

Dr Fiene will be doing a NARA Webinar on Licensing Key Indicator Rules on October 28th from 1:00 – 2:00pm. Here are some concepts that Dr Fiene will cover in the Webinar contained in the attached file below:

NARA will be doing a Licensing Key Indicator Webinar this Fall 2020. Many of the NARA Seminar participants were asking about this. A date has not been established, but it should be announced by NARA in the coming month or … Continue reading →

There have been several very interesting discussions at the NARA Licensing Seminar that are worth sharing. Here are some takeaways from the various sessions that need highlighting. These highlighted items are pertinent to all human services and not just to … Continue reading →

During a two week time frame (Sept 7 – 21), Dr Fiene has had the opportunity to present and discuss pressing issues within early care and education related to COVID19. The Virtual NARA Licensing Seminar CCEEPRC Use of Licensing Data … Continue reading →

Next week on November 14th, 2020 Dr Fiene will be joining Dr Sonya Stevens from the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families; and Kim Taylor and Derek Pardy from the Province of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Education to do a … Continue reading →

Here is a presentation that Drs Fiene and Stevens did last month to senior leadership in the Department of Children, Youth, and Families in the State of Washington. The presentation highlighted the encouraging results from a pilot study conducted in … Continue reading →

Here is a wonderful example of how students are making a positive impact. I have posted about Pandemic Analytics in a previous post after learning about their work with schools and businesses. But what really catches your attention in this … Continue reading →