As increasing numbers of children enter child-care environments that are su
bsidized by federal and state funds, the demand has risen from policy maker
s and activists for valid, cost-effective methods of assessing the quality
of those environments. In this study we asked whether data on child-care qu
ality obtained from a telephone interview with the provider can serve as an
adequate proxy for data obtained from direct observation. Observations wer
e conducted in 89 family child-care homes and 92 centers using the Family D
ay Care Rating Scale (FDCRS) and the Early Childhood Environmental Rating S
cale (ECERS-R), respectively. The target providers and teachers were subseq
uently interviewed by telephone using a protocol developed by the authors.
For the family child-care providers, the 25 item telephone interview explai
ned 49% of the variance (adjusted r(2)) in the total FDCRS score. Discrimin
ant analyses revealed that the telephone interview was able to predict accu
rately 92% of the homes in terms of three FDCRS-derived categories of quali
ty: "poor," "mediocre," or "developmentally appropriate." For the centers.
the 22 item telephone interview accounted for 51% of the variance (adjusted
r(2)) in the total ECERS-R score. The telephone interview was able to pred
ict the classification of 89% of the centers in terms of the ECERS-R derive
d categories of "poor," "mediocre," or "developmentally appropriate." Short
er forms of the telephone interviews (12 items for family child-care; 13 it
ems for center-based care) also demonstrated adequate predictive capability
. These findings suggest that the telephone interview can be a valid source
of data concerning the global quality of a child-care environment. (C) 200
1 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.