ELEVATE Mississippi Quality Rating: Badging Levels, Evidence Requirements, and How Coaching Moves Programs Up

What ELEVATE is and who it applies to

ELEVATE is the quality support system administered by the Mississippi Department of Human Services Division of Early Childhood Care and Development (MDHS DECCD) for licensed child care programs. It uses a badging structure with five levels: Foundation, Proficiency, Distinguished, Exemplary, and Exceptional. Programs earn badges by meeting age-group-specific standards in infant-toddler, preschool, and school-age classrooms.

Participation is voluntary. Programs pursuing Child Care Payment Program (CCPP) higher reimbursement rates must hold at least one badge. A center can earn one badge for preschool, another for infant-toddler, and a third for school-age, or focus on a single age group. Each badge is earned and displayed separately.

The five badge levels and what each requires

Foundation badge requires a CLASS score of 5.0 or higher, or a portfolio with documented evidence of quality practices. Proficiency, Distinguished, Exemplary, and Exceptional badge requirements for specific CLASS score thresholds or portfolio evidence standards are not published by the state; check with your licensing agency or your district's certification officer.

Programs can pursue badges for one, two, or all three age groups. Badges do not expire but require ongoing quality support and periodic reassessment. A program that earns Proficiency for preschool holds no badge for infant-toddler. Each age group requires its own observation or portfolio.

The two pathways to earning a badge

The CLASS score pathway requires a program to schedule a Classroom Assessment Scoring System observation by a reliable CLASS observer for the specific age group. CLASS observations are arranged through MDHS DECCD or the Mississippi Thrive quality improvement network. The observer uses the CLASS manual for the age group being assessed: Infant, Toddler, Pre-K, or K-3.

The portfolio evidence pathway requires a program to document quality practices using the ELEVATE toolkit indicators, which align with CLASS domains. Programs show evidence through documentation, photos, lesson plans, and teacher reflections. Portfolio submissions are reviewed by a quality coach or MDHS DECCD staff member who verifies that evidence meets the rubric threshold for the badge level requested.

Programs working with a quality coach typically use the portfolio pathway because the coach helps gather and organize evidence during regular visits. The portfolio is built over weeks or months, not assembled the day before submission.

How quality coaches support programs

Quality coaches are assigned to programs through MDHS DECCD or the Mississippi Thrive network of technical assistance providers, including Child Care Resource and Referral agencies. Coaches conduct on-site visits, observe classrooms, model best practices, and help teachers align daily routines with CLASS dimensions or ELEVATE indicators.

Coaches create individualized quality improvement plans that identify the badge level the program is working toward and the specific evidence or score needed. The plan names the age group, the current badge level, the target badge level, and the CLASS domain or toolkit indicator that will be the focus. It lists observable practices the program will implement and the timeline for each action.

Coaching visits are documented in a log that records the date, duration, focus area, and progress toward the badge goal. Coaches help programs assemble portfolios by reviewing drafts, suggesting additional documentation, and confirming that evidence demonstrates the required quality level.

Steps to move from one badge level to the next

The program director and quality coach review the current badge level and decide which age group and next badge level to pursue. The coach and director complete a self-assessment using the ELEVATE toolkit rubrics to identify strengths and gaps. This self-assessment pinpoints which indicators the program already meets and which ones need documentation or improvement.

The coach develops a quality improvement plan that lists specific actions, target dates, and the type of evidence the program will collect. The coach conducts regular visits, helps implement practices, and documents each visit in the coaching log. The program gathers evidence such as photos, lesson plans, interaction transcripts, and environment checklists that align with toolkit indicators.

The coach reviews the portfolio or confirms the program is ready for a CLASS observation. The program submits the portfolio or schedules the CLASS observation through the MDHS lift-ED portal. MDHS DECCD reviews the submission or CLASS score and awards the badge, which is posted to the program's public profile on the Mississippi Child Care Search.

Programs can begin working toward the next badge immediately after earning one. A program that earns Foundation for preschool can start the Proficiency plan the same month.

Where programs and coaches get this wrong

Programs submit portfolios with generic photos and no annotation, so reviewers cannot verify the evidence demonstrates the specific indicator being claimed. A photo of a teacher at a table with three children does not prove a positive climate indicator unless the annotation describes the specific interaction and links it to the toolkit language.

Coaches conduct visits but do not update the coaching log after each one, leaving no record of what was worked on or when the program met a milestone. Directors assume a high CLASS score in one age group will transfer to another, but each age group requires its own observation or portfolio for each badge level.

Programs collect evidence for multiple badge levels at once but do not organize it by age group and level, making it impossible for the reviewer to score the portfolio accurately. A single binder with 200 unlabeled photos and lesson plans from three classrooms cannot be matched to the rubric.

Coaches write quality improvement plans that list general goals like "improve interactions" instead of naming the CLASS dimension, the toolkit indicator, and the observable practice the program will implement. Programs wait until they think they are ready for the next badge before asking for coaching, but coaching is the support that gets them ready, not the final check.

Why coaching supervisors and CCR&R networks use Solutionwhere to track ELEVATE coaching

Supervisors at Child Care Resource and Referral agencies and the Mississippi Thrive network are accountable to MDHS DECCD for the number of coaching hours delivered, the badge levels achieved, and the evidence that coaching contributed to improvement. Solutionwhere's coaching module maintains the visit log, the quality improvement plan, and the evidence portfolio in one record per program, so supervisors can audit what each coach is documenting.

The system records the date and duration of each visit, the focus area from the ELEVATE toolkit, and the progress note the coach writes after the visit. Supervisors generate reports that show which programs earned a badge, how many visits preceded it, and which CLASS domain or toolkit indicator was the primary focus.

Networks use the module to track coaches' caseloads and visit frequency, ensuring that no program goes more than 30 days without contact during an active improvement cycle. The system allows coaches to upload photos, scans, and PDFs of evidence directly to the program record, creating the portfolio as the coaching happens rather than reconstructing it at submission time.

Supervisors who need to report coaching outcomes to MDHS DECCD or prepare for a federal monitoring review export logs and improvement plans that show the timeline and documented progress toward each badge. The export lists the program name, the coach name, the visit dates, the age group and badge level being pursued, and the date the badge was awarded. A supervisor preparing for a Child Care and Development Fund site visit can show that coaching visits happened, that improvement plans named specific toolkit indicators, and that portfolios were reviewed before submission.

Track coaching and badge progress across your network

If you supervise quality coaches or coordinate technical assistance for ELEVATE, you need a record of which programs are working toward which badge, how many visits each coach has logged, and whether the portfolio evidence is being gathered on schedule. Networks that rely on email attachments and shared drives lose the timeline and cannot reconstruct the coaching sequence when MDHS DECCD asks for documentation.

Responsible for tracking this across your staff? See how agencies manage it in Solutionwhere.