Cultural competence is a core component of high-quality early childhood education programs, and it is imcumbent upon states to ensure that they are attending to the critical questions and implications of diversity, equity, and cultural competence at every stage of the development and implementation of their QRIS, from standards and curriculum, to outreach and engagement, to monitoring and evaluation. Here are some tools to help:

• NAEYC Position Statements on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity
• NAEYC Quality Benchmarks for Cultural Competence Tool
• Developing Culturally Appropriate Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (BUILD Initiative, 2013)
• Incorporating Cultural Competence in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (CLASP, 2013)
• Racial Equity and QRIS in Washington State (DEL, 2017)