The Wisconsin Early Child Care Study (WECCS) was undertaken to provide such an examination of the validity of YoungStar's rating scale. The study was designed both to examine whether the rating scale is able to differentiate programs according to their levels of independently observed quality and whether children who attend more highly rated programs gain more in terms of school readiness over the course of a school year than children attending programs rated at lower levels. This Executive Summary describes the findings from the first research report that investigates whether YoungStar rating predicts independently observed classroom quality. A second report will describe the validity of the YoungStar rating system with respect to children's early learning and school readiness outcomes. (author abstract)