Quality early childhood programs

In this special issue, there is a box at the end of each article with selected assessment items to help you become familiar with the expectations set for accredited programs. Together, they provide a picture of the challenging and rewarding work that educators in high-quality, accredited programs do every day to ensure that each and every child receives an excellent early education. Here is an overview of the standards.

The program implements a curriculum that is consistent with its goals for children and that promotes learning and development in each of the following areas: social, emotional, physical, language, and cognitive.

These assessments occur in the context of reciprocal communications between teachers and families, and with sensitivity to the cultural contexts in which children are developing. The program uses assessment results to inform decisions about the children in their care, to improve teaching practices, and to drive program improvement. The program promotes the nutrition and health of children and protects children and staff from illness.

These relationships are sensitive to family composition, language, and culture. The program has a safe and healthful environment that provides appropriate and well-maintained indoor and outdoor physical environments.

These indicators and supports provide a roadmap for policymakers as they develop solutions to the current child care crisis and can also serve as a guide for parents seeking to make the best and most informed choices for their child. These attachments support children as they develop a sense of self and begin to understand their emotions, and they lay the foundation for establishing successful relationships at later ages.

Waiting until children enter preschool or kindergarten to introduce these vital interventions is simply too late. The positive effects of high-quality early childhood programs on specific, short- and long-term outcomes for children, families, and communities, have been quantified by numerous research studies. In the long term, those participating children are more likely to be employed and less likely to be dependent on government assistance. Despite evidence of the positive impact of high-quality early childhood education for all children, it remains out of reach for most low- and moderate-income families.

Moderate-income families are typically ineligible for these publicly funded programs, but at the same time, such families struggle to afford the high cost of care in the private sector. All states have regulations or licensing standards that child care providers must meet in order to legally operate in the state. These regulations provide a baseline standard and are primarily focused on protecting children from harm rather than on advancing child development and early learning.

As such, meeting licensing requirements serves only as a baseline providing the fundamental components necessary for operation rather than an indication of program quality. In addition, states have varying requirements when it comes to determining exactly which providers need to be licensed, often making exemptions for faith-based programs or based on the number of nonrelative children served.

As a result, significant numbers of children attend license-exempt programs that are not required to meet even the minimum licensing standard. Moreover, the key to a high-quality program is what happens inside the classroom or family child care home, namely the interactions that take place between the teacher and child.

As such, the quality of an early childhood program is dependent on the following three key factors. The learning environment created by a teacher is critical to the quality of an early childhood program. A well-trained and highly skilled teacher tailors their interactions to fit the needs of the child—using responsive language, engaging all children in classroom activities, fostering independence, and creating a language-rich environment. The experiences children have with teachers in their earliest years can also set the tone for their interactions with teachers in later grades and thus are crucial to promoting positive attitudes about school and approaches to learning.

Children need a physical setting—both inside and outdoors—where they can play, explore, and learn safely. For example, infants need to interact with their environment in a very physical way, examining cause and effect relationships by touching and feeling objects. The environment should therefore include toys made of different materials that are small enough to be picked up by an infant. Toddlers and preschoolers use objects in more complex combinations and engage in socio-dramatic play with one another.

Their environment needs toys that spark the imagination, such as play kitchens, and that can engage them in problem solving such as puzzles. In addition to the indoor learning environment, children need access to outdoor space where they can move and engage with the natural world. Outdoor play has positive impacts on health and has been shown to combat childhood obesity and help develop stronger immune systems.

A high-functioning operating environment is an essential element of a quality early childhood program. This administrative operational support takes a number of forms. First, programs need effective leaders who can provide instructional support to teachers as well as sound business management to the overall program.

Second, external to the immediate program, programs need a series of structural supports, including access to professional development, quality improvement resources, stable and sufficient funding streams, and a pipeline of well-trained teachers. These external supports recognize that early childhood programs do not operate in a vacuum and rely on the wider early childhood system.

All three factors need to be in place to ensure quality. A well-resourced classroom is not sufficient without an effective teacher to harness those resources. Meanwhile, an effective teacher is not sustainable without a support system to manage the business, support instruction, and provide professional development. While there is no single definition of high quality and therefore no single measurement tool to determine and compare early childhood program quality across the United States, there are a number of tools that are widely used to assess and report the quality of early childhood programs.

In addition to a core set of health and safety requirements, the three factors discussed above make up the key elements of a high-quality program. The workforce is the most critical component of quality in an early childhood program. This important role requires that teachers have formal education and training in early childhood education. Providing professional compensation and benefits, comparable to kindergarten teachers, helps recruit and retain effective and educated teachers and promotes a stable healthy learning environment for children.

In addition, programs need to be staffed at a level that allows for teacher-child ratios that are appropriate for the age of the children and the size of the group, such as those required for programs accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The early childhood education workforce should also reflect the growing diversity of the child population, ensuring that children have teachers they can relate to and role models that reflect their own backgrounds.

Early childhood program administrators are responsible for a broad range of tasks, requiring many different competencies. Instructional leaders support teachers with lesson planning and curriculum implementation, behavior management strategies, and professional development.

Second, programs need leaders with sound business management skills. The majority of early childhood programs are private businesses, and similar to any other small business, their long-term stability is reliant on adequate business management and the implementation of good budgetary practices. Finally, program administrators must be skilled in organizational management and relationship building.

In addition to fostering relationships with families and the community, leaders play a key role in creating a positive atmosphere inside the program, which can minimize teacher turnover, increase program efficiency, and allow teachers to focus on the children.

These multiple administrative roles need to be staffed sufficiently, which ideally includes more than one person, given the varied skill sets required. All early childhood programs should adopt a research-based curriculum that is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically relevant for all children.

Classroom materials and equipment are appropriate to the developmental level of the children involved. The principal promotes research-based recommended class size. Grouping practices facilitate the individual student's total development. The classroom environment promotes the interaction of children with materials, other children, and adults. Personnel Quality early childhood programs are staffed at all levels by persons who have specific training and experience in working with children in the three-to-eight-year age range.

Standards: The principal is knowledgeable about quality early childhood programs and effective in explaining, organizing, and implementing them. The principal collaborates with other groups, pro-rams, and agencies in the community to provide all needed services for children and their families.

Accountability Quality early childhood programs readily accept the principle of being held accountable. Standards: The principal institutes an approach to student assessment that is consonant with developmental philosophy, curriculum, and positions taken by other professional associations involved with the appropriate testing of young children.

The school is ready for the children rather than expecting the children to be ready for the school.