Seekng a High Quality Child Care Program

ABC Academy has always strived to provide a high quality program for the families that we serve. We utilize the Program Assessment Tool (PQA) to assess each of our classrooms to help guide our staff in our quest to provide a high quality program. Approximately ten years ago we challenged ourselves to strive for higher quality standards and elected to become a NAEYC Accreditation Applicant. Collectively our teaching teams worked very hard gathering evidence of their performance and making improvements to ready our programs for the validators visit, achieving our goal of becoming an accredited program.  Programs maintain their accredited status through annual reporting to the National Association for the Education of Young Children and must reapply every five years. During that time they must complete the full accreditation process; Enrollment in Self- Study; Becoming an Applicant; Becoming a Candidate; and finally demonstrating to a validator that the center meets the NAEYC Program Standards. Recently our Laurence St. center was approved for Candidacy for Accreditation by NAEYC.  This location had completed the accreditation process five years ago, maintaining accredited status during this period. It is now time for the center to reapply for accreditation. During the past five year period NAEYC has restructured the guidelines set to become an Accredited Program or to maintain the status as one. The NAEYC Governing Board brought together a panel of national experts in early childhood education, curriculum, early childhood special education, family involvement, leadership and administration and child health. Their task was to develop explicit early childhood program standards and researched based accreditation criteria to establish the measure of quality for the reinvented accreditation system. Many of the criteria had changed in the process. Our agency has spent the past several months collecting evidence to demonstrate that it meets the ten standards and accreditation criteria set by NAEYC under the new accreditation process.

Standard 1: Relationships

Program Standard: The program promotes positive relationships among all children and adults to encourage each child’s sense of individual worth and belonging as part of a community and to foster each child’s ability to contribute as a responsible community member.

Standard 2: Curriculum

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

Standard 3: Teaching

Program Standard: The program uses developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate and effective teaching approaches that enhance each child’s learning and development in the context of the program’s curriculum goals.

Standard 4: Assessment of Child Progress

Program Standard: The program is informed by ongoing systematic, formal, and informal assessment approaches to provide information on children’s learning and development. These assessments occur within the context of reciprocal communications with families and with sensitivity to the cultural contexts in which children develop. Assessment results are used to benefit children by informing sound decisions about children, teaching and program improvement.

Standard 5: Health

Program Standard: The program promotes the nutrition and health of children and protects children and staff from illness and injury.

Standard 6: Teachers

Program Standard: The program employs and supports a teaching staff that has the educational qualifications, knowledge, and professional commitment necessary to promote children’s learning and development and to support families’ diverse needs and interests.

Standard 7: Families

Program Standard: The program establishes and maintains collaborative relationships with each child’s family to foster children’s development in all settings. These relationships are sensitive to family composition, language, and culture.

Standard 8: Community Relationships

Program Standard: The program establishes relationships with and uses the resources of the children’s communities to support the achievement of program goals.

Standard 9: Physical Environment

Program Standard: The program has a safe and healthful environment that provides appropriate and well-maintained indoor and outdoor physical environments. The environments include facilities, equipment, and materials to facilitate child and staff learning and development.

Standard 10: Leadership and Management

Program Standard: The program effectively implements policies, procedures, and systems that support stable staff and strong personnel, fiscal, and program management so all children, families, and staff have high-quality experiences.

As we wait for our visit from the NAEYC validator and learn if we have successfully demonstrated that our program meets the new standards to retain our accreditation status we are certain that setting standards for high quality will help many more people recognize the value of early childhood education.

Kathy Hoszkiw is the owner of ABC Academy and a founding member of Jackson's Great Start Collaborative.