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3: Quality Counts

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    The need for high-quality childcare continues to be a topic of interest as more and more families enter the workforce and more and more children need care. Every week, families from all socioeconomic backgrounds drop their children off at some type of childcare. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), “In the United States, 76% of children ages three to four, receive education and care from someone other than a parent.” (NIEER 2002). With so many children needing childcare, researchers and policymakers are tasked with figuring out how to best support the next generation of preschoolers. In this chapter, we will address the need for high-quality in early care and education as means to reduce the achievement gap between children from low to high socioeconomic families. We will also compare standard industry practices to what the field of early care and education recognizes as high-quality practices. Lastly, we will review some of the current observation methods, tools and techniques that can be used to ensure programs are implementing quality practices.

    By the end of this chapter, readers will be able to:

    1. Describe how assessment for the purposes of program evaluation and accountability assessment can help teachers, administrators, and families determine to what extent high-quality early childhood and inclusive practices are taking place in a program and identify potential next steps.

    2. Name at least two early childhood assessment tools used for the purposes of program evaluation and accountability, and describe these tools' methods used for data collection and scoring.

    3. Describe several high-quality and developmentally appropriate practices that are commonly included as items in assessment tools used for the purposes of program evaluation and accountability.

    This page titled 3: Quality Counts is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gina Peterson and Emily Elam via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.