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Quality New York
is an NAEYC Accreditation
Facilitation Project naeyc

naeyc

Quality-New-York
QNY Brochure

Overview

Quality New York (QNY) is a comprehensive initiative to encourage New York City early care and education center-based programs to seek accreditation through the Academy of Early Childhood Accreditation with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). QNY is a registered Accreditation Facilitation Project with NAEYC and has worked with over 150 NYC programs.
To achieve NAEYC accreditation, programs engage in an intensive two year self-study and quality improvement process guided by NAEYC’s national standards for early childhood practices. A Quality Advisor, an expert in early childhood education and the accreditation process offers centers and their staff extensive technical assistance and guides them through the process that is necessary to obtain accreditation.
Quality New York chose the NAEYC accreditation process, because it
  • Provides a consistent process for building quality early care and education experiences for children
  • Is research based
  • Represents a good investment in early childhood education
  • Is supported by a professional organization, NAEYC, with a 20 year history in accrediting programs,
  • Assures parents and the community that they have made the right choice for young children and families
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Research shows that NAEYC accredited programs consistently demonstrate higher quality for children. Read the QNY brief “Making the Case for Supporting NAEYC Accreditation As A Strategy for Improving The Success of NYC’s Young Children As They Prepare For And Enter School”.

 
Most importantly, NAEYC accreditation strengthens programs today and tomorrow by engaging them in a process of continuous quality improvement. As directors and staff move through the NAEYC self-study and assessment processes, they are encouraged to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and take action to address their needs.
QNY educates the NYC early care and education community on the benefits of accreditation by holding introductory sessions on NAEYC accreditation and presenting on quality improvement activities at many venues.
The QNY partners collaborate in delivering accreditation facilitation services to early care and education centers. The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) and Child Care Inc. (CCI) oversee and manage the Quality Advisors’ accreditation facilitation services, conduct support groups for directors and Quality Advisors, and maintain contact with QNY programs to track their progress. Bank Street College of Education provides training to directors and teachers from QNY participating programs, as well as assesses the effectiveness of the QNY components. It also leads the Accredited Centers Network. FPWA has primary responsibility for project coordination and outreach including the publication of the QNY Newsletter, QNY web site, promotional materials and advertisements in various publications. CCI is responsible for advocacy leadership and developing and maintaining the information database. The United Way of New York City provides oversight, serves as the fiscal agent and coordinates fundraising and marketing efforts with the other partners.
QNY partners have built a strong program model to provide accreditation facilitation services to early care and education centers in New York City. The services respond to the range of differing needs and provide assistance to programs seeking NAEYC accreditation. QNY continues to recruit programs to increase the number of accredited programs in New York City and provides support services to accredited programs as well.

Accreditation Facilitation
QNY has developed a model that provides early education centers and their staffs with extensive technical assistance and training to help them navigate the complicated and lengthy process of attaining National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation. To achieve NAEYC accreditation, programs must engage in an intensive 24-month (QNY timeline) self-assessment and quality improvement process and adhere to a set of standards of practice for the early childhood profession.
Quality New York will help early education centers by providing services that include:
  • on-site consultation,
  • training,
  • support groups,
  • curriculum development materials,
  • pre-and post-assessment,
  • parent engagement techniques,
  • and a range of other strategies needed by programs pursuing accreditation.
In coordination with QNY facilitators, a Quality Advisor (QA), an expert in early childhood education and the accreditation process offers centers and their staff extensive technical assistance and guides them through the quality improvement process, that is necessary to obtain accreditation.
QNY offers a coordinated approach of facilitated accreditation which includes the following three models:
  • Quality Advisor Single Site – this model, is best suited to working intensively with a single program site
  • Quality Advisor Multiple Sites – this model has one Quality Advisor working with two programs from the same agency coordinating services together
  • Accreditation Leaders Group – this model suited to large agencies with multiple sites, works with an executive representative from an agency to change the culture of the organization and develop accreditation capacity in all of their sites. A full-time facilitator is assigned to work with this cadre of agencies
QNY has developed a model that provides early care and education centers and their staffs with extensive technical assistance and training to help improve the quality of the services they provide and to navigate the complicated and lengthy process of attaining NAEYC accreditation. To achieve NAEYC accreditation, programs must engage in an intensive self-assessment and quality improvement process and adhere to a set of standards for the early childhood profession. This kind of accountability makes accreditation a critical tool in ensuring that children receive high-quality early care and education services during their earliest years, when the foundation for life-long learning is laid.
Through this process, programs come to realize that NAEYC accreditation is much bigger and more comprehensive than simply improving teaching practice and receiving a “gold seal of approval” at the end. It is an assessment tool. It is an action plan for staff development, including leadership development at the programmatic and executive levels. It is a strategy for building systems for managing resources more effectively. And, it is a means for defining an agency’s mission and standards, setting goals, and transmitting a uniform message so that everyone from the janitor to the teachers, parents and Boards of Directors can work together and improve the quality of early learning and child care experiences for their young children. In return, their early care and education programs will become recognized by their communities as the brand for excellent learning opportunities for young children and supports for their families’ child care needs.
The newly reinvented NAEYC Accreditation system, launched in December 2005, has many new aspects that QNY is introducing to New York City’s early childhood community, by way of introductory seminars and presentations at local conferences. Whether a director of an NAEYC accredited program or a director with an interest in program assessment, our presentations help our audiences understand not only the benefits of using the NAEYC accreditation process as a guide for continuous quality improvement, but also the nuances of NAEYC standards and effective strategies for attaining those standards.
QNY enrolled programs implement their individualized program improvement plan that are developed by synthesizing the results from the program’s scores on the ECERS-R (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) and PAS (Program Administration Scale) assessments, the information gathered during interviews, and the NAEYC Standards and Criteria. Program Improvement Plans include individualized technical assistance, designed according to the programs’ identified needs, as well as opportunities for group training, and support groups. These efforts will continue to provide multiple professional development opportunities to all early childhood professionals and promote awareness and understanding of the significance of high quality early childhood services and of attaining NAEYC accreditation.
QNY also provides leadership and participates in many advocacy efforts in the New York State and New York City early education arena.

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