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Quality New York
is an NAEYC Accreditation
Facilitation Project

Quality New York's
NAEYC Accredited Programs

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is your primary source for information about NAEYC accreditation. You can find answers to your questions about NAEYC accreditation policies and procedures and download many of the forms that you need at www.naeyc.org. If you are enrolled in self-study, you can find additional guidance with your program ID number and password at http://program.naeyc.org/ .

NAEYC has enhanced the scholarships that are available to programs seeking NAEYC Accreditation for the first time as well as to programs seeking to maintain their NAEYC Accreditation. The Accreditation Scholarship Program supports the fees associated with achieving and maintaining NAEYC Accreditation. The Accreditation Scholarship Program is supported by funds allocated by the NAEYC Governing Board from the reserve funds of the Association, as well as funds generously provided to NAEYC for this purpose by the F. B. Heron Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

CCIE Article on Accreditation Process

This article written by Alison Pepper and published in the Child Care Information Exchange magazine in November 2005,while referring to the former accreditation system is still an excellent resources in initiating the quality improvement work in your program. While some of the system structure has been modified, the components and strategies remain constant.

Portfolios as Evidence

Quality New York recently provided opportunities for early childhood teachers to understand the importance of observing and recording young children’s strengths and challenges as part of the assessment process. In addition to traditional methods, such as developmental checklists and anecdotal records, Bank Street College encouraged teachers to collect samples of children’s art and writing; photocopies of experience charts that note each child’s contribution to group discussions and explorations; and photographs of the children in action demonstrating their competence in early mathematics, science, fine and large muscle coordination, and making friends. These collections – portfolios – are powerful ways of telling each child’s story. Portfolios, containing samples collected over time, chronicle where children begin when they first entered the classroom, what their interests are, what their challenges are, how much they have grown, and who their friends are. Parents appreciated this rich picture of their children, when presented with portfolios as part of conferences between teachers and parents. Portfolios can be a wonderful bridge between home and school.

Assessment of Child Progress resources are listed below.

Portfolios as Evidence for Early Care and Education

Now, exemplary programs have the opportunity to tell their stories through portfolios. Early care and education programs that engage in NAEYC self-study must assemble evidence that demonstrates their teaching and administrative practices in classroom and program portfolios.

Classroom Portfolio for NAEYC Self-Study and Self-Assessment

What is a Classroom Portfolio?

The teaching team in each classroom presents evidence of their classroom’s capacity to meet the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria over time. They will show evidence of :
	How they build supportive relationships with children and families
	Planning for learning experiences and adapting the learning environment to the specific needs and interests of the children, including how they respond to children’s racial, linguistic, and cultural differences
	Effective teaching strategies
	Assessments of children’s progress and how this information is used in planning
	How they use the children’s families and community as resources for learning experiences

Developing Your Portfolio—Enhancing Your Learning and Showing Your Stuff:
A Guide for the Early Childhood Student or Professional

Each classroom team determines what goes into its portfolio, as long as they present current evidence for each of the criteria that support the standards related to classroom practices. Many, but not all of NAEYC’s standards will be represented in the classroom portfolios. NAEYC requires that classrooms organize their classroom portfolios using the Classroom Portfolio Evidence Check-list, organized by the 10 Program Standards:

1—Relationships

2—Curriculum

3—Teaching

4—Assessment of Child Progress

6—Teachers

8—Community Relationships

9—Physical Environment

No evidence is required in the Classroom Portfolio for Standard 5—Health, 7—Families, and 10—Leadership and Management.

Each classroom’s portfolio will be different, according to what it finds its needs and strengths are during self-study. It can contain documents, such as lesson plans, calendars, messages that are sent home, photographs, newsletters. Similar to the benefit of keeping children’s portfolios to illustrate growth over time, classroom portfolios are an opportunity for teaching teams to chronicle classroom challenges and growth in their teaching practices.

For more information about the classroom portfolio for NAEYC accreditation, go to the source, NAEYC.

NAEYC 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.

Rationale:

Positive relationships are essential for the development of personal responsibility, capacity for self-regulation, for constructive interactions with others, and for fostering academic functioning and mastery. Warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions help children develop a secure, positive sense of self and encourage them to respect and cooperate with others. Positive relationships also help children gain the benefits of instructional experiences and resources. Children who see themselves as highly valued are more likely to feel secure, thrive physically, get along with others, learn well, and feel part of a community.

Topic Areas for Self-study:

Building positive relationships among teachers and families

Building positive relationships between teachers and children

Helping children make friends

Creating a predictable, consistent, and harmonious classroom

Addressing challenging behaviors

Promoting self-regulation

Many curricula frameworks, such as High/Scope and Creative Curriculum, offer additional resources that support their teaching and learning strategies.

Supporting
Children in Resolving Conflicts DVD
available from High/Scope

Secure Relationships: Nurturing Infant/Toddler Attachment in Early Care Settings

The Power of Guidance: Teaching Social-Emotional Skills in Early Childhood Classrooms

Building A Classroom Community

Class Meetings: Young Children Solving Problems Together

A Guide to Discipline

Caring: Supporting Children's Growth

Meeting the Challenge: Effective Strategies for Challenging Behaviors in Early Childhood Environments

Challenging Behavior in Young Children: Understanding, Preventing, and Responding Effectively, 2d Ed.

Resources for Program Assessment

QNY’s accreditation facilitation begins with assessments using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition (ECERS-R) or the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition (ITERS-R) for classroom practices and the Program Administration Scale (PAS) for administrative practices.



For help in translating the ECERS-R and ITERS-R indicators to real classroom situations, we suggest All About the ECERS-R and All About the ITERS-R from Kaplan Early Learning Company:

Resources for Assessment of Child Progress
NAEYC Standard 4

The Center for Early Childhood Professionals at Bank Street College recently presented a series of workshops for Quality New York teachers and directors on Standard 4: Assessment of Child Progress and recommends the following resources to help you delve into this standard.

NAEYC Position Statements:

Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation

Screening and Assessment of Young English-Language Learners

Some Resources from NAEYC:

	NAEYC 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.

	Rationale:
	Teachers’ knowledge of each child helps them to plan appropriately challenging curricula and to tailor instruction that responds to each child’s strengths and needs. Further, systematic assessment is essential for identifying children who may benefit from more intensive instruction or intervention or who may need additional developmental evaluation. This information ensures that the program meets its goals for children’s learning and developmental progress and also informs program improvement efforts

Basics of Assessment:
A Primer for Early Childhood Professionals

Assessing and Teaching Beginning Writers:
Every Picture Tells a Story

Developmental Screening
in Early Childhood:
A Guide (5th ed.)

Spotlight on Young
Children and Assessment

Other Resources

Child Care Information Exchange

ERIC/EECC

Head Start and Early Head Start

High/Scope Educational Research Foundation

National Child Care Information Center

National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)

Teachers College Press

Teaching Strategies

WestEd

Zero to Three

Past Issues of the QNY Newsletter

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