The reliability of NAEYC’s Assessor System  is critical to the success of NAEYC Accreditation. The NAEYC Academy will develop and maintain procedures regarding required assessor qualifications, selection, conflict of interest, confidentiality, evaluation, termination and retention of Assessors. These procedures support the integrity and reliability of NAEYC Accreditation. The assessor system will include procedures that insure that the assessor core is made up of highly skilled professionals representing diverse groups and the field’s multiple sectors.

The NAEYC Assessors are early childhood professionals trained to evaluate programs according to the NAEYC Accreditation Criteria.  NAEYC Assessors conduct site visits throughout the country collecting data on the sources of evidence.  The data is then returned to the NAEYC Academy in Washington, DC to be scored.  NAEYC assessors are trained to collect data in a consistent, reliable way. On-going training and reliability testing ensure that assessors continue to be reliable, assuring the integrity of the NAEYC accreditation system.  See Assessor Reliability Methodology for more information.

Read more about NAEYC Assessors and their qualifications in the assessor position description.

Based on our current assessor pool we do not foresee adding additional assessors in the near future. The NAEYC Assessor corps consists of roughly forty individuals who have been assessors since the inception of the corps in 2006.  We are pleased to report that the number of programs seeking accreditation is increasing and the majority of our accredited programs plan to renew their accreditation. We will continue to monitor our program numbers and assessor capacity carefully. If we identify a need for additional assessors, we will announce this need through our Accreditation e-Update and post an updated assessor application.