PROGRAM
STANDARD 1
Performance
Category: Relationships
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, and for
constructive interactions with others.
Warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions help children develop a
secure, positive sense of self and encourage them to respect and cooperate with
others. 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.
PROGRAM STANDARD 2
Performance
Category: Curriculum
The program implements a
curriculum that is consistent with its goals for children and promotes learning
and development in each of the following domains: aesthetic, cognitive,
emotional, language, physical, and social.
Rationale:
Curriculum that is goal-oriented and incorporates concepts and skills
based on current research fosters children’s learning and development. When
informed by teachers’ knowledge of individual children, a well-articulated
curriculum guides teachers so they can provide children with experiences that
foster growth across a broad range of developmental and content areas. It also
brings intentionality to planning a daily schedule that incorporates time and
materials for play, self-initiated learning, and creative expression, and
provides opportunities for children to learn individually and in groups
according to their developmental needs and interests.
PROGRAM STANDARD 3
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.
Rationale:
Teachers who use multiple instructional approaches optimize children’s
opportunities for learning. These
approaches include strategies that range from structured to unstructured and
adult-directed to child-directed. Children bring different backgrounds,
interests, experiences, learning styles, needs, and
capacities to learning environments.
Teachers’ consideration of these differences when selecting and
implementing instructional approaches helps all children to succeed. Instructional approaches also differ in
their effectiveness for teaching different elements of curriculum and
learning. For a program to address the
complexity inherent in any teaching-learning situation, a variety of effective
instructional approaches must be employed.
PROGRAM
STANDARD 4
Performance
Category: Assessment
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 curriculum 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.
PROGRAM
STANDARD 5
Rationale: To benefit from education
and maintain quality of life, children need to be as healthy as possible.
Children depend on adults, who also are as healthy as possible, to make
healthful choices for them and to teach them to make such choices for
themselves. While some degree of risk
taking is desirable for learning, a high quality program prevents hazardous
practices and environments likely to result in adverse consequences for
children, staff, families or communities.
PROGRAM
STANDARD 6
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.
Rationale: Children
benefit most when their teachers have high levels of formal education and
specialized early childhood professional preparation . Teachers who have
specific preparation, knowledge and skills in child development and early
childhood education are more likely to engage in warm, positive interactions
with children, offer richer language experiences, and create more high-quality
learning environments. Opportunities
for teaching staff to receive supportive supervision and to participate in
ongoing professional development ensure that their knowledge and skills reflect
the profession’s ever-changing knowledge base.
PROGRAM
STANDARD 7
Performance
Category: Families
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.
Rationale:
Young children’s learning and development are integrally connected to
their families. Consequently, to support and promote children’s optimal
learning and development, programs need to recognize the primacy of children’s
families; establish relationships with families based on mutual trust and
respect; support and involve families in their children’s educational growth;
and invite families to fully participate in the program.
The program establishes relationships with and uses the resources of the children’s communities to support the achievement of program goals.
Rationale: As part of the fabric of children’s
communities, an effective program establishes and maintains reciprocal
relationships with agencies and institutions that can support it in achieving
its goals for curriculum, health promotion, children’s transitions, inclusion,
and diversity. By helping to connect
families with needed resources, the program furthers children’s healthy
development and learning.
PROGRAM
STANDARD 9
The program provides appropriate
and well-maintained indoor and outdoor physical environments, including
facilities, equipment, and materials, to facilitate child and staff learning
and development. To this end, a program structures a safe and healthful
environment.
Rationale:
The program’s design and maintenance of its physical environment support
high- quality program activities and services and allow for optimal use and
operation. Well-organized, equipped,
and maintained environments support program quality by facilitating the
learning, comfort, health, and safety of those who use the program. By also creating a welcoming and accessible
setting for children, families, and staff, program quality is enhanced.
PROGRAM
STANDARD 10
The program effectively implements policies, procedures, and systems in support of stable staff and strong personnel, fiscal, and program management so that all children, families and staff have high-quality experiences.
Rationale:
Excellent programming requires effective governance structures,
competent and knowledgeable leadership, and comprehensive and well functioning
administrative policies, procedures, and systems. Effective leadership and administration create the environment
for high-quality care and education by: assuring compliance with relevant
regulations and guidelines; promoting fiscal soundness, program accountability,
effective communication, helpful consultative services, positive community
relations, and provision of a comfortable and supportive workplace; maintaining
stable staff; and instituting opportunities for ongoing program planning for
staff and career development and for continuous program improvement.