Commision on NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards
And Accreditation Criteria
§ The Commission’s recommended early childhood program standards and accreditation performance criteria will be driven by their association with positive outcomes for children, grounded in values and supported by a continuum of evidence.
§ The Commission’s recommended early childhood program standards and accreditation performance criteria will be accompanied by a statement of values and goals/outcomes for children. In developing its values statement, the Commission will start with existing NAEYC statements on values and outcomes for children (e.g., Ethics statement) and then build on that or “go beyond” as necessary.
§ Beyond explicit expression of values, the Commission will use the phrase “evidence-based” to describe the basis for its recommended program standards and accreditation performance criteria.
§ Evidence-based will refer to types of evidence that are organized on a continuum. The continuum will include different confidence levels that reflect whether a finding or recommended practice is replicable and whether outcomes derived from the practice are generalizable. The continuum includes the following levels of evidence:
Type 1. Empirical evidence derived from quantitative (group or single subject) research from primary sources, published in peer-reviewed journals or in reviewed government research reports in the public domain that indicate positive outcomes for children related to practice.
Type 2. Published secondary sources that summarize and cite empirical, quantitative research findings from peer-reviewed journals that indicate positive outcomes for children related to a practice.
Type 3. Empirical evidence derived from survey, descriptive, or qualitative research published in peer-reviewed journals (or secondary sources with the original citations) or in reviewed government research reports in the public domain that indicate positive outcomes for children related to a practice.
Type 4. Multi-authored position statements or other multi-authored documents in the public domain that indicate consensus about the efficacy of a practice.
Evidence and Values-Based
Decisions regarding recommended accreditation performance criteria are being informed by the Commission’s working definition of evidence-based in conjunction with a comprehensive literature review being conducted by UCLA. Where evidence does not exist to support a criterion, the Commission will examine the suggested criterion in terms of its alignment with its draft values statement.