In 2021, the Commission on Early Childhood Higher Education Accreditation released significantly revised consensus-based accreditation standards that recognize programs for meeting the ECE profession’s expectations for quality ECE professional preparation. The goal for those revisions was to create clear, meaningful, rigorous but reasonable standards that honored ECE higher education programs’ context and strengths and held programs to a common standard for quality. As promised in 2021, since then the Commission has been gathering feedback from programs and peer reviewers as programs have transitioned to the 2021 standards. Now that several programs have received accreditation decisions under those standards and even more programs have transitioned to aligning their learning opportunities and key assessments to the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, the Commission has identified several places in the standards where additional clarifications and other revisions are needed. Thus, it is proposing minor updates to the 2021 accreditation standards after receiving public comment from the ECE higher education community and the larger ECE field. These updates:

• Provide further guidance to the standards to clarify accreditation expectations. While additional guidance has been added to all standards, significant guidance has been added to Standards D and E to support programs in addressing how they are developing and evaluating candidates’ proficiency in the Professional Standards and Competencies.

• Streamline or eliminate some of the indicators within standards either due to repetition or because the indicator was not contributing, as intended, to how programs were addressing the overall standard. As such, sub-indicators C3d, C4d, D1c and E3b have been eliminated. Content from a few other sub-indicators has been shifted to other indicators within the relevant standard.

The public comment period on these draft updates has now closed, and the final revised version incorporating feedback collected is expected to be released in late spring to early summer 2025. 

NAEYC's higher education accreditation system accredits early childhood degree programs preparing individuals for beginning career roles as early childhood educators. The Commission on the Accreditation of Early Childhood Higher Education Programs uses the 2021 Ensuring Quality in Early Childhood Education Professional Preparation Programs: NAEYC’s Early Childhood Higher Education Accreditation Standards as the basis for the accreditation of associate, baccalaureate and initial master's degree programs (the Commission does not accredit early childhood degree programs preparing individuals for advanced practitioner roles at this time). These standards define expectations for what early childhood education professional preparation programs must do in order to achieve accreditation—with a focus on how preparation programs will know that graduates are meeting the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, as well as the supports programs provide to aid candidate success. 

Each of the six accreditation standards (Standards A-F) addresses an important component of quality ECE professional preparation programs and contains a brief summary statement followed by a set of indicators for meeting it. Each standard must be met in order to achieve accreditation. To support programs’ understanding of accreditation expectations, each standard is accompanied by examples of evidence that programs are required or encouraged to submit in the Self-Study Report and/or during the site visit. Standards also include guidance designed to clarify the expectations of the standard and/or to acknowledge important contextual factors that may impact programs.

About the 2021 Higher Education Accreditation Standards

In 2020, following the release of the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators and the Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession, the Commission began the process of revising NAEYC’s higher education accreditation standards both to reflect developments in the early childhood education profession and as a routine and healthy practice for an accrediting body. The Commission appointed a workgroup – comprised of stakeholders across the early childhood education field – to lead this effort. Over the course of several months, the Standards Workgroup and Commission considered the strengths and challenges of the 2010 accreditation standards, gathered feedback from the accreditation community, and considered the needs and guidelines of the early childhood education profession. This work culminated in the release of Ensuring Quality in Early Childhood Education Professional Preparation Programs: NAEYC’s Early Childhood Higher Education Accreditation Standards in October 2021. The Commission extends deepest appreciation for the Standards Workgroup’s contributions to these standards, for the faculty who participated in surveys and provided feedback during the open comment period, and for the hundreds of programs and faculty who are part of the accreditation system. 

If you have questions about the standards, please email us at [email protected] so we can learn how best to support your program.