Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS)

The state of the early childhood profession has been discussed on the basis of the following key points in terms of the characteristics, complexities, strengths, challenges and the impact of the policies, trends and movements.

At Children’s Discovery Center the daycare is split into two buildings, one building is for the children in pre-school and the second building is for infants to three year olds getting ready to start pre- school. The classroom I observe is for children 18 months to 28 months. They are about fourteen children in the class with two teachers. The way the class is set up the younger students and their two teachers share one classroom, but the teachers and their toddlers are not in the same room until lunch time and nap time. The classroom has a kitchen, reading area, girls and boys bathroom, activity tables and there is a connecting room for the children to have bible time and free play. The discovery center has three separate playgrounds for the

For the classroom observation assignment I was able to observe at Stepping Stones Family Childcare and Preschool Program. I conducted observations for five hours each on the dates of September 24th and September 25th of the year 2015. This licensed home-based daycare and preschool program is located in a quiet suburban neighborhood on 4103 Bryant Street, Blasdell, New York. The facility allows for a twelve-child capacity (ages 6 weeks to 12 years with four additional school age) and is owned and founded by Kim Bannister. When I observed, there were two additional staff present. Therefore, there were a total of 3 adults and 12 children at the center when I observed. New York State Senator Marc C. Panepinto was also present on September 25th as he read to the children and toured the home. I chose this specific setting as I personally thought it would be an interesting dynamic to study how a home-based preschool program is run.

A “high-quality” preschool program is curriculum based with certified teachers and a low child to teacher ratio (Robin, Frede, & Barnett, 2006, p. 1)

My philosophy of Early childhood education is based on research that indicates that a child’s growth is developmental. Every child is unique in terms of life experiences, developmental readiness, and cultural heritage. A high quality early childhood program that provides a safe and nurturing environment, which promotes physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development will ensure a positive continuation of the child’s education process

The classroom sites that were studies were state preschools, Head Start, Title 1, Tuition-based programs, full-day programs, and half-day programs. Eighty-one percent of the children were 4-year old, 19% were 5-year-olds. “The gender was balanced, and included 36% African American, 31% White, 20% Hispanic/Latino, 10% multi-race, and 3% Asian. Approximately 23% of the children were ELLs. The mean percentage of children eligible for early childhood special education (with IEPs) was 11%. This also varied across program types with 15% of children in Head Start programs having IEPs and 3% of children in Tuition-Based programs. Regarding parent/caregiver educational attainment in the overall sample, 22% of parents reported having less than high school, 23% had high school diplomas or general education development (GED),

According to our textbook Student teaching, “A quality program is one that exceeds rather than meets minimum standards for licensure.” To help us determine if a preschool classroom/program provides quality and to help us understand what quality means we were asked to evaluate and compare two preschool classrooms using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. The classrooms I chose to evaluate and compare using the ECERS evaluation tool were the 4year old classroom at Naples Christian Academy and the 4 year old classroom at The Learning Center. Below is my comparison of both classrooms using the ECERS evaluation tool.

In order to respond this question, we must first review the history of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and Early Childhood Education (ECE). Although ECE has been around since the creation of kindergarten in the 1800’s, the decade of the 1980’s was an important period for ECE. “By the 1980’s, meta-analysis of the well-designed US projects offered compelling evidence on the positive outcomes of [early childhood education and intervention]” (Woodhead, 2007). Therefore, there was much pressure to improve the state of education, including ECE. “The decade of the 1980’s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, school structure, and accountability measures” (S. Bredekamp, R.A. Knuth, L.G. Kunesh, and D.D. Shulman, 1992). At this time, there was an increasing concern about the quality of early childhood education for the influx number of families that needed it. This led the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to “begin planning a national voluntary accreditation system for early childhood programs”(NAEYC, 2014). With this planning came a need for a more specific description with regards to accreditation guidelines. Therefore, NAEYC issued a formal statement defining DAP.

Nursery – offer full time and part time sessions within a purpose built building for birth to school age

Children dont have to go to a legit child care facility to get an early education. Early childhood education comes in many forms most of the learning starts at home. “Playing with your child helps keep your child engaged in the kind of play where learning occurs. Your interest, questions, and comments as you play alongside will help your child use toys productively,”(How to Support Children’s Approaches to Learning?). In saying that children learn best through play based experiences they learn from things they experience or items they can touch and hold. Children learn from the comments thier parents give, they pick up on the little things. Children who don’t participate in some type of quality education programs are 50 percent more likely to be placed in special education. Children are also 25 percent more like to dropout of school and are 60 percent more likely to never attend college. 40 percent are more likely to become teen parents ,and finally 70 percent more likely to become a teen parent.

After completing the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, I see that there is much need for improvement in certain sections. On the other hand, many areas need no improvement at all. For example, the section on toileting and diapering needs no improvement along with staff use of books with children and encouraging children’s use of books. All three of these areas scored a rating of seven, meaning that all standards were met during my observation and there is no need for any type of improvement. Although there are many areas that scored a seven, there are also many areas that scored a one or a two, meaning there is much room for improvement. For example, encouraging children to use language scored a one, which shows us it needs much enhancement. Along with this, nature and science scored a two and discipline scored a one. Both of these areas also need much development and improvement.

Early childhood education has many benefits and there is the potential for many significant outcomes if universal preschools were put into place. Some feel that children who start kindergarten without previously attended preschool sometimes lack certain skills such as social and communication skills and an inability to follow routines. There were also studies done that found attending preschool could help to close the achievement gap in the grade school years. A child’s first few years of life are most important, and they absorb the most during those years. By providing universal preschool, all children would be benefiting, especially those who are in at-risk families or part of the lower class. As a society, we have a responsibility to help the children in our communities and provide them with the education they need in order to help them succeed in life.

In an early childhood education environment, the classroom that a child first step into would feel comfortable. The classroom will have glass windows and a glass door so the child is able to look outside. The windows are very important to have in a classroom since looking out through the window, a child is able to observe what is happening outside the classroom. “Many early childhood programs are relegated to …with fewer windows or natural lighting”(Crutis & Carter, p. 39). The classroom should be able to have enough natural light

The Early Childhood Education program at Carlow University focuses on educating children from birth to grade four in any context—school, family, or community. As a signature mark of the program, students learn how to honor diversity and form strong inclusive relationships between child and caregiver/teacher. They learn that a child’s environment needs to be rooted in trust; physically and psychologically safe. They learn that the caregiver/teacher relationship needs

Early childhood is a time full of curiosity, exploration, creativity, excitement, and rapid development. During these formative years, children develop attitudes about education that remain with them for the rest of their lives (Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren, 2011). High quality early childhood education programs and highly effective, passionate teachers or care providers will not only promote young children’s development and academic achievement but will also foster a lifelong passion for learning. ECE programs and educators utilize learning centers to contribute to young children’s acquisition of literacy, numeracy, creative thinking, problem solving, and motor skills as well as a number of other skills and knowledge (Jarrett, 2010).