Perspectives on the Quality of Early Childhood Programs

Ms. Katz outlines five perspectives, each of which contributes in a different way to an overall assessment of program quality. EVALUATING THE quality of early childhood programs has been high on the research agenda of early childhood educators since the early 1980s. Early childhood specialists agree that programs of less than top quality represent missed opportunities to give young children the best start on their education. While there has been much discussion and agreement about the indicators of quality in programs for young children, my purpose here is to suggest that there are additional dimensions of quality that warrant attention. Most current literature links quality to such structural variables as adult/child ratios, group size,(1) and a set of pedagogical practices currently subsumed under the rubric of developmentally appropriate practice.(2) While the available evidence indicates that these program features are critical to the overall development of young children, I suggest that they present too narrow a conceptualization of quality. Distinctive Characteristics of Young Children Because of the special characteristics of young children, the pedagogical quality of early childhood programs must be judged differently from that of later schooling. Developmental characteristics of young children. The younger the children, the less they are socialized into institutional and group norms, and the more their behavior is determined by experience accrued in nonschool contexts. Thus the younger the children, the greater the burden on their teachers to interpret the meaning of their behavior. Similarly, the younger the children, the less able they are to articulate their ideas, needs, and feelings, and the greater the burden on teachers to make accurate inferences about what the children are thinking and feeling. In addition, the younger the children, the less opportunity they have had to learn to trust adults outside the family. The development of such trust depends greatly on children's sense that they are understood, respected, and accepted. The disposition to trust teachers -- a disposition that may set a pattern for all subsequent responses to school -- can be strengthened or undermined during the early years of school. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the younger the children served, the more sensitive and vulnerable they are to the emotional states of the adults who serve them.(3) Thus, while older school-age children -- with the support of their parents and peers -- might cope with fluctuations in the emotional states of their teachers, young children are less likely to be able to do so. Learning and young children. Early childhood specialists generally agree that during the early years some of the most important learning (e.g., language learning) occurs in the context of informal interaction and activities rather than through formal group instruction aimed at prespecified learning objectives. Similarly, the younger the children served by a program, the less specific are the program's goals. Thus the evaluation of quality cannot rely on ascertaining the achievement of specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, standardized pencil-and-paper achievement tests are even less developmentally appropriate for children under age 6 than for older ones. Taken together, these distinctive characteristics of young children suggest that the reliable examination of the quality of programs designed to enhance early childhood development and learning requires a broader set of perspectives than are currently employed. Five Perspectives on Quality Most of the available literature on the subject suggests that the quality of early childhood programs can be assessed by examining selected features of the program -- the setting, equipment, staff, and so on -- from the perspective of the program administrators and of those responsible for the supervision and licensing of the program. …