5 Ways to Improve the Quality of Early Care and Education - Child Trends (2024)

President Obama’searly learning initiativeproposal includes strategies to increase access to high-quality preschool and expand the Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership program serving infants and toddlers. While Congress will debate plan funding and implementation, research provides solid guidance for bolstering quality across the diverse array of early care and education settings and programs. As the country considers a historic expansion of early care and education opportunities for young children, Child Trends offers a list of five ways to improve their quality:

Regardless of setting, children’s safety, health, and happiness are the non-negotiable elements of quality care and education. Minimizing risk and maximizing children’s opportunities to engage with teachers, caregivers, other children, and the world around them are essential strategies for promoting physical health and social-emotional, language, and cognitive development. Rigorous licensing regulations and regular monitoring of programs are essential. Yet areview of existing state regulationsindicates that current protections for children are inadequate.

The administrators, teachers, and caregivers working with young children each day are at the center of creating high-quality early care and education. The currentworkforcehas a low education level, and average annual incomes for some workers are under the federal poverty level for a family of four, despite efforts to promote higher qualifications andaccess toprofessional development.Further effortsshould targetimprovements in the quality and content of early childhood educationpreparation programs; opportunities for supervised internships andstudent teaching; ongoingprofessional developmentthat is rigorous andrelevant; compensation parity; andcoaching, consultation, and mentoringthat facilitates the application of new knowledge to everyday practice.

High-quality programs regularly collect information about children’sphysical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. TheNational Research Councilhas published guidance on choosing and using child assessments that are appropriate for children’s developmental,cultural and linguistic characteristics. The results of assessments should guidecommunications with parents, teaching strategies, curricula, and activities to help each child learn and develop in the way that works best for him/her. Ideally, such assessments would also align withstates’ guidelineson what children should know and be able to do upon kindergarten entry.

High-quality early care and education programs never stop improving. Continuous improvement starts with program leaders who engage themselves and staff in reflecting onstrengths and growth areas through self-assessments, feedback from colleagues and parents, and data collected about the quality of their program, classroom, or child care home.Professional development and technical assistance can be linked to growth areas, and programs as a whole can annually update goals, objectives and strategies for improving services.State Quality Rating and Improvement Systemsoffer quality standards, professional development supports and incentives to guide the quality improvement process.

Early Childhood