Photo: Associated Early Care and Education
All of us at Strategies for Children and our Early Education for All Campaign wish readers a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. This is my last post of 2010. Once again we send special good wishes to everyone who works hard to provide high-quality early learning experiences for young children and to ensure that children are proficient readers by the end of third grade. Today we offer our monthly congratulations to the 24 center- and school-based programs in Massachusetts that earned accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children in November.
NAEYC accreditation is a widely accepted proxy for quality, and Massachusetts boasts more NAEYC-accredited programs than any other state in the country. Programs applying for state-funded Universal Pre-Kindergarten grants must be accredited by NAEYC or another recognized organization. The Department of Early Education and Care also includes accreditation in the standards for its nascent Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), which will assess program quality, provide incentives for programs to improve and offer valuable information for parents.
The rigorous NAEYC accreditation process measures 10 standards that range from curriculum to family engagement. Accredited programs use a research-based, developmentally appropriate curriculum that promotes children’s social, emotional, physical, language and cognitive growth. They support teachers’ professional development, promote children’s health and nutrition, use age-appropriate methods to assess children’s development and maintain collaborative relationships with parents and guardians.
Congratulations to the following programs, which earned accreditation or reaccreditation in November:
Adams. Adams-Cheshire Kindergarten Program, Berkshire County Head Start Child Development Program.
Amherst. Crocker Farm Elementary School, Fort River Elementary School kindergarten program
Boston. Acorn Center for Early Education and Care (Chinatown), Salvation Army Children’s Learning Center (Dorchester), Grove Hall Child Care (Mattapan), Mozart Elementary School (Roslindale), Paige Academy (Roxbury, two addresses)
Brookline. Pine Manor College Child Study Center (Chestnut Hill)
Cambridge. Haggerty Elementary School
Cheshire. Adams-Cheshire Kindergarten Program
Colrain. Colrain Central Elementary School
Framingham. Plymouth House Nursery School
Natick. The Preschool of the First Congregational Church
Pittsfield. Conte Head Start
Randolph. Elizabeth Lyons Elementary School, John F. Kennedy Elementary School, Margaret L. Donovan Elementary School
Taunton. Taunton Extended Day
Wellesley. Wellesley Community Children’s Center
Worcester. School Age Mothers Early Learning Center, Tiny Treasures Learning Center, Inc.
Happy holidays to all. I’ll be writing again next year.
Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.
