Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Today we congratulate the center- and school-based early education programs in Massachusetts that earned accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children since May 14, 2013. We also offer congratulations to the family child care providers in Massachusetts who earned accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) since May.

To those who earned accreditation or reaccreditation, NAEYC offers a marketing and communications tip: Spread the word to your local newspaper or other media outlet. Accredited programs can find a news release template in their program record. It’s a great way to publicize your accomplishment and draw attention to the importance of high-quality early learning settings.

NAEYC accreditation is a widely accepted proxy for quality, and Massachusetts boasts more NAEYC-accredited programs than any other state in the country. The Department of Early Education and Care includes accreditation in the standards for the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), designed to 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 38 programs that earned accreditation or reaccreditation since May:

Adams: Monument Square Early Childhood Center; Adams-Cheshire Early Childhood Program
Amesbury: Cashman Elementary School
Andover: Andover / North Andover YMCA Child Care Center
Attleboro: Markman Children’s Programs, Inc.
Boston: Wesley Child Care Center, Inc.; South Boston Neighborhood House Preschool; Catholic Charities Laboure Center; ABCD Walnut Grove Head Start; Associated Early Care and Education, Inc. Ruggles/Gilday
Braintree: The Goddard School
Brockton: Brockton Day Nursery, Inc.; Arnone School
Cambridge: Haggerty Preschool; Associated Early Care and Education, Inc. – Children’s of Cambridge
Charlton: Charlton Elementary School Kindergarten and Preschool
Cheshire: Adams-Cheshire Early Childhood Program
Chicopee: Streiber Elementary School; Patrick E. Bowe School; Valley Opportunity Council, Mt Carmel Early Education and Care Center
East Falmouth: The Friendship Garden Nursery School, Inc.
Fitchburg: MOC Child Care and Head Start Services
Haverhill: Haverhill Integrated Preschool Program
Hyannis: Cape Cod Child Development Hyannis Preschool
Leominster: Family Education Center – MOC Childcare Head Start
Lincoln: Minuteman Child Development Center
Marshfield: South Shore Early Education
Needham: Noah’s Ark Preschool
North Adams: Monument Square Early Childhood Center
North Attleboro: The Children’s Workshop
North Oxford: Worcester Community Action Council Head Start
Pembroke: Community Nursery Kindergarten
Quincy: Campus Kinder Haus
Springfield: Make Way for Ducklings Nursery School and Kindergarten, Inc.
Taunton: Harold H. Galligan Elementary School
Wakefield: Odyssey Day School
Watertown: Growing Places Preschool and Day Care, Inc.
West Springfield: Make Way for Ducklings Nursery School and Kindergarten, Inc.

NAFCC operates the only nationally recognized accreditation system established specifically for home-based family child care providers. NAFCC accreditation has standards in five content areas: relationships, environment, developmental learning activities, safety and health, and professional and business practices. Trained observers spend 4 hours documenting program quality and interviewing the provider-educator.

“Most studies have found that accredited providers offer higher quality of education and care than others,” notes Kathy Modigliani, who runs the MA-based Family Child Care Project. “But unfortunately, the sample sizes of accredited providers have been too small to draw robust statistical conclusions.” In going through the accreditation process, Modigliani observes, early educators have to figure out how to put into practice what they learn in training and college coursework. “To motivate them to implement quality practice is a strong benefit of accreditation that is not achieved by training alone,” she says. “I think accreditation for both centers and homes is a critical piece in the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) because it assesses what is actually happening in the programs.”

Congratulations to the five family child care providers in Massachusetts who earned NAFCC accreditation or reaccreditation since May:

Dorchester: Colombina Herasme
Everett: Marie Micelin
Lowell: Beatriz Alvarez; Luzena Restrepo
Revere: Edith Rendon