Mounting empirical evidence suggests that the quality of early childhood programs is an important determinant of children’s social, language, and cognitive development as well as their school readiness skills. Conceptualized broadly, the definition of quality encompasses all aspects of children’s surroundings, care, education, and experiences that are beneficial to their development and well-being.

The features of high quality programs cited most frequently include curriculum content and learning processes that cultivate school-related skills and knowledge, qualified teaching staff and supervisors, low teacher-child ratios and small class sizes, reflective teaching practices, intense and coherent programming, and collaborative relationships with parents.

Program standards and practice guideline identify the characteristics of programs and specific teaching practices that define high quality early childhood programs. Examples include the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Early Childhood Program Standards, Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices, Head Start Program Performance Standards and Head Start Child Outcomes Framework.

As part of a high quality program, early childhood teachers are expected to implement a curriculum that aligns with program and early learning standards and to make sound educational decisions for all children.

Recognition and Response could enhance program quality by helping teachers identify significant concerns for individual children who may require more focused interventions, by offering teaching strategies to address these individual needs, and by providing a process for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of these approaches.

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