Excerpts
ECERS-3™
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale®, 3rd ed. -- A thorough revision of the ECERS-R™, designed to assess group programs for preschool-kindergarten aged children, from 3 through 5 years of age. Total scale consists of 35 items.
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Our scales are designed to assess process quality in an early childhood or school age care group. Process quality consists of the various interactions that go on in a classroom between staff and children, staff, parents, and other adults, among the children themselves, and the interactions children have with the many materials and activities in the environment, as well as those features, such as space, schedule and materials that support these interactions. Process quality is assessed primarily through observation and has been found to be more predictive of child outcomes than structural indicators such as staff to child ratio, group size, cost of care, and even type of care, for example child care center or family child care home (Whitebook, Howes & Phillips, 1995).
In order to provide care and education that will permit children to experience a high quality of life while helping them develop their abilities, a quality program must provide for the three basic needs all children have:
- Protection of their health and safety
- Building positive relationships
- Opportunities for stimulation and learning from experience
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