The quality of a child’s future depends on the quality of caregiving in the first five years.
First-rate early learning programs that are safe, healthy, stimulating, organized, and, most importantly, led by well-trained teachers, help children enter school ready to learn and succeed.
What you want to see in an early education environment:
- Educated, attentive and engaged teachers and staff
- Teachers with four-year degrees and specific training in early childhood education
- No more than 8 infants and toddlers and no more than 20 preschoolers in a classroom
- Teacher to child ratios of 1:3 for infants and 1:10 for preschoolers
- Teachers who crouch to eye-level to speak to children, and who hold, cuddle, show affection and speak directly to infants and toddlers
- Families and teachers exchanging information about the child’s development and learning progress
- A safe, healthy and child-friendly environment
- A room well-equipped with sufficient materials and toys
- Classrooms in which materials and activities are placed at eye level for the children
- Materials and toys accessible to children in an orderly display
- Centers that encourage safe, outdoor playtime
- Frequent hand-washing by children and adults
- Visitors welcomed with appropriate parental consent
- Stimulating activities and appropriately structured routines
- Children who are engaged in their activities
- Children offered breakfast and lunch and a time to nap
- Children participating with teachers and each other in individual, small-group, and large-group activities
- Children receiving a variety of stimuli in their daily routine using indoor and outdoor spaces and age-appropriate language, literacy, math, science, art, music, movement, and dramatic play experiences
- Preschoolers who are allowed to play independently
What you don’t want to see in an early education environment:
- Inattentive, overwhelmed or unengaged staff
- Unengaged teachers sitting on the side of the classroom but not participating
- Shouting, swearing or other displays of hostile discipline
- Infants and toddlers crying without being attended to
- An unsafe, unhealthy or unstimulating environment
- Small, cramped centers or homes without designated appropriate spaces for different ages
- A center or home that smells of urine, has visible safety risks or is unclean
- Frequent use of television or video to occupy children
- Children easily distracted or frightened by visiting strangers
- Activities and routines that are too chaotic or too inflexible
- Children wandering aimlessly, left unsupervised or displaying unchecked aggression
- Children restrained in car seats or in high chairs at times other than meal time
- Children spending a lot of time waiting around for turns
- Children expected to sit at desks, perform highly structured tasks, or other forms of age-inappropriate expectations
