Quality in early childhood education is an important topic in many countries. Research suggests that high-quality preschool provides many long-term benefits for young children and society. How to measure early childhood quality however can be problematic. One approach has been the use of the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS), an…

Preschool classrooms with varying levels of structural quality requirements across the state of West Virginia were investigated for differences in measured structural and process quality. Quality was measured using group size, child-to-teacher/staff ratio, teacher education, and the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R;…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether kindergartens and childcare centres differ in terms of educational and caregiving components. More specifically, two aspects of the process quality of the early childhood education and care were examined regarding the "Activities" and the "Programme Structure." A multi-stage…

The physical environment of the preschool programmes has been proven to affect both children's overall development and the quality of the programme. However, both nationally and internationally the contribution of the physical environment in the effectiveness of a programme and in the achievement of educational goals is often overlooked. The aim…

The present study evaluates a major education reform in Jordan--the implementation of public kindergartens--and provides an example of how evaluation can be incorporated into education reform. In the context of education reform in Jordan, 532 public kindergartens have been created over the last five years. A stratified random sample of…

Preschool-aged children are aware of differences in the race and abilities of the people around them. Given this awareness it is important to promote children's acceptance of diversity in the preschool period. The goals of this study were to assess the extent to which child care centres provide diversity instruction through classroom activities,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of two types of Turkish early childhood education programs: private and public preschools. Three public and three private preschools in a district of Istanbul were randomly selected. The quality of preschools was assessed using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale developed by Harms et…