NAEYC asks members and other stakeholders in quality early childhood education to share their thinking with the Commission on NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria on a number of questions concerning NAEYC's future accreditation system.

This article introduces the suggested program standards for the next era of NAEYC accreditation and solicits comments on the proposed standards from early childhood professionals. Each standard is a global, evidence- and value-based statement that identifies performance expectations for an area of functioning in excellent early childhood programs.