The Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS) is the first valid and reliable tool for measuring and improving the overall quality of business and professional practices in family child care settings. It is applicable for multiple uses, including program self-improvement, technical assistance and monitoring, training, research and evaluation, and public awareness. It is currently embedded in many state quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) across the nation. Using a 7-point rating scale (inadequate to excellent), this easy-to-use instrument assesses 10 items: Qualifications and Professional Development Income and Benefits Work Environment Fiscal Management Recordkeeping Provider-Family Communication Family Support and Engagement Marketing and Community Relations Provider as Employer The second edition of the BAS includes refinements to support the reliable use of the instrument and to reflect current best practices in administering a family child care program: The Notes for the BAS items are expanded to increase understanding and facilitate greater consistency in both interpretation and scoring. There is greater emphasis on practices that promote family and community engagement. New national norms for the BAS are reported based on data collected between 2009 and 2017 from 439 home-based programs in 22 states. Use the BAS second edition with the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS-3 or FCCERS-R) for a comprehensive picture of your family child care learning environment and the business and professional practices that support the program.
This toolkit is designed to be a resource for researchers and technical staff of any discipline, working for governments and institutions interested in measuring and monitoring the quality of child care centers serving infants ages 0 to 3 years (36 months).
FDCRS consists of 32 items, organized under six major headings: Space and Furnishings for Care and Learning -- Basic Care -- Language and Reasoning -- Learning Activities -- Social Development -- Adult Needs. Eight additional items are included for rating a day care home's provisions for special-needs children. Each book contains one score sheet. Packages of 30 score sheets can be ordered separately.
The assessment of young children's development and learning has recently taken on new importance. Private and government organizations are developing programs to enhance the school readiness of all young children, especially children from economically disadvantaged homes and communities and children with special needs. Well-planned and effective assessment can inform teaching and program improvement, and contribute to better outcomes for children. This book affirms that assessments can make crucial contributions to the improvement of children's well-being, but only if they are well designed, implemented effectively, developed in the context of systematic planning, and are interpreted and used appropriately. Otherwise, assessment of children and programs can have negative consequences for both. The value of assessments therefore requires fundamental attention to their purpose and the design of the larger systems in which they are used. Early Childhood Assessment addresses these issues by identifying the important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and the quality and purposes of different techniques and instruments for developmental assessments.
This is the only comprehensive study of family-based child care since 1980. It chronicles the carefully designed and detailed study on family child care and relative care from the perspective of families, children, and providers, and presents complex, far-reaching, and sometimes controversial findings, especially in regards to the quality of relative care.
How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.
Early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings offer an opportunity to provide children with a solid beginning in all areas of their development. The quality and efficacy of these settings depend largely on the individuals within the ECCE workforce. Policy makers need a complete picture of ECCE teachers and caregivers in order to tackle the persistent challenges facing this workforce. The IOM and the National Research Council hosted a workshop to describe the ECCE workforce and outline its parameters. Speakers explored issues in defining and describing the workforce, the marketplace of ECCE, the effects of the workforce on children, the contextual factors that shape the workforce, and opportunities for strengthening ECCE as a profession.
Based on the research and experience of Dr. Bellamy, this definitive reference work, months in the making, is one of the most complete and authoritative evaluations of early care and education made available to the public. As welfare reforms put more mothers back to work and off public assistance, the need for quality child care in the new millennium will reach an all-time high. Cities throughout the country are facing the ultimate question: How does the government help families become self-sufficient and productive without jeopardizing quality care and development of the children? This book provides a critical look at welfare reforms and at families who struggle to comply with policy guidelines without compromising the care and development of their young children. Here, in a warm and jargon-free style, a single work offers families all the practical information needed to select the best quality in child care for their young children. Educators and child care officials will find in this work a reservoir of information designed for excellence in early care and education. Policymakers will find this work a priceless source in shaping welfare reforms.
This review of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in twenty OECD countries describes the social, economic, conceptual and research factors that influence early childhood policy.