As such, the quality of an early childhood program is dependent on the following three key factors. The learning environment created by a teacher is critical to the quality of an early childhood program.

A well-trained and highly skilled teacher tailors their interactions to fit the needs of the child—using responsive language, engaging all children in classroom activities, fostering independence, and creating a language-rich environment.

The experiences children have with teachers in their earliest years can also set the tone for their interactions with teachers in later grades and thus are crucial to promoting positive attitudes about school and approaches to learning.

Children need a physical setting—both inside and outdoors—where they can play, explore, and learn safely. For example, infants need to interact with their environment in a very physical way, examining cause and effect relationships by touching and feeling objects.

The environment should therefore include toys made of different materials that are small enough to be picked up by an infant.

Toddlers and preschoolers use objects in more complex combinations and engage in socio-dramatic play with one another.

Their environment needs toys that spark the imagination, such as play kitchens, and that can engage them in problem solving such as puzzles. In addition to the indoor learning environment, children need access to outdoor space where they can move and engage with the natural world.

Outdoor play has positive impacts on health and has been shown to combat childhood obesity and help develop stronger immune systems. A high-functioning operating environment is an essential element of a quality early childhood program.

This administrative operational support takes a number of forms. First, programs need effective leaders who can provide instructional support to teachers as well as sound business management to the overall program. Second, external to the immediate program, programs need a series of structural supports, including access to professional development, quality improvement resources, stable and sufficient funding streams, and a pipeline of well-trained teachers.

These external supports recognize that early childhood programs do not operate in a vacuum and rely on the wider early childhood system. All three factors need to be in place to ensure quality. A well-resourced classroom is not sufficient without an effective teacher to harness those resources.

Meanwhile, an effective teacher is not sustainable without a support system to manage the business, support instruction, and provide professional development. While there is no single definition of high quality and therefore no single measurement tool to determine and compare early childhood program quality across the United States, there are a number of tools that are widely used to assess and report the quality of early childhood programs.

In addition to a core set of health and safety requirements, the three factors discussed above make up the key elements of a high-quality program. The workforce is the most critical component of quality in an early childhood program. This important role requires that teachers have formal education and training in early childhood education.

Providing professional compensation and benefits, comparable to kindergarten teachers, helps recruit and retain effective and educated teachers and promotes a stable healthy learning environment for children. In addition, programs need to be staffed at a level that allows for teacher-child ratios that are appropriate for the age of the children and the size of the group, such as those required for programs accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The early childhood education workforce should also reflect the growing diversity of the child population, ensuring that children have teachers they can relate to and role models that reflect their own backgrounds. Early childhood program administrators are responsible for a broad range of tasks, requiring many different competencies.

Instructional leaders support teachers with lesson planning and curriculum implementation, behavior management strategies, and professional development. Second, programs need leaders with sound business management skills. The majority of early childhood programs are private businesses, and similar to any other small business, their long-term stability is reliant on adequate business management and the implementation of good budgetary practices.

Finally, program administrators must be skilled in organizational management and relationship building. In addition to fostering relationships with families and the community, leaders play a key role in creating a positive atmosphere inside the program, which can minimize teacher turnover, increase program efficiency, and allow teachers to focus on the children.

These multiple administrative roles need to be staffed sufficiently, which ideally includes more than one person, given the varied skill sets required. All early childhood programs should adopt a research-based curriculum that is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically relevant for all children.

Curricula also help teachers effectively structure and sequence classroom activities, target particular activities to build skills or meet development milestones, and build on prior learning and experiences.

Curricula provide varying levels of flexibility to individual teachers; some provide highly structured models for teachers to implement, while others offer guiding principles and expect teachers to determine the best way to implement.

There are a large number of curricula available for programs to choose from, with some of the best known models being the Creative Curriculum, HighScope Curriculum, and Tools of the Mind.

It is also important that a curriculum is adopted for all age groups, not just preschoolers. Infants and toddlers need a curriculum that focuses on their need to explore and discover the world around them, guided by supportive and responsive caregivers.

The National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning has identified 13 components that need to be present in an effective curriculum: Achieving high quality in an early childhood program is not a one-time milestone. Programs must constantly monitor, reflect, and revise policies and practices to ensure that they maintain quality.

Given that data shows many programs are not currently operating at high quality, it is critically important that quality improvement supports are available to help programs increase and then maintain quality.

In many QRIS, providers can access professional development and coaching opportunities and can receive financial incentives to purchase materials or equipment. In order to support the highly qualified workforce, the safe and engaging physical and learning environment, and the stable business infrastructure necessary to achieve and maintain high quality, programs need to be able to access funding that supports the actual cost of operation.

In order to ensure high-quality programs are available to all children, public funding needs to be sufficient to cover the costs of quality and provide families with help to afford the cost of private tuition. In addition, funding needs to be stable so that programs can make staffing and other business decisions based on anticipated income that is not subject to annual appropriations or fluctuations due to child absences.

The total funding available to a program therefore needs to be adequate to cover the actual cost of operating at high quality and secure enough for programs to make plans beyond the short term.

These six elements are key to achieving and maintaining high quality in all early childhood settings. Given the huge variation in early childhood programs in the United States, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to quality, and quality is not restricted to one program type.

Family child care homes, child care centers—both for-profit and nonprofit—and public schools can all provide high-quality early childhood education for children of all ages. For example:.

Neither the demographic background of a child and family nor the type of facility in which the child is enrolled should be a barrier to accessing high-quality programs. However, programs need support to achieve and maintain quality.

The six elements outlined above offer a roadmap to policymakers and stakeholders that allows them to focus on the key structures necessary to support high quality.

The need for high-quality early childhood education has never been greater, but programs are increasingly out of reach for a majority of Americans. As policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels develop strategies to address the child care crisis, they must simultaneously focus on the importance of quality.

To achieve the goal of increasing access to high-quality programs for all children, it is vital that families and policymakers fully understand what quality looks like and what structures are needed to support it.

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Word Lists. The rubber employed should be black and of the highest quality, having the walls strengthened by a layer of canvas. The mutton and lamb selected by them is of the highest quality, and their system of refrigeration is perfect. The iron of the piles of the old bridge was bought by a cutler in the Strand, and produced steel of the highest quality.

He brings us life in the greatest force and volume, of the highest quality, and clothed in the richest beauty. By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary. On this page you'll find 67 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to highest-quality, such as: excellent, exceptional, high-quality, marvelous, outstanding, and superb.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © by the Philip Lief Group. Skip to. adjective 2 as in first-rate as in top-notch. View definitions for highest quality highest quality.

adjective as in first-rate Compare Synonyms.