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This revised version offers practical assistance in the form of Notes for Clarification and an Expanded Score Sheet to simplify scoring. The items and indicators are the same as in the original version. Assess the quality of infant and toddler classrooms and enhance program development with charts detailing levels of quality from inadequate to excellent. Explanatory notes appear on facing pages. Scoring sheets and ITERS-R™ Profile included.
The long-anticipated new version of the internationally recognized Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale®, ECERS-3™ focuses on the full range of needs of preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. This widely used, comprehensive assessment tool measures both environmental provisions and teacher-child interactions that affect the broad developmental needs of young children, including cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and health and safety. ECERS-3™ also includes Items assessing developmentally appropriate literacy and math activities. Spiral bound. 104 pages.
This widely used program quality assessment instrument is designed for preschool, kindergarten, and child care classrooms serving children 2 1/2 through 5 years of age. It can be used by program directors for supervision and program improvement, by teaching staff for self-assessment, by agency staff for monitoring, and in teacher training programs. The established reliability and validity of the ECERS-R™ make it particularly useful for research and program evaluation.
What are the components of high-quality after-school care for children ages 5-12? How can we evaluate these programs? These are the challenges facing caregivers, schools, agencies, and parents as after-school programs proliferate. The School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale®, Updated Edition provides an easy-to-use resource for defining and assessing the quality of both public and private programs caring for school-age children during out-of-school time.
The increasing concern over the effect of child care on children's lives has focused attention on the quality of that care. Since most out-of-home care is provided in family child care homes, the need has grown for an accessible, reliable, and thorough means of assessing the quality and suitability of such settings. Developed through lengthy field testing, research, and revision, the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale®, Revised 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, and Adult Needs.
*Note: Courses are designed for use on desktop and laptop computers, because the courses use Flash, they may not be supported on Tablets or Mobile Devices.
The Environment Rating Scales are used for many different purposes within the field of early childhood care and education. They are used worldwide for conducting research and monitoring quality assessment and improvement in learning environments.
Debby Cryer, Ph.D., is a Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught in a variety of early childhood programs, recently directed the child care program at the FPG Center, and has studied and written about early childhood program quality for more than twenty years. Throughout her career, she has combined her interests as an early childhood practitioner with those of a researcher, studying real-world issues and translating research findings into practice for early childhood program staff, parents, and policy makers.
Dr. Cryer is co-author of the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale, (Harms, Cryer & Clifford, 1990) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition (Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 1998) and has worked with various teams to develop numerous other quality assessment instruments. She has developed a variety of resources for teachers and for others interested in early child care and education, such as the popular Active Learning Series (Cryer, Harms & Bourland, 1986, 1987; Cryer, Harms, Ray, 1996), and the award-winning public television series, "Raising America's Children" (Harms & Cryer, 1988). Her most recent books include Infants and Toddlers in Out-of-Home Care (edited by Cryer & Harms, 2000), and the Early Childhood Education and Care in the USA (edited by Cryer & Clifford, 2003), both published by Paul H. Brookes.
Dr. Cryer was a Principal Investigator for the national study on Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers, and continues that research in the International Child Care and Education Study. She is currently Principal Investigator of two studies investigating the effects of continuity of caregivers on infants and toddlers in child care.
Thelma Harms, Ph.D., is Director of Curriculum Development at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and Research Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has been since 1975. She earned an M. A. in Child Development and a Ph. D. in Early Childhood Education at the University of California at Berkeley, where she served as a head teacher in the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center laboratory school for 15 years. Dr. Harms has lectured and conducted training throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Russia. Her areas of specialization are program evaluation, curriculum, and staff development.
Dr. Harms is the lead author of four widely used program evaluation instruments: the ECERS-R™ (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998); the FCCERS-R™ (Harms & Clifford, 1989); the ITERS-R™ (Harms, Cryer & Clifford, 2003); and the SACERS (Harms, Jacobs, & White, 1996). She consulted with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in the development of its center accreditation instruments and validator training procedures and is a co-author of the school age child care assessment instrument, which is being used in the NSACA accreditation. Dr. Harms co-chaired the national committee that developed quality criteria for family child care programs and developed an accreditation process and instruments for military family child care.
Dr. Harms has co-authored a number of curriculum materials including: the Family Day Care Education Series; the seven volume Active Learning Series; the Cook and Learn Series, Nutrition Education for Preschoolers; and the 10-part educational television series, "Raising America's Children". She has co-edited a book on working with homeless preschool children in shelters and a recent volume on infants and toddlers in out of home care.
In addition to training courses offered through the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute in Chapel Hill, Dr. Harms provides training and consultation in collaboration with agencies in many other states and countries.
Richard M. Clifford, Senior Scientist Emeritus, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Clifford has written and consulted extensively on child and family policy issues with special emphasis on the role of government in the provision of early childhood services. In addition, he has done research on early learning environments and their impact on young children. He was Principal Investigator on the National Center for Early Development and Learning study of state funded pre-kindergarten programs and Co-Director of the companion SWEEP study. He was also one of the principal investigators on the Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers study. He helped establish and served as the first director of the North Carolina Division of Child Development. Dr. Clifford is a past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
ERS 101 Online Training is developed and delivered by the authors as an introduction to the Environment Rating Scales! Each course is self-paced, allowing participants to start and stop as often as needed. Each course takes about 5 hours to complete and includes embedded learning checks to assess understanding of key concepts. Available 24/7 on any internet-supported device, scale authors and their staff are on stand-by to answer questions via email (during weekday business hours). Printable certificate and CEU credit is available. Most courses are also available in Spanish.
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ERS® and Environment Rating Scale® are registered trademarks of Teachers College, Columbia University.
