Program Evaluation
Lil’ Bears believes that regular evaluations help ensure high quality childcare. We use Quality Standards from the National Association for Family Childcare to assess our strengths and challenges in the key areas of Relationships, the Environment, Developmental Learning Activities, Safety and Health, and Professional and Business Practices.
Annual evaluations are primarily conducted by Gloria, with input from families and through annual surveys on program quality. These surveys, along with child assessment trends, are compiled and considered with the NAFCC Quality Standards.
In addition, the Head Start Program Performance Standards that apply to family childcare are used to determine compliance. Other resources used to evaluate specific areas of the Lil’ Bears program include the Rising Stars for ME Inclusive Practices Checklist, the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS), The North Carolina Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development Self-Assessment for Administrators of Child Care Programs, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)-Creating an Anti-Bias Learning Environment Checklist, NCCIC’s Technical Assistance Memo: Moving Towards Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance: A Checklist and Guide for Privately Operated Child Care Programs, and the Business Administration Scale (BAS)-measures overall quality of the program and professional practices. We also annually conduct classroom observation self-assessment for both infant/toddler and preschool age children as well as self-assessments in each of the content areas of Go NAP SACC including Child Nutrition, Breast Feeding & Infant Feeding, Farm to ECE, Oral Health, Infant & Child Physical Activity, Outdoor Play & Learning and Screen Time. All these tools combined provide indicators of quality and best practice within the field of family childcare.
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Evaluation results are analyzed to determine compliance with programs and areas for improvement. A Continuous Quality Improvement Plan (CQI) is created using the data collected, including a timeline for changes and resources needed. The Plan is shared with families, minus the timeline and resource information, on our communication bulletin board.