Handbook of psychology volume 7 educational psychology

Programs and Quality in Early Childhood Education

319

different communities, the small numbers of children and

child care programs included in these studies put serious

limitations on their interpretation and generalizability. In the

1990s, therefore, a new trend in child care research was to

mount research studies that included larger numbers of chil-

dren from larger numbers of communities in very distinct pol-

icy and jurisdictional contexts. For example, the U.S. National

Staffing Study collected data from 643 child care rooms in

urban and suburban communities in Arizona, Georgia, Massa-

chusetts, Michigan, and Washington (Howes, Phillips, &

Whitebook, 1992). The U.S. Cost Quality and Outcomes

Study examined quality in 604 rooms in California, Colorado,

Connecticut, and North Carolina (Hellburn, 1995). The Cana-

dian You Bet I Care! Project examined quality in 308 rooms in

nonprofit and commercial infant-toddler and preschool cen-

ters in the provinces of New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario,

Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia and in the Yukon

Territory (Goelman, Doherty, Lero, LaGrange, & Tougas,

2000). Although the different studies used somewhat different

sampling and instrumentation techniques, there is a strong and

consistent pattern across all of these findings that both con-

firms and extends the findings from the earlier, smaller scale

studies.

The quality of child care centers was found to be strongly

linked to a combination of variables at the center, class-

room, and teacher levels. Higher quality programs were

found in centers that were operated as nonprofit organi-

zations (as opposed to a commercial centers), with well

trained staff both in terms of their overall levels of edu-

cation and their levels of ECE-specific training. Group size

and ratio provided the conditions for higher quality care, but

the quality of care itself was found in distinct patterns of

adult-child interaction. These patterns were characterized by

heightened levels of sensitivity, responsiveness, and contin-

gency on the part of child care staff and lower levels of

punitive or detached patterns of interaction. Although it was

important that the child care setting be well supplied and

well stocked with developmentally appropriate materials,

it was the training and education of the staff that determined

whether these materials were used in the most appropriate

TABLE 13.3

An Overview of Studies That Identify the Predictors of Child Care Quality and the Predictors of Positive Child Outcomes

Structure Variables

Process Variables

Overall

ECE-

Adult-

Other 

Level of

Specific

Child

Other Structure

Adult-Child 

Learning 

Process 

Studies

Education

Education

Group Size

Ratio

Auspice

a

Variables

Interactions

b

Environment

c

Predictors

Arnett, 1989

X

X

X

Berk, 1985

X

X

X

Burchinal et al., 1996

X

X

X

Staff experience.

Goelman et al., 1992

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

X

X

Goelman et al., 2000

X

X

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

Staff wages.

X

X

Staff

Subsidized rent.

satisfaction

Practicum students.

Parent fees.

Hellburn, 1995

X

X

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

Staff wages.

Subsidized rent.

X

X

Holloway & Reichhart-

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

X

Erikson, 1988

Howes, 1983

X

X

X

X

Staff experience.

X

Howes, 1997

X

X

X

X

X

Howes & Smith, 1995

X

X

X

X

Howes et al., 1992

X

X

X

X

Staff experience.

X

X

Kontos et al., 1996

X

X

X

Lyon & Canning, 1995

X

X

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

Director’s ECE 

X

X

education.

Staff experience.

NICHD, 1994, 1996, 1998

X

X

X

X

Staff experience.

X

Staff beliefs

about

caregiving

Scarr et al., 1994

X

X

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

Low staff 

X

X

turnover.

Vandell & Corasaniti, 1990

X

X

Staff wages.

X

X

Whitebook et al., 1990

X

X

X

X

NP

Ͼ C

Subsidized rent.

X

X

a

NP

ϭ Nonprofit; C ϭ Commerical.

b

Tools used include the Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS); ORCE,

c

ECERS; FDCHERS; ITERS.

320

Early Childhood Education

manner. Michael Lamb (1998) summed up this body of re-

search in this way:

Quality day care from infancy clearly has positive effects on

children’s intellectual, verbal, and cognitive development, espe-

cially when children would otherwise experience impoverished

and relatively unstimulating home environments. Care of un-

known quality may have deleterious effects. (p. 104)

The identification of specific child care predictors can pro-

vide guidance and assistance to legislators, policy makers,

and educators who deal with child care programs and the

preparation of child care professionals. A closer look at the

Canadian study (Goelman et al., 2000) suggests that whereas

all of these are critical factors in child care quality, the re-

sponsibility for achieving these different quality criteria

would fall to different groups of stakeholders. The quality

criteria appear to fall into four distinct groups. The first group

would be factors that are regulatable  by local authorities:

staff education levels, group size, and the adult-child ratio.

Elsewhere we have argued at length for the primacy of train-

ing of staff both in terms of their overall education levels and

their ECE-specific education levels (Goelman et al., 2000).

Because the data from all of the studies just cited report that

higher quality tends to be found in nonprofit centers than in

commercial centers, there appears to be an implicit endorse-

ment for regulatory statutes that encourage the creation of

child care programs in the nonprofit rather than in the com-

mercial sector. The establishment, implementation, and mon-

itoring of these regulatable variables would help to provide

the structural framework for quality.

A second set of variables consists of those that are related to

the financial operation of the child care center. The critical fi-

nancial factors were found to be staff wages, parent fees, and

whether the center receives free or subsidized rent. All of these

factors point to the financial vulnerability within which child

care centers operate and the positive impact that is created

when staff are well-compensated for their time. Subsidized or

free rent helps to create additional funds that can be directed

into salaries, in turn leading to lower levels of turnover. There

appears also to be a set of administrative factors that can con-

tribute significantly to child care quality. For example, the

presence of student teachers from early childhood training

programs has a number of positive effects on the life of the

center. It assists with the adult-child ratios and brings highly

motivated individuals into the center. The presence of student-

teachers also helps to create a culture of inquiry and discourse

among the student teachers, their supervising teachers, and

their supervisors from the ECE training programs.

Finally, and as reported elsewhere, the Canadian study

also found that specific attitudinal factors among the staff

contributed to child care quality. Attitudes are difficult but im-

portant factors that cannot be regulated, factored into financial

spreadsheets, or implemented as part of a novel administrative

framework. Yet it appears that all of the three preceding cate-

gories of variables can contribute to the positive attitudes and

levels of staff satisfaction that are so critical to the creation of

a positive child care environment. A much-cited (but un-

sourced) quotation attributed to Albert Einstein claims that,

“Not everything that can be counted counts. And not every-

thing that counts can be counted.” Positive attitude may or

may not be able to be assessed accurately, with validity and re-

liability, but the data suggest that when it can be identified, it

provides a vital piece in the puzzle of quality child care.

What then, precisely, does this child care puzzle look like?

Most studies of child care have relied on traditional analyses

of variance, covariance, or multiple regression to bring statis-

tical rigor to their arguments for including different and dis-

crete pieces of the child care puzzle. Lamb (2001) and others

have pointed out that in many of the child care studies the

effect sizes tend to be very modest and the amount of vari-

ance accounted for is not overly impressive. Another chal-

lenge to data analyses is the determination of precisely how

the variables interact. It is not clear, for example, whether the

cumulative effect of these various predictors is additive, mul-

tiplicative, or exponential. For these reasons researchers are

turning increasingly to more sophisticated and more power-

ful hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) techniques. In addi-

tion to identifying the discrete pieces of the child care puzzle,

techniques such as path analysis can suggest the directional-

ity of the paths. The metaphor of the puzzle, then, should be

replaced with the image of an engine that has different parts,

working together to move the vehicle forward. 

Path analyses were applied to the data generated in the

Canadian study (Goelman et al., 2000), and the resulting

analyses identified a set of direct and indirect predictors of

child care quality in rooms for infants and toddlers (0–35

months) and in rooms for 3- to 5-year-old children. Table 13.4

shows the seven direct predictors of quality in the preschool

room, four staff predictors (staff wages, staff satisfaction,

staff education, number of staff in the observed room), and

three center predictors (whether the center receives free or

subsidized rent, whether the center uses student-teachers, and

the adult-child ratio in the observed room). These paths are

shown graphically in Figure 13.1. The path analysis strongly

suggests, however, a more complex interaction among these

and other predictor variables. For example, although the aus-

pice of the center and the parent fees were not found to be sig-

nificant direct predictors of quality, their indirect impact on

quality was found to be mediated through the direct predic-

tors (see Figure 13.2). Auspice was a significant predictor of

Programs and Quality in Early Childhood Education

321

Figure 13.1

Path analyses of direct predictors of child care quality.

Source: Goelman et al. (2000). Reprinted courtesy of University of Guelph:

Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being.

ECCE

Education

level of

observed staff

Wages of the

observed staff

Staff satisfaction

Number of

adults in the

observed room

Center is

student

teacher

practicum

site

Adult-child

ratio

Center receives

subsidized rent

and/or utilities

ECERS

Total

scores

Auspice of

the center

Parent fees

Figure 13.2

Path analyses of direct and indirect predictors of child care

quality.

Source: Goelman et al. (2000). Reprinted courtesy of University of

Guelph: Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being.

both staff wages and centers that received free or subsidized

rent, both of which were found to be significant direct predic-

tors. Parent fees were a significant predictor of wages and

staff education levels, both of which, in turn, were direct pre-

dictors of quality. Finally, we note that two of the variables

(staff education levels and number of staff in the observed

room) served as both direct and indirect predictors of quality.

Conclusion

The role of child care in early childhood education continues

to grow and evolve both as part of broader social and cultural

changes in which the field is embedded and in terms of the

practices and policies that determine the shape and content

of child care programs. The demand for quality, licensed

child care programs will continue to increase with the ris-

ing numbers of families with two working parents in the

labor force and of single-parent families. We can expect the

demand for infant child care to grow as part of this general

trend. In addition, we are already witnessing an increasing

demand for child care services and professionals who can re-

spond appropriately to children with a wide range of special

needs. This demand represents a challenge to create more

spaces—and more appropriate spaces—for children with

special needs, and a challenge to train more early childhood

educators who have the skill set and knowledge base to work

with young children who have special needs. At the policy

level, schools, school boards, and training institutions will

have to recognize that child care is no longer remedial service

for poor children or a child-minding service for the children

of working parents. Child care represents a major environ-

mental niche for the majority of young children in industrial-

ized societies, and it is in child care settings that children’s

development can be facilitated and supported given the right

combination of predictors of quality. 

TABLE 13.4

Summary of Path Analyses of Quality of Child Care Programs

Type of Predictors

Infant-Toddler Rooms

Preschool Rooms

Direct predictors

The observed staff member’s wages.

The observed staff member’s level of satisfaction 

with the working climate and his/her colleagues.

The center was used as a student practicum 

placement setting.

The center received subsidized rent and/or utilities.

The adult-child ratio at the time of the observation.

Direct and indirect

The observed staff member’s level of ECE-specific 

education.

The number of adults in the observed room.

Indirect predictors

Auspice of the center.

Auspice of the center.

Parent fees.

Parent fees.

Source: Goelman et al. (2000). Reprinted courtesy of University of Guelph: Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being.

The observed staff member’s level of ECE-specific 

education.

The number of adults in the observed room.

The observed staff member’s wages.

The center received subsidized rent and/or utilities.

The center was used as a student practicurn 

placement setting.

ECCE

Education level

of observed staff

Wages of the

observed staff

Staff

satisfaction

Number of

adults in the

observed room

Center is

student teacher

practicum site

Adult-child

ratio

Center receives

subsidized rent

and/or utilities

ECERS

Total

scores

322

Early Childhood Education

CLOSING THOUGHTS ON EARLY CHILDHOOD

EDUCATION AT THE BEGINNING OF

THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

This chapter began with a brief reflection on how early child-

hood education was seen at the beginning of the twentieth cen-

tury and then proceeded to discuss recent, current, and

emerging areas of research and practice. The field continues

both to deepen and to broaden its perspectives on the innate

learning and developmental abilities of the young child and

the ways in which those abilities are acknowledged and facili-

tated in the wide range of early childhood settings in which

young children participate. The developing child represents

his or her world through a variety of media, modalities, and

disciplines including art, reading, writing, and music. Whereas

the adult world divides the world of early childhood education

into content or subject areas, it seems increasingly clear that it

is that complex set of behaviors, insights, expectations, and

explorations known collectively as play that is the major and

overarching phenomenon that infuses, guides, and largely

determines what and how children learn in their early years.

What currently captures the imagination and what drives

the disciplined inquiry of ECE researchers are questions

about how adults and learning environments facilitate the de-

velopment of a more diverse population of children than had

been the focus in earlier periods. This diversity includes, but

is not limited to, children at both the highest and the lowest

ends of the continuum of cognitive development, the social

and linguistic needs of an increasingly multicultural and im-

migrant early childhood population, poor children, and chil-

dren whose special needs are seen as problematic but more

harder to diagnose and harder still to respond to. 

Early childhood theorists, researchers, and practitioners

have made significant strides by acknowledging the rele-

vance of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems approach to

the field of early childhood. It allows for the consideration of

child actions and interactions in the microsystems where the

children play, learn, and grow within the broader contexts of

the legislative, regulatory, and societal values in which those

immediate early childhood programs are embedded. The con-

tinuing challenge to the field is to find ways of operationaliz-

ing the ecological model in ways that inform and guide

emerging areas of interest, research, and practice in early

childhood education.

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