Promoting Quality through Accreditation

For more than 80 years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has worked to raise the quality of programs for all children from birth through age eight. A major part of NAEYC's efforts to improve early childhood education is through different systems of accreditation for programs that are committed to meeting national standards of quality:

Accreditation of Programs for Young Children In 1985, NAEYC established a national, voluntary accreditation system to set professional standards for early childhood education programs, and to help families identify high-quality programs. See more... Search for an NAEYC accredited program.

Accreditation of Associate Degree Programs NAEYC has launched a new accreditation system to recognize high-quality Associate Degree Programs that prepare early childhood educators. See more... Accreditation of Baccalaureate and Graduate Degree Programs NAEYC also recognizes high-quality Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs, as part of the accreditation system of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). See more...

Related Information

• Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) have gained prominence as they focus on continuous quality improvement in early childhood education. QRIS use state regulation and licensing as a foundation and build a progressive set of benchmarks toward higher program quality. Click here for descriptive summaries of each of the three major national early childhood and school-age program accreditation systems.
• Program Record Log-In
• NAEYC Accredited associate degree programs
• NCATE