The Quality Standards document identifies nine desired outcomes, including standards and indicators, to serve as guidelines for achieving quality practices in programs serving children and families. Checklists for each of the nine areas are provided on the following pages. They are presented in a format that allows programs or individuals to conduct a self-assessment and develop practices that reflect quality care and services. Not all indicators, as stated, may be relevant to your unique program. Thus, you may wish to individualize these standards to reflect practices that are more appropriate for your setting.

On the self-assessments, you are asked to rate each indicator as:

• Not addressed -- No apparent evidence, not used at this time.
• Describing/planning -- Quality standards are planned, can be described.
• Demonstrating -- Quality standards can be shown.
• Integrating -- Quality standards are intermingled in policy/practices.
• Enhancing -- Quality standards lead to improved program results.

For each indicator, look at your program's level of implementation based on the ratings defined above. There is also a box by each indicator to describe the current practice, so your program's level of implementation is clear. At the bottom of each page, there is a space to write an action plan for each standard. In general, an action plan should describe what needs to be done to take you from your current practice to where you want to be. In the brief space provided, you may only want to identify the framework of the long-term action plan, initial tasks to be worked on, or major steps to be taken in the first year. There is no right way to use these checklists; they were designed to be used in a number of ways. If your program has a group of service providers and serves multiple families, you may wish to go through the self-assessments first individually, then compile the results for a group discussion. Another way to use them would be to go through them as a group. Again, depending on your individual needs, you are free to adapt their use to your purpose.

The results of the self-assessments can be used in many ways. For example, you may wish to conduct a needs assessment, or develop topics for needed staff development and training. Families may use the self-assessments as a program evaluation tool, which would be beneficial in assisting early childhood programs as they move toward more family-centered practices. In establishing a new program or service, providers may use the topic areas as a checklist to ensure that all aspects of quality programming are included from the beginning.

"Download the PDF of the Self-Assessment forms"

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