Children’s School Notes regarding Completion of Candidacy Materials

What to have ready before the candidacy materials arrive:

• If you were previously accredited, copy of your most recent annual report (teacher qualification and staffing pattern pages can be copied almost verbatim, with the exception of the numbers of children, etc. that are likely to have changed)

• Copy of your application (several pages can be copied directly unless there have been changes)

• Copy of your school calendar re: vacation days

• Class Lists with counts by gender, ESL/Sp. Needs, race, plus oldest & youngest marked

• Teaching Staff Survey Data

• Parent Survey Data

• Classroom Observation Data

• School Tour Data

• Organized Staff Files (select 5)

• Organized Child Files

• Program Portfolio Outline (if you follow the Children’s School strategy)

• Classroom Portfolio Outline (if you follow the Children’s School strategy)

What you can write ahead because you know it’ll be asked (get wording from sample materials on the web):

• Briefly describe the collaborative process used to include all families, leadership, governance/board, and teaching staff during your program’s Self-Assessment. Please include any information on how this plan changed after becoming an Applicant (Step 2).

• Briefly describe how all families were provided with the opportunity to complete the surveys anonymously and confidentially, for example, no names, identifying information, or coding may be used. Failure to describe a completely anonymous process will result in Denial of Candidacy. The only exception is if some sort of coding is used solely for the purpose of increasing the return rate and that the identity of the respondents is not used for any other purpose. If your program used coding for this purpose, please acknowledge this and explain how you ensured families’ responses remained confidential.

• Briefly describe how all teaching staff were provided with the opportunity to complete the surveys anonymously and confidentially, for example, no names, identifying information, or coding may be used. Failure to describe a completely anonymous process will result in Denial of Candidacy. The only exception is if some sort of coding is used solely for the purpose of increasing the return rate and that the identity of the respondents is not used for any other purpose. If your program used coding for this purpose, please acknowledge this and explain how you ensured teaching staff’s responses remained confidential.

• Briefly describe the program-wide plan/strategy for ensuring that early childhood expertise is being provided to guide curriculum and learning throughout the program for the teaching staff. This plan may look different for every program. For example, plans might include details regarding comprehensive and systematic inservice trainings that encompass a series of learning experiences that address each topic identified within the Teachers standard. Another example would be a copy of the level of educational requirements for teaching staff that is consistent with or a higher threshold than criteria 6.A.05 and 6.A.06.

• Please provide additional information about any other administrative staff and their roles at your program, which you believe assist in providing context about the program’s operations. (Note: This question is optional because NAEYC does not have requirements for the qualifications of these staff.)

• What information do we need to know to conduct an accurate assessment of your program (for example, any unique characteristics of the facility, program, enrolled children, or community) when reviewing your Candidacy materials and during the site visit?

• Are there any criteria with which your program cannot comply because the program is subject to a governmental rule that does not allow you to meet it? If so, please specify the criteria (letter and number) and attach documentation of the regulation that prohibits meeting the expectation of the criterion.

“Random” Standards that were chosen for us:

1.C. (Helping Children Make Friends) Classroom Obs

2.J. (Cog – Creative Exp & Appreciation) Classroom Obs / Classroom Portfolio

3.F. (Learning Meaningful to All) Classroom Obs / Class Portfolio / Family Survey

4.D. (Adapting to Individuals) Child Files / Staff Survey

5.B. (Nutrition) Program Portfolio / Family Survey

7.A. (Know / Understand Families) Program Portfolio / Family Survey

8.C. (Citizen of Neighborhood / ECE) Program Portfolio

9.A. (Indoor / Outdoor Materials/Equipment/Furnishings) Facility Tour

10.E. (Personnel) Staff Files / Program Portfolio / Staff Survey

Hours spent on the task after the materials arrived:

11/30/07 – Download .doc file and do the basic review, plus starting to type the basic contact info – 1 hour

12/1/07 – Director Credentials, Site Visit Scheduling, Rights & Responsibilities, answers for Standard 10 (except for staff file chart) – 2 hours

12/8/07 – Family Survey process & results - 1.5 hours

Sections 8 and 9 of self-assessment report – 1 hour

12/12/07 – K Classroom observation data – 1 hour

Group information re: children, times, staffing (9 grps @ 2pgs) – 2 hours

12/16/07 – Preschool Classroom observation data, child file data for standard 4, all parts of standard 5, plus decided to do Children’s School entries in red type so all had to be changed – 2.5 hours

12/18/07 – Teacher qualifications – entering data & copying transcripts - 1 hour

12/24/07 – Classroom Portfolio entries, section 7 of the self-assessment report, and several of the overall questions – 2 hours

Subtotal to achieve a complete document ready for review by administrative team = 14 hours

Each of the two reviewers spent approximately 2 hours

1/7/08 – Fix errors found by administrative team, complete changes of all entries into red type – 1 hour

1/9/08 – Final read, slight edits, printing & signing – 1 hour

TOTAL of 20 hours to complete the candidacy materials after all self-assessment documents were prepared