Concordia University Chicago’s Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) has earned reaccreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)—the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children.
NAEYC accreditation is a rigorous and transformative quality-improvement system that uses a set of 10 research-based standards to collaborate with early education programs to recognize and drive quality improvement in high-quality early learning environments.
The ECEC is a laboratory school of Concordia University Chicago, with full-day and part-day programs for children from birth through age 6. The ECEC offers Christ-centered, developmentally appropriate practices, low student-to-staff ratios, and programs designed to nurture the development of the whole child.
“We appreciate the support we receive from the College of Education and the University and we will continue to provide the highest quality of care and education for the students and parents we serve,” says Cathy Gruenwald, director of the ECEC. “The ECEC has earned this accreditation for over 25 years because we value children and their development, and are committed to doing what it takes to be the best we can be.”
To earn NAEYC accreditation, the ECEC went through an extensive self-study and quality-improvement process, followed by an on-site visit by NAEYC assessors to verify and ensure that the program met each of the 10 program standards, and hundreds of corresponding individual criteria. NAEYC-accredited programs are always prepared for unannounced quality-assurance visits during their accreditation term, which lasts for five years.
In the 30 years since NAEYC accreditation was established, it has become a widely recognized sign of high-quality early childhood education. More than 6,000 programs are currently accredited by NAEYC—less than 10 percent of all child care centers, preschools and kindergartens nationally achieve this recognition.
To learn more about Concordia-Chicago’s ECEC, visit CUChicago.edu/earlychildhood.
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