High quality early childhood programs support children in their growth and development. As more research is done on early childhood programs and outcomes for children attending these programs it is clear that there are four quality components:

1. Lead teachers with at least a bachelors degrees and specialized training in early childhood;
2. Low teacher-child ratios and group size; 
3. Age-appropriate curriculum, implemented as intended, and aligned to K-12 standards and build on children’s natural curiosity and multiple learning strategies, and
4. Age-appropriate assessments that measure children’s learning progress against established benchmarks and used to guide learning.

For more information about quality please see: www.niier.org