ECU center earns NAEYC accreditation honor
The five-star ranked Nancy Darden Child Development Center at East Carolina University has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The NAEYC is 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.
“Continuing our accreditation from NAEYC is a great honor for the NDCDC and the College of Health and Human Performance,” said Ashley Norris, teaching instructor and co-interim director of the Nancy Darden Child Development Center. “It indicates that our teachers, curriculum and program administration are meeting the markers of the highest quality for childcare. A center does not become NAEYC accredited based on one person. It is a collaborative effort that requires ongoing input from our teachers and administrators that consistently enhances program policies, and families that support our efforts to engage with the community.”
Children playing with wooden pieces in a classroom. (ECU photo by Rhett Butler)
Fellow teaching instructor Susannah Berry also is co-interim director of the center. The NDCDC welcomes new director Tawni Mosley, who is looking forward to building on the great work Norris and Berry did as co-interim directors for the last few months.
Other staff includes Kailah Ellison, Shannon Hall, Tavian Bass, Lauren Jacobs, Natajah Harris, Angelique Patsis, Cathryn Primm, Bridget Parker and Chontey Pettaway.
ECU’s center is the only between Raleigh and Wilmington that has earned this level of endorsement.
The Nancy Darden Child Development Center earned initial accreditation in 1996. The center was established in 1938, then-known as the Child Development Laboratory at its original location on campus at the Flanagan Building.
The center now serves as an early childhood model training facility for the Department of Human Development and Family Science at ECU, a department led by chair Sharon Ballard, serving children ages 12 weeks to 5 years. The NDCDC collaborates with Pitt County Schools and Department of Social Services, and serves as a research and observation site for students and faculty in all ECU departments.
To earn NAEYC accreditation, the NDCDC 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 ten 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.
“NAEYC-accredited programs have committed to a process that takes time, energy and dedication to complete” said Alissa Mwenelupembe, senior director early learning program accreditation. “The ECU Nancy Darden Child Development Center has demonstrated its commitment to young children and their families.”
For more information about NAEYC accreditation, visit the NAEYC website.
A big smile at the Nancy Darden Child Development Center. (Cliff Hollis)