A division of Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families – focused on early learning support for young children and their families.
What is Early Achievers?
It’s mission is to improve early care and learning in the state of Washington. What does this actually mean for families?
- The organization provides evidence-based information about facility quality to help families find high-quality child care and early learning programs.
- Participation is free for the participating providers. There is no cost to families.
- By participating in Early Achievers, early learning professionals show a commitment to improving quality of their programs. You can feel confident about your child care choice.
Choosing child care is an important decision. Families deserve to know their children are receiving care that promotes their unique skills and cultures, and supports the development of the whole child.
Early Achievers has implemented an easy-to-understand rating system tracking growth in quality improvement of participating early childcare providers.
At Levels I and 2, early learning professionals are “participating in quality improvement” through training and activities. At Levels 3 through 5, facilities have achieved a “quality level of excellence” through an on-site evaluation by our organization.
They offer families a quality rating and improvement system for providers. They also offer families assistance in paying for childcare.
How a state defines quality is important to DEY
Ensuring that self-directed PLAY, access to the outdoors, recess, naps and a culturally sensitive curriculum is important.
In 2017, our co-founder, Diane Levin, authored a rebuke to Diana Goldsteins NYTimes article, FreePlay or Flashcards. In this rebuke, Diane argues that the short-term gain of teaching discrete skills to preschoolers and kindergartners isn’t worth getting rid of play-based classrooms.
Most importantly, Diane argues that the ongoing research on how children learn confirms that children in play-based classrooms have the longest term gains over the children who were taught discrete skills.