Quality Assurance, Part 3: ECERS and ITERS assessment scales

The tools used by academic researchers in the renowned EPPE studies, which demonstrated how quality provision in the early years can transform young children's learning, are being applied by settings to improve their practice.

The ECERS, ITERS and FCCERS scales were designed by a research team in North Carolina, to evaluate the quality of pre-school provision. However, because the scales give a detailed picture of how the provision performs across a wide range of criteria, they can be used in a practical way by early years workers to reflect on practice and implement changes.

The scoring system highlights good practice and pinpoints the next steps in the areas where progress is needed. Obviously, to be an effective research tool the scales have to be robust and impartial. Some observers say they give a more accurate assessment of a setting than an Ofsted inspection report.

THE SCALES

• Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R) - designed for evaluating provision for children aged 2.5 to five years

• Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS-R) - evaluates provision for children aged from birth to 2.5 years

• Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS-R) - for childminding provision from infancy to school age

• The School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale (SACERS), also developed by the North Carolina team - designed for out-of-school care for five- to 12-year-olds

• The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale - Extension (ECERS-E) was developed by Professors Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Kathy Sylva and Brenda Taggart as a tool to assess pre-school education in the EPPE project.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Oxford researchers Faye Linskey and Sandra Mathers, who worked on the development of ECERS-E with the EPPE team, are co-directors of A+ Education, which provides training and audits on all the scales.

They estimate that at least 50 local authorities are using the scales for quality improvement and supported self-assesssment, quality assurance, audits to provide information to enable them to prioritise spending, training and support, and also to measure change in quality over time and assess impact.

'Thousands of practitioners are using the scales in settings for self-evaluation observation and reflection, as part of a continuous quality improvement cycle,' says Faye Linskey.

'Practitioners generally find the scales easy to use. They are transparent, provide concrete steps towards improvement, and the scoring system makes it possible to track improvement.

'That said, it is important to use the scales consistently and accurately if the quality improvement is to be most successful. Training can really help practitioners to make sure they are interpreting the scales correctly.'

While ECERS-R offers a broad snapshot of provision, ECERS-E focuses on its educational aspects, primarily literacy, mathematics, science and environment and diversity. Scales are divided into sub-scales and items. ECERS-R seven sub-scales are:

• space and furnishings

• personal care routines

• language and reasoning

• activities

• interaction

• programme structure

• provision for parents and staff.

SPECIFIC POINTERS

Settings are scored in each item against a seven-point scale, which illustrates practice from 'inadequate' through to 'excellent'. So, for block play, 'inadequate' is described as 'Few blocks are accessible for children's play' and excellent as 'At least two types of blocks and a variety of accessories accessible daily.'

Alison Linley, manager of the outstanding Kidi Creche School House Nursery in Bingley, West Yorkshire, who was introduced to the scales in 2007 by her local authority, says, 'ECERS-R and ITERS-R can really help you see what you are doing and where you need to improve. On our first audit we had some very good scores and then some surprising ones where we scored quite low. One of these was on handwashing. We have always taken care to teach the children to wash their hands after using the toilet and after blowing their noses and before meals. ECERS and ITERS is very specific - hand washing also needs to be done when children enter the setting or come in from outdoor play, after they have been playing in sand or water. We needed to look at that.

'We knew we had a good selection of factual and story books in our book area, but the ECERS-R scale goes into detail on the types of books you should have, and we realised that over time some of our books had disappeared. We now have the list of the titles in the book area so staff can easily check they are all there.

'There is a lot to take on board but it is set out clearly, and the staff can monitor how we are doing and move on to the next step.'

When the EYFS was introduced, A+ Education produced a UK addendum to the ECERS-R/ITERS-R which will be revised to ensure that these fit with the new EYFS. They also mapped the ECERS-R and E to the EYFS and will be adapting the mapping to take account of the forthcoming EYFS revisions.

FURTHER INFORMATION

• For information on the scales visit: www.fpg.unc.edu/(approx)ecers

• A+ Education Ltd, info@aplus-education.co.uk, www.aplus-education.co.uk

CASE STUDY: MAKING EVALUATION EFFECTIVE

Little Rascals Nurseries in Tunbridge Wells opened in June 2011. Within a month it achieved a rating of 'good' from Ofsted.

The search for quality childcare drove three local parents, Esther Green, Felicity Merrick and Rob Merrick, to establish the nursery when they became increasingly unhappy at the standards their own children experienced.

They set themselves the goal of delivering exceptional care in a high quality provision and the management team used ITERS to establish nursery practice.

'At Little Rascals we are focused on enabling our staff team to be exceptional through encouraging professional training and reflective practice,' says the manager Beverly Davies. 'For example, one-to-one supervision sessions, room leaders and practitioners observing each other's practice and an emphasis on communication with parents and children.'

She had previously used ITERS-R and ECERS when managing another setting and had found them a useful tool for staff to reflect on every aspect of their practice. 'We decided to implement the ITERS and ECERS as part of our ongoing evaluation and reflection of practice. The SEF had highlighted to us the importance of measuring the quality of our provision. With this in mind, we also implemented parent and practitioner questionnaires and feedback.

'The ITERS highlighted areas for development that we may otherwise have not perceived - the need for more child-initiated play, for all toys to be fully accessible at all times and the importance of the voice of the child. It also highlighted many positive aspects of our practice, such as partnership with parents and the warm interactions between practitioners and children.

'We found some aspects of the ITERS more challenging, such as the requirements for what seems like continuous hand washing, and this triggered useful debate between practitioners!

'Following the success of using the ITERS, we are implementing ECERS in the pre-school to further evaluate and reflect on our practice. This will also support our plans for when we aim to expand the nursery.'