8084 MD4 Dis

Implementation Experiences – Mary Graham

Implementation Experiences – Mary Graham Program Transcript

MARY GRAHAM: Going through the accreditation process is daunting. It is very comprehensive. As the director, you could feel invigorated getting the 10 books, or you could feel overwhelmed getting the 10 books and saying, how are we ever going to do this?

In Philadelphia, we're very fortunate to have a very active local AEYC affiliate, who, in the '90s, wanted to take on the mission of increasing the number of accredited centers in the area. In fact, they received a great deal of funding. DVAECY and other organizations received a huge grant from the William Penn Foundation and came up with this project called Child Care Matters.

During that six-year process, the goal was to increase the quality of child care centers in the Philadelphia region going through the accreditation process. At the time, there was no QRIS or Keystone Stars. None of the states were doing any of the quality rating systems. So the way to go was through NACY. We received a great deal of support through the Child Care Matters project. We received the accreditation support from DVAECY, but we also received financial support in this process.

During a self-study, you highlight what areas do need improvement. Do you need to purchase different types of equipment for certain learning areas or certain learning centers? Do you need to improve some of your policies regarding benefits for staff, since they address, do you have benefits for staff, and what are they? Do you give staff planning time outside of the classroom?

So that entire process was helpful in looking at it. I never felt that Children's Village was going through this alone. We always felt that DVAECY and NACY had our backs, as did other agencies. Philadelphia is like a large family. We're all connected, so what happens in one center is often supported by what's happening in other centers.

So I met with a number of directors, who, over the last 30 years, have become some of my closest friends, and specifically going through the NACY accreditation process, because there are some things that you have to think of. And there's no need to reinvent the wheel. If this other agency had a policy already written, how could we modify it for our program?

So it's really an exchange of knowledge, both in small centers versus large centers, and for-profit centers versus non-profit centers. How could we share, and how could we work together? I think one of the best benefits of the accreditation process in Philadelphia was to develop the fellowship of the childcare directors. After an agency started through the process, we got financial

© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

Implementation Experiences – Mary Graham

support through Childcare Matters based on the numbers of low income children we had.

So it was a financial boost to us as well. Later, when NACY redesigned the accreditation process, we happened to be in the first group of people going through the redesign, and we all had lots of questions, including the local AEYC staff. That's at the time when we called on the national AEYC staff and always found them to be responsive and supportive.

This isn't to say that it's a perfect process, and being involved in NACY, you have the opportunity to give feedback through this process. They have been very responsive. That's why they've redesigned it once, and they're in the process of redesigning again. They hear when we say there's too much paperwork, or this is a problem, or this is an issue. That has been good as well, that it's not just NACY saying there from the top, this is what happens, but rather it is a communal effort.

© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 2