This digest considers quality in early childhood programs from four perspectives. The top-down perspective, or adults' perspective, on program quality takes into account such program characteristics as adult-child ratio, staff qualifications, and health and hygiene procedures. The bottom-up perspective, or the children's perspective, hinges on whether the children feel welcome rather than captured, accepted rather than neglected by adults or rejected by peers, and whether they find their experiences meaningful rather than boring. Children's feelings about these matters are partly dependent on caregivers' and teachers' practices. A third perspective on assessing program quality is the outside-inside perspective, which considers the quality of relationships among parents and staff, and parents' and staff's goals and values for the children in the program. Finally, the inside perspective on quality examines relationships between staff members, between parents and staff, and between staff and the program sponsor. Each of these four perspectives contributes in a different way to overall assessment of program quality. (BC)