The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) administers the nation's largest and most widely recognized accreditation system for child care centers, preschools, kindergartens, and other early childhood education programs. The standards and accreditation criteria included in this book were approved by the NAEYC Governing Board in 2005 and outline what NAEYC believes every early childhood program should achieve. Contents include: (1) Introduction to NAEYC Early Childhood Program Accreditation; (2) Introduction to the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards; (3) NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria; (4) NAEYC Early Childhood Program Accreditation: The Mark of Quality; (5) Achieving NAEYC Accreditation: Steps and Requirements; (6) Achieving the Vision of NAEYC Accreditation; and (7) Bibliography. Five appendixes conclude the book: (1) The Research Process to Develop a Reinvented Accreditation Assessment System; (2) Contributors to the Development of the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria; (3) NAEYC Position Statement on Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation; (4) NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct; and (5) Program Administrator Definition and Competencies.