International comparative education studies contribute to improvements in education systems by highlighting strengths and identifying challenges found in the different cultural contexts of different countries. Comparative early childhood education (ECE) studies provide new ideas and insights into how local and national systems can be improved. There are, however, few comparative international ECE studies that report data collected at the individual program level. Further, there is scant research that examines the relationship between administrative practices and classroom practices in ECE programs. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of programs in two different early childhood systems--Turkey, a developing country with emerging standards for quality early childhood education, and North Carolina, a state with a well-established quality improvement system for early care and education programs. The two ECE quality improvement systems included in this research differed in several key areas, including the auspice of the system, the length of time the system had been in place, and the degree to which standards for program quality were developed. Overall, results from the study suggested that administrative practices play a critical role in supporting high-quality ECE programs, as indicated by the significant, positive correlation between the quality ratings of classroom environments and ratings of administrative quality in both Turkey and North Carolina.