A qualidade da Educação Infantil é tema que vem ganhando destaque no cenário nacional nos últimos anos. Mas será que é possível medir a qualidade da Educação Infantil? O presente trabalho teve como objetivo comparar o uso dos instrumentos ITERS-R e Indicadores de Qualidade da Educação Infantil para autoavaliação institucional em um Centro de Educação Infantil (CEI) de São Paulo. Através de encontros com as educadoras, discutiu-se a ITERS-R, respondendo os seus itens de acordo com a realidade do CEI. Através de questionário, coletou-se informações das participantes sobre o processo e os instrumentos. Foram feitas ainda entrevistas com a equipe técnica e pesquisa nos documentos do CEI para análise da avaliação realizada na unidade com os Indicadores de Qualidade na Educação Infantil. O processo de autoavaliação do CEI com os Indicadores foi bem avaliado pela equipe e pais e, desse processo, resultaram ações efetivas de transformação dos espaços do CEI, novos projetos de formação e o despertar para a importância dos pais conhecerem mais a rotina e atividades do CEI. Quanto ao uso da ITERS-R, concluiu-se que a escala pode ser um bom instrumento de autoavaliação institucional, suscitando debates sobre o conceito de qualidade em cada uma das dimensões e possibilitando que o grupo rediscuta as práticas, espaços e materiais. Também constatou-se a importância de uma assessoria externa que conheça o instrumento, para apoiar o processo de autoavaliação, a fim de apresentar o seu uso e esclarecer eventuais dúvidas. Reforça-se a necessidade já apontada em pesquisas anteriores de realizar uma adequação dos termos da ITERS-R para uma maior compreensão de seus itens e para que possa ser usada também pelos pais. A pesquisa demonstrou a importância de escalas/indicadores para a autoavaliação institucional e para o processo de reflexão sobre a qualidade da educação ofertada nas unidades. / The quality of early childhood education is a subject that is gaining prominence on the national scene in recent years. But is it possible to \"measure\" the quality of early childhood education? This study aimed to compare the use of ITERS-R instruments and Early Childhood Education Quality Indicators for institutional self-assessment in a Children\'s Educational Center (CEI) in São Paulo SP, Brazil. Through meetings with the educators, the ITERS-R was discussed. The educators answered its items according to the reality of the CEI. Through questionnaire, we collected information about the participants, the process and instruments. We also made interviews with the technical team and researched the CEI documents for evaluation of the analysis of the Children\'s Educational Center with the Early Childhood Education Quality Indicators. The self-assessment process of the Children\'s Educational Center was favorably reviewed by staff and parents, and this process resulted effective actions of transforming the CEI spaces, new training projects and awakening to the importance of parents knowing more about the routine and activities of the CEI. Regarding the use of the ITERS-R, it was found that the scale can be a useful tool for institutional self-evaluation, raising discussions on the concept of quality for each dimension of the educational process and allowing the group further discussion about educational practice, use of space and materials. It also pointed the importance of external advisors, who knows the instruments, to support the process of self-assessment in order to make its use and clarify any doubts. Our study also reinforces the need to perform an adaptation of the terms of the ITERS-R to a better understanding of its items and so it can be used also by parents, as pointed out in previous studies. Our research has shown the importance of scales / indicators for institutional self-assessment and the process of reflection on the quality of education.

A qualidade da Educação Infantil é tema que vem ganhando destaque no cenário nacional nos últimos anos. Mas será que é possível medir a qualidade da Educação Infantil? O presente trabalho teve como objetivo comparar o uso dos instrumentos ITERS-R e Indicadores de Qualidade da Educação Infantil para autoavaliação institucional em um Centro de Educação Infantil (CEI) de São Paulo. Através de encontros com as educadoras, discutiu-se a ITERS-R, respondendo os seus itens de acordo com a realidade do CEI. Através de questionário, coletou-se informações das participantes sobre o processo e os instrumentos. Foram feitas ainda entrevistas com a equipe técnica e pesquisa nos documentos do CEI para análise da avaliação realizada na unidade com os Indicadores de Qualidade na Educação Infantil. O processo de autoavaliação do CEI com os Indicadores foi bem avaliado pela equipe e pais e, desse processo, resultaram ações efetivas de transformação dos espaços do CEI, novos projetos de formação e o despertar para a importância dos pais conhecerem mais a rotina e atividades do CEI. Quanto ao uso da ITERS-R, concluiu-se que a escala pode ser um bom instrumento de autoavaliação institucional, suscitando debates sobre o conceito de qualidade em cada uma das dimensões e possibilitando que o grupo rediscuta as práticas, espaços e materiais. Também constatou-se a importância de uma assessoria externa que conheça o instrumento, para apoiar o processo de autoavaliação, a fim de apresentar o seu uso e esclarecer eventuais dúvidas. Reforça-se a necessidade já apontada em pesquisas anteriores de realizar uma adequação dos termos da ITERS-R para uma maior compreensão de seus itens e para que possa ser usada também pelos pais. A pesquisa demonstrou a importância de escalas/indicadores para a autoavaliação institucional e para o processo de reflexão sobre a qualidade da educação ofertada nas unidades. / The quality of early childhood education is a subject that is gaining prominence on the national scene in recent years. But is it possible to \"measure\" the quality of early childhood education? This study aimed to compare the use of ITERS-R instruments and Early Childhood Education Quality Indicators for institutional self-assessment in a Children\'s Educational Center (CEI) in São Paulo SP, Brazil. Through meetings with the educators, the ITERS-R was discussed. The educators answered its items according to the reality of the CEI. Through questionnaire, we collected information about the participants, the process and instruments. We also made interviews with the technical team and researched the CEI documents for evaluation of the analysis of the Children\'s Educational Center with the Early Childhood Education Quality Indicators. The self-assessment process of the Children\'s Educational Center was favorably reviewed by staff and parents, and this process resulted effective actions of transforming the CEI spaces, new training projects and awakening to the importance of parents knowing more about the routine and activities of the CEI. Regarding the use of the ITERS-R, it was found that the scale can be a useful tool for institutional self-evaluation, raising discussions on the concept of quality for each dimension of the educational process and allowing the group further discussion about educational practice, use of space and materials. It also pointed the importance of external advisors, who knows the instruments, to support the process of self-assessment in order to make its use and clarify any doubts. Our study also reinforces the need to perform an adaptation of the terms of the ITERS-R to a better understanding of its items and so it can be used also by parents, as pointed out in previous studies. Our research has shown the importance of scales / indicators for institutional self-assessment and the process of reflection on the quality of education.

This study sought to determine whether phase 1 early childhood classrooms receiving classroom resources and technical assistance for early childhood teachers through the Allies for Quality Care project would have greater improvements in process quality than phase 2 classrooms receiving only technical assistance. Process quality refers to what children experience in the early childhood classroom that directly impacts their development and was assessed through the Environment Rating Scales (ERS). Classroom resources were provided to improve the quality of the environment that children experience. The technical assistance was one-on-one to help early childhood teachers understand developmentally appropriate practices. The study examined whether the following variables impacted quality: accessibility of materials; field technical assistant; total number of early childhood teachers, total at pre-assessment, total at post-assessment, and same teacher at pre- to post-assessment; classroom and teacher technical assistance hours; teacher turnover; early childhood teachers’ level of education, child development credentials, position, years of experience, and race; number of children present at post-assessment; and days between pre- and post-assessment. To determine if the variables were correlated with the ERS post-assessment scores bivariate correlations were generated. While level of education, child development credentials, years of experience, race, and total number of early childhood teachers at pre-assessment had strong correlations with the post-assessment scores, further analyses of accessibility of materials, or missed accessibility, was the only extraneous variable to remain strongly associated with the dependent variable in ITERS-R classrooms. A Factorial Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to study the differences between the phases of early childhood classrooms. When findings revealed differences between the groups, another ANCOVA was used to evaluate group differences for each scale (ITERS-R for infant and toddler classrooms and ECERS-R for preschool classrooms) separately. Both phase and scale impacted the ERS post-assessment scores for the overall sample. For differences between the phases for the individual scales, no significant differences were found. However, infant and toddler classrooms that missed accessibility of materials had significantly lower ERS post-assessment scores than classrooms that did not miss accessibility.