The revised version of the Early childhood environment rating scale has been widely used in studies of preschool-age children, many of which have been conducted in the United States. In this article three major studies are presented and discussed in the context of US early childhood education, and their results show that the Scale is a valuable tool in analyzing the quality of service delivered in several different early childhood education configurations. The successful use of data from the Scale to influence public policies and efforts to improve programs is described, and the lessons learned from - and necessary precautions in - the prolonged use of this instrument are discussed.
evaluation of education; rating scale; preschool education; quality of teaching
