Child Development Center accredited again

Dr. Kim Madsen, the center’s director, said achieving national accreditation is an important milestone for any center or early childhood program, but especially for CSC. Madsen said the center serves as a role model for families who need high quality care and education, and college students who are pursuing a degree in early childhood.

The Child Development Center, located at the east side of the Burkhiser Complex, serves as an educational program for the purpose of ‘educating educators,’ who care for and about young children. The staff takes pride in providing “a high quality, developmentally-appropriate, active- learning environment for families with children between the ages of 2 and 9, of all ability levels as well as for students preparing to be highly qualified educators.”

The new accreditation period runs to 2018, adding to the CDC’s string of continuous accreditation since 1992. This marks the sixth time that the CSC CDC has been re-accredited, but the first under new guidelines and standard revisions, Madsen noted.

CSC is one of 56 nationally accredited programs in Nebraska, and one of five programs to achieve the accreditation under the new and more rigorous process. In order to attain accreditation, programs are evaluated on about 3,500 standards that cover curriculum, teaching, assessment, health, teachers, families, community relationships, physical environment, and leadership and management.

“Accreditation means the leadership of the center, along with staff, parents and students, has met ALL of the required and emerging standards of quality with an 85 percent or higher level  Our ratings exceeded this percentage. ” Madsen said.

She said the accreditation resulted from extensive effort and hard work from the leadership team, with the support of parents, families, student teacher assistants, administration, the center’s advisory board and community partners. She said the application process involves “a great deal of time, energy and documentation of evidence that justifies and proves that the center is providing a quality early learning experience for children.    

“It truly is an honor to be accredited and an important milestone for families with young children and our students at Chadron State College,” she said.