School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale (SACERS)

Dr. Thelma Harms is recognized internationally for her work on assessing care and educational programs for children from infancy through the primary grades. Her early experience as Head Teacher of the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center, UC Berkeley for 15 years, and her subsequent role as Director of Curriculum Development at the FPG Child Development Institute prepared her for serving as lead author of the four widely used Environment Rating Scales (ECERS, ITERS, FCCERS, and SACERS). Much of her recent training and consultation through the Environment Rating Scales Institute (ERSI), where she serves as president, has focused on preparing professionals in the use of the scales for research, technical assistance, training, and program assessment in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) and similar quality enhancement projects in the United States and abroad. These comprehensive projects use the scales to focus on developing accountable systems to train, recognize, and reward high-quality programs for children.

Professor Ellen Vineberg Jacobs joined the Concordia faculty in 1971 and taught in the graduate and undergraduate programs. She founded the Concordia University Observation Laboratory School and was the Director until her retirement in 2011. She became a member of the Advisory Board of Sesame Street Canada in 1992 and is the founding editor of the Canadian Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education and co-author of Children’s Play in Child Care Settings. The majority of her research has focused on the quality of care in child care settings and the education and mentoring of child care staff.

Professor Donna Romano White was involved in research on Head Start, preschool education, and day care. Her interest in the quality of services being offered to children coincided with the development of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale by Thelma Harms, Richard Clifford, and Debby Cryer. She extended her interest to after-school care and worked as a researcher and consultant to school-age programs. Her interest in quality of care and school-age care led her into work on the development of the School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale.