1/25/2024 • Harrisburg, PA• Developmental Environment Rating Scale (DERS) approved for assessment
1/25/2024 • Harrisburg, PA • The NCMPS Developmental Environment Rating Scale (DERS) has been approved as an assessment tool for Pennsylvania’s subsidized preschool program, PreKCounts.
Since 2007, Pennsylvania has offered free preschool to tens of thousands of eligible three- and four-year-olds through its PreKCounts program. Among other requirements, PreKCounts programs must use an approved assessment tool as part of their process, to get and keep funding.
Previously, the approved tools included the well known CLASS, ECERS-3, or TPOT tools, but not the Developmental Environment Rating Scale (DERS) from the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS). The DERS is a classroom quality assessment tool that measures child, adult, and environment characteristics known to support developmental outcomes such as executive function, linguistic and cultural fluency, and social-emotional flexibility. The DERS aligns well with Montessori practices, and is compatible with any develpomentally-oriented program focused on these important outcomes.
Now, thanks to hard work and advocacy in Pennsylvania, the DERS has been approved as a Program Observation Instrument (POI) along with other measures. This change will allow thousands of classrooms in the PreKCounts system to measure and improve their classroom practices to better support development.
David worked in private Montessori for more than twenty years as a parent, three-to-six year-old and adolescent teacher, administrator, writer, speaker, and advocate. In 2016 he began working with the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector. David lives in Portland, Oregon.