摘要：This study aimed to develop an observation scale for assessing the quality of day care programs and to examine reliability and validity of the scale. Instruments included 3 self-assessment scales,the Evaluation Scale for Early Childhood Programs and an observation scale completed by 8 trained observers in 89 day care sites. Item analysis indicated that most items were acceptable in terms of item discrimination and item response distribution. Cronbach α`s and inter-observer reliability were relatively high. Validity of the scale was evidenced by correlations between the observation scale and the criterion measure and inter-correlations among sub-areas of the observation scale. Scores on the observation scale were validated by quality ratings from self-assessment scores.
关键词：observation scale;assessment for day care programs;development of a scale;validation of a scale
