Reliability and validity of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition, ECERS-R in Arabic

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test reliabilities and validations for the Arabic translation of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised (ECERS-R) scale [Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (1998). Early childhood environment rating scale, revised edition. New York: Teachers College Press]. ECERS-R mean scores were tested for reliability at the indicator, item and total score levels. Test-retest, inter-rater and internal consistency correlation agreements were used on a sample of 50 childcare centres randomly sampled, representing category (national or private), region, type of childcare provision and classroom level (3-6 years) in Bahrain. High agreement levels (Cohen's kappas) between raters for mean total (0.797), item (0.78) and indicator (0.91) scores and internal consistency, 0.95 (Cronbach alpha) support ECERS-R as a reliably translated measure of quality identifiable in Arabic. Content, concurrent and predictive measures of validity included the Caregiver Interaction Scale significantly related with the ECERS-R (r = .56 Pearson product moment) and higher staff qualification levels which predicted higher ECERS-R scores, ANOVA F(1, 49) = 3.81, p = .05. Factor analyses identified high item loadings (>.69) for the total ECERS-R scale and also with the two factors: teaching and interaction and provisions and learning (Clifford, R., Reszka, S. and Rossbach, H. (2010). Reliability and validity of the early childhood environment rating scale. Chapel Hill: FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina), demonstrating the ECERS-R in Arabic to be a reliable and valid instrument. Further research evidence using the Arabic scale is needed. Reliability and validity of ECERS-R in ArabicAn instrument's reliability refers to the consistency of scores over time and between different raters. Importantly, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised (ECERS-R) has used several types of reliability which include test-retest reliability, internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. The procedures for analysis include calculating the total scores by summing the scores from each item, and then finding a mean item score giving each item an equal weight in the total score calculation. All items from the scale are used in the analysis so as not to affect the total scores. In addition, the authors recommend that subscale scores not be considered as Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 13:55 03 February 2015independent unit measures of quality to be compared across studies (Clifford, Reszka, & Rossbach, 2010).The ECERS-R Arabic version is the translation of the well-known and established original ECERS-R scale. It maintains the same conceptual framework, scoring approach and administration. The original ECERS-R is reliable at the indicator and item level, and at the levels of the total scores. Percentage level of agreement across the full 470 indicators in the scale was 86.1%, with no item having an indicator agreement level below 70%. Exact agreement at the item level was 48%...

Similarities and differences between CLASS and ECERS-R estimates of educational environment quality

“…The data obtained by both methods within this study are consistent with the Mashburn’s and colleagues results on a sample of 671 kindergarten groups from 11 USA states ( Mashburn et al, 2008 ). Rather low ECERS-R total scores were also obtained in many countries (for example, in Netherlands ( De Kruif et al, 2009 ), Bahrein ( Hadeed, 2013 ), Brazil ( Mariano et al, 2018 ), Columbia ( Betancur et al, 2021 ) etc. ), that lead researchers to propose changes in the stop-coding system of ECERS-R indicators assessment that we support ( Fujimoto et al, 2018 ).…”

Association between executive functions and gross motor skills in overweight/obese and eutrophic preschoolers: cross-sectional study

“…The final score of the scale is given by the average of the raw scores of the seven subscales, the quality interpretation of which is 1-inadequate, 3-minimal (basic), 5-good, and 7-excellent [ 72 , 73 ]. Studies have shown that the ECERS has good reliability [ 74 , 75 ]. The instrument has been translated into Portuguese and is widely used in studies with Brazilian preschoolers [ 73 , 75 ].…”