Scales

Dr. Harms is a Research Professor Emerita in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Dr. Harms is recognized internationally for her work in assessing the quality of educational and care settings. She has also developed a variety of curriculum materials and staff training resources. Dr. Harms has provided extensive in-service training and consultation in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.

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Debby Cryer, Ph.D. is primarily retired now, but remains an active member of ERSI. She is co-author of the Environment Rating Scales and numerous other resource materials. Debby provides the author-interpretations of the scales and consulting in the use of the scales. She always combined her interests as an early childhood practitioner with those of a researcher, translating research findings into practice for early childhood program staff, parents, and policy makers.

Dr. Clifford has written extensively on child and family policy issues, with a particular emphasis on the role of government in the provision and financing of services. In addition, he has conducted research assessing early learning environments and identifying developmentally appropriate practices in early care and education. He helped establish and served as the first director of the North Carolina Division of Child Development. Dr. Clifford is past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Dr. Yazejian has extensive experience conducting large-scale, multi-site research and evaluation studies exploring questions about early education quality and children’s outcomes, particularly for children living in poverty. Her early childhood research and program evaluation studies have focused on professional development, models of programming birth to 5, home visiting, quality rating and improvement systems, early childhood language and literacy, and the use of data for continuous quality improvement.