LittleRoadsCo.For Preschool Directors
ECERS-3 and classroom materials: a director's guide to scoring higher on diversity
The diversity items on the ECERS-3 trip up more programs than almost anything else on the scale. Not because directors don't care about diversity. Because the scoring criteria are specific in ways that aren't always obvious, and the difference between a 3 and a 5 often comes down to materials that are sitting in a catalog but not yet in the classroom.
What the ECERS-3 actually measures
The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Third Edition was developed by Thelma Harms, Richard Clifford, and Debby Cryer at UNC-Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. It's been the standard classroom quality measurement tool in early childhood education for decades (Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 2015, Teachers College Press).
The scale covers 35 items across six subscales: Space and Furnishings, Personal Care Routines, Language and Literacy, Learning Activities, Interaction, and Program Structure. Each item is scored from 1 (inadequate) to 7 (excellent). If your program participates in a state QRIS — and most publicly funded programs do — your ECERS-3 scores directly affect your star rating, your funding, and in some states your ability to keep operating.
The scale isn't theoretical. Longitudinal research has shown that higher ECERS scores predict better cognitive and social outcomes for children through at least second grade (Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001, Child Development). The UK's massive Effective Provision of Pre-School Education study found the same pattern using ECERS-R across thousands of children (Sylva et al., 2004, EPPE Final Report). The scores matter because the environments they measure matter.
Why the diversity items trip up otherwise strong programs
A director can have a beautifully organized classroom with excellent routines, warm teacher-child interactions, and strong literacy practices, and still score poorly on diversity. It happens all the time. The reason is that diversity isn't something you can improve by being a good teacher. It requires specific, tangible materials in the classroom that the assessor can see and document.
In the predecessor scale (ECERS-R), this was concentrated in Item 28: Promoting Acceptance of Diversity. The scoring was explicit. At the minimal level (3), some diversity materials had to be accessible. At good (5), diversity needed to appear across multiple areas — books, pictures, play materials — and reflect variety in race, culture, age, ability, and gender. At excellent (7), staff needed to be actively using those materials to promote understanding, and the materials needed to connect to the children and families actually enrolled.
The ECERS-3 distributes diversity-related expectations across multiple items rather than concentrating them in one. This actually makes it harder, not easier, because you can't just fix one area. Diversity materials need to show up in Learning Activities, in Interaction, in the physical environment. The assessor is looking for evidence throughout the room, not in a single designated "diversity corner."
The trap of superficial diversity
Louise Derman-Sparks, who literally wrote the book on anti-bias education in early childhood, coined the phrase "tourist curriculum" to describe what most programs get wrong. A tourist curriculum treats diversity as a series of special events — a week on Chinese New Year, a poster of children from different countries, a bin of "multicultural" dolls that nobody plays with. It checks a box without changing anything about the daily experience of the classroom (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2020, Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, NAEYC).
Assessors can tell the difference. A set of multicultural dolls still in the packaging doesn't score the same as materials that are visibly integrated into children's daily play. A poster of the Eiffel Tower doesn't score the same as a photograph of the fire station down the street. The ECERS framework rewards materials that are authentic, present, and connected to the lives of the children in the room.
This is where a lot of programs — especially in smaller or less diverse communities — get stuck. They know they need diversity materials, but the off-the-shelf options feel generic. A preschool in rural Michigan or small-town Georgia can buy a poster set depicting neighborhoods in Brooklyn, but that doesn't reflect the community the children actually live in. And the assessor knows it.
"In classrooms with little diversity, it's harder to authentically bring in different cultures without being superficial. Your rug is a fun way to bring the community around us into our little classroom."
— Director & Teacher, GSRP Preschool, Michigan
Material categories that consistently score well
The materials that score highest are the ones that do double duty: they reflect the local community AND they invite active use. Here's what that looks like in practice.
Books and visual displays
Books featuring families, homes, and communities that look like the children's own are the baseline. But displays matter too. Photographs of local landmarks, neighborhood maps, images of community helpers who work in the actual town — these score better than generic posters because they demonstrate intentional connection to the enrolled population.
Dramatic play artifacts
Play food, clothing, and props that reflect the cultures and daily lives of families in the program. A dramatic play area that includes items from a local restaurant, signs in languages spoken by enrolled families, or tools that reflect jobs parents actually hold.
Maps, community references, and spatial materials
This is the category most programs overlook entirely. A map or aerial representation of the local community — showing actual roads, landmarks, and places children recognize — is precisely the kind of material that scores well on both diversity items and learning activity items. It's spatial, it's geographic, it connects to the child's real world, and it invites conversation between teachers and children about the community they share.
A rug or mat featuring the actual neighborhood around the school, with real street names and recognizable buildings illustrated in a child-friendly style, hits multiple ECERS-3 indicators at once. It's a diversity material (community connection). It's a learning activity material (spatial reasoning, geography). And it's a conversation starter that supports the kinds of teacher-child interactions that boost scores across multiple subscales.
A 30-day plan to raise your diversity score
You don't need to overhaul your entire classroom. Most programs are closer to a strong diversity score than they think. The gap is usually a handful of specific, documentable materials and a few intentional teacher practices.
Week 1: Audit what you have. Walk through every area of the classroom with the ECERS-3 manual open. For each item that touches on diversity or community, write down what's present, what's missing, and what's present but not being used. Be honest. The assessor will be.
Week 2: Fill the gaps with intentional purchases. Prioritize materials that serve multiple items on the scale. A set of books featuring diverse families covers one item. A community-based play mat that children use daily covers several — diversity, learning activities, interaction, spatial reasoning. Look for materials that are active, not decorative.
Week 3: Make the materials visible and accessible. The best diversity materials in the world don't score if they're on a high shelf or in a closet. Put them at child height. Put them in areas where children spend time. If you bought a community rug, put it on the floor where block play and car play happen. If you added books, put them face-out in the reading area, not spine-out on a back shelf.
Week 4: Coach your teachers on active use. The jump from a 5 to a 7 almost always requires staff to actively use materials to prompt conversations about diversity and community. "Where do you live? Can you find your street? What do you see on the way to school?" These aren't scripted lessons. They're natural conversations sparked by materials that give teachers something to point at.
How this connects to your state's quality rating
Nearly every state with a Quality Rating and Improvement System uses some version of the ECERS as a component of their rating. The specifics vary — Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS uses ECERS-3 for self-assessment and external review, North Carolina's Star Rated License (which is mandatory for all licensed centers) uses ERS scores as a direct driver of star ratings, Ohio's Step Up to Quality requires ECERS-3 for any program receiving public funds (National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, QRIS Resource Guide).
The RAND Corporation reviewed the evidence on whether QRIS ratings (often built on ECERS scores) actually predict child outcomes, and the findings are mixed but directional — programs that score higher tend to produce better results, though the relationship isn't always linear (Karoly, 2014, RAND Working Paper). What isn't ambiguous is that your star rating affects your funding, your enrollment, and your reputation. Improving your ECERS score is one of the most direct ways to improve your rating.
The diversity and community-materials items are among the easiest to improve because they're primarily about having the right stuff in the room. You don't need to retrain your staff or redesign your curriculum. You need to buy a few specific things, put them where children can reach them, and help your teachers use them in conversation.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as "community materials" for ECERS-3?
Materials that reflect the local community where the children live: photographs of neighborhood landmarks, maps of the area, items from local businesses, books set in recognizable locations. The key is that the materials connect to the children's actual lived experience, not a generic or distant community.
Can I score well on diversity if my community isn't very diverse?
Yes. The ECERS-3 asks for materials that reflect both the enrolled population AND broader diversity. In a less diverse community, local community materials (maps, photos, neighborhood references) are especially important because they demonstrate authentic connection. You still need materials depicting diverse people and families, but the community connection piece is what many programs in homogeneous areas are missing.
How is the ECERS-3 different from the ECERS-R on diversity?
The ECERS-R concentrated diversity in Item 28. The ECERS-3 distributes diversity expectations across multiple items. This means you can't address it in one corner of the room — it needs to show up throughout the environment. The upside is that a strong community-based material (like a local play mat) can positively affect multiple items at once.
Does a custom rug or play mat actually help with ECERS-3 scoring?
A play mat featuring the actual neighborhood around your school — with real streets, landmarks, and local businesses — addresses community connection, diversity, spatial learning, and active play. It's the kind of multi-use material that assessors notice precisely because it checks indicators across several items simultaneously. And because children use it daily (it's on the floor), it demonstrates active integration rather than decorative placement.
See how a custom rug can help your classroom
A Little Roads play mat puts your school's actual neighborhood on a rug built for classroom use. Real streets, local landmarks, your building right in the center. Used daily by children in block play, dramatic play, and guided conversation.