For Head Start programs, the 2010 enactment of the Head Start Designation Renewal System (HS-DRS) reflects a national trend in rising accountability related to classroom quality for early childhood programs. Under HS-DRS, all Head Start programs are required to meet seven key criteria to qualify for or maintain program funding. One of the seven criteria is to meet identified minimum cut scores on a single, observational measure of classroom quality. Programs that fail to meet the minimum scores for this measure can be required to re-compete for their grants. The result is a high-stakes context where a single-day of observation, by a single observer, in a limited number of classrooms, can determine a program’s funding. Using an ethnographic case study approach, this study explores how seven teachers and two program leaders in a mid-sized, urban Head Start program made sense of this requirement and connected it to their beliefs about children’s needs, learning and development, the complex nature of quality, preschool teaching, and rising accountability in Head Start.

对于“启蒙计划”，2010年颁布的“启蒙指定更新系统”（HS-DRS）反映了全国性趋势，即与幼儿计划的教室质量相关的责任日益增加。根据HS-DRS，所有Head Start计划都必须满足七个关键标准，才有资格获得或维持计划资金。七个标准之一是通过对教室质量的单一观察性指标来达到已确定的最低分数。未能达到此标准的最低分数的计划可能需要重新竞争其赠款。结果是高风险的情况，在一个有限的教室中，由单个观察者进行的单日观察可以确定计划的资金。本研究使用人种学案例研究方法，探讨了中等规模，