With concerns rising about the quality of child care in the United States, schools and day care centers are making strides to be as efficient and reliable as possible.

Thelma Harms, scientist at the Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union on Tuesday night to raise public awareness as to how these improvements are going to be made.

Harms’ lecture focused on the importance of establishing standards and broader participation from child care providers.

“Without a reliable assessment system and widespread participation, you cannot have a system that will have any effects,” Harms said.

Many states in America require that any provider of child care must be licensed. Some states also give out ratings to these different providers after they are assessed on the basis of an environmental rating system.

These assessments typically last about four hours and are usually unannounced.

Licensed assessors will enter the provider’s area of business, whether a school or day care center, and observe elements such as cleanliness and playground safety to determine the provider’s rating.

Harms mentioned the importance of public awareness about what these ratings mean.

“Information shouldn’t be locked in a journal article; you need to find out if quality standards are set too high. Public information demystifies the system and makes it work,” Harms said. “You have to be able to prove what is happening.”

Because different states use different accreditation systems and organizations to hand out ratings, the next step for Harms and her colleagues is to implement a national system.

“I’m a great believer in national accreditation system made by one professional organization,” Harms said.