National Association for the Education of Young Children

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is an organization of professional educators in the United States that is primarily concerned with establishing standards of education for children from birth to age 8. The NAEYC was initially established in the 1920s, when Patty Smith Hill assembled, identified, and recruited a group of 25 like-minded professionals who were concerned about the proliferating number of nursery school institutions. They formed the National Association of Nursery Education (NANE) as a means of promoting recommended standards for education for nursery school–age children. Their work continued during the next two decades and featured interaction with government programs such as the Lanham Act, enacted in 1946.

In the 1950s, organizational changes led to affiliation with other associations throughout the ...