The national core knowledge and competencies (CKC) establish agreement across programs and funding streams about what professionals need to know and be able to do in a quality program. The CKCs were developed by crosswalk of existing CKCs from states or independent organizations and then piloted. There are ten core knowledge areas, which each have a rationale, supporting evidence and indicators for 5 levels of proficiency. NAA has also developed a companion self-assessment tool.