Understanding the Components and Impact of Quality Early Childhood Education Programming
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Standards.pdf
Creative and Thoughtful Strategies for Implementing Learning Standards
The following excerpt, adapted from Gaye Gronlund's book Make Early Learning Standards Come Alive: Connecting Your Practice and Curriculum to State Guide- tines, serves as a good introduction to the many challenges and opportunities that early learning standards present to early chiidhood educators. The excerpt, and our full cluster of articles on these standards, is especialiy pertinent now that aii 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted eariy learning standards related to language, literacy, and math for 3- to 5-year-olds.
Standards, Standards Ev^erywherd
In the field of early childhood education, standards are the buzz. There are standards that determine the number oí children recommended for each teacher in a room. There are standards for the types of learning preschool children should experience. And there are child outcome standards, standards that define what young children should be learning.
Facts about early learning standards
Just what are early learning standards for pre- school children? The Early Childhood Education Assessment Consortium of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) defines early learning standards as follows:
Statements that describe expectations Eor the learn- ing and development of young children across the domains of: health and physical well-being; social and emotional well-being; approaches to learning; lan- guage development and symbol systems; and general knowledge about the world around them. (2005)
In many states, the early learning standards are correlated in some way with elementary and high school educational standards. All have many features in common and are based on generally accepted knowledge of child development. The dif- ferences lie in the formatting or the inclusion of spe- cific content or developmental areas. The number of items included in the identified standards also varies widely (Scott-Little, Kagan, & Frelow 2005).
Standards for children younger than kindergarten age differ from those for older children because
the primary tasks of young children are to acquire and refine foundational skills—skills that will help them suc- cessfully learn the content and information in the later grades. Young children are learning to listen, to work with others, to use their language to express themselves, and to dedicate their attention and energies to specific activities. "In early childhood, the development of these foundational skills (skills that lay the foundation for later learning) is just as important as mastery of content matter" (Bodrova, Leong, & Shore 20Ü4, 5). Therefore, it is recommended that early learning standards include social/emotional development, physical development, and approaches to learning in addition to traditional content areas associated with schooling (Scott-Littie, Kagan, & Frelow 2005).
Benefits and potential problems of early learning standards
There are many benefits to early learning standards. There are also potential problems and abuses in the ways they are used. Eirst, consider the following benefits:
• They reinforce the fact that there is an incredible potential for learning and growth in the infant, toddler, and preschool years and that there is value and impor- tance in providing quality early childhood programs for children's long-term success in school and in life.
• They help establish expectations for children at differ- ent ages and create a commonality for communication about children's accomplishments and capabilities.
• They provide a framework for accountability—a way for early educators to show parents, the community at
Young C/i//dren* July 2008
large, and themselves just what children are learning in early childhood programs.
• Learning standards and developmentally appropri- ate practices can indeed go together! No change in practices is necessary. Learning standards can be incorporated into play, into emergent curriculum and projects, and into small and large group times.
In their position statement titled "Early Learning Standards: Creating the Conditions for Success," the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NÂEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) note: "By defining the desired content and outcomes of young children's education, early learning standards can lead to
Learning standards can be incorporated into play, into emergent curriculum and projects, and into small and large group times.
greater opportunities for positive development and learning in these early years" (2002, 2). And who would not agree that as a society we indeed want greater opportunities for young children? If early learning standards can help us do more to reach this goal, then bring them on!
Throughout the field of education, however, there is cause for concern about how these standards are used. The NAEYC and NAECS/SDE position statement warns that there are
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educational and developmental risks for vulnerable young children if standards are not weil developed and implemented.... Thus, a test of the value of any standards effort is whether it promotes positive educational and develop- mental outcomes and whether it avoids penalizing or exclud- ing children from needed services and supports. (NAEYC & NAECS/SDE 2002, 2)
At a session sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education at the 2004 NAEYC Annual Conference, a group of early educators created the following list of pros and cons about the implementation of early learning standards.
Pros to early learning standards
• They can provide richness to our conversations about children's growth and learning.
• We can match standards to what we are already doing.
• They can be linked to primary standards so that we are indeed contributing to school readiness.
• They help us identify next steps and transitions.
• They are a strategy for professionalizing our field.
• They help us communicate across the grades, among ourselves, and with our public.
• They help us to have higher expectations for children.
• They result in authentic assessments tied to standards.
• They provide accountability to us.
Cons to early learning standards
• They lead to teaching to the standards only in a cookie cutter style curriculum. Then the uniqueness oí early child- hood education is lost.
• They bring a pressure of accountability with the risk of a push-down in curriculum and inappropriate expectations for younger children.
• Direct instruction is assumed as the only way to guaran- tee that standards are addressed. The children's learning in self-directed, exploratory ways is not trusted.
• They can contribute to a "we/they" mentality between preschool and elementary teachers.
• They take time for early educators to leam and work through, to figure out how to integrate into good practices. There is a need for reflection and interaction among col- leagues in order to do so.
• They can result in testing and other inappropriate assess- ment methods being used.
• There is little money to support education and training of early educators in the standards and how best to use them.
Making the best use of standards
Yes, early learning standards can be beneficial as well as be misused. How do early educators, then, make the best use of them and still remain true to best practices, to the needs of young chiidren. to the philosophy of Developmentally Appropriate Practice, and to doing what's right for children?
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How can teachers use early learning standards in ways that are beneficial to the children? How can they
• implement the standards in a way that is developmentally appropriate and good for the children?
• figure out reasonable and efficient ways to assess the children's progress toward the standards?
• be accountable without testing, without feeling like they are failing children, without feeling overwhelmed hy the pressures and expectations of state agencies, political and fund- ing bodies, and the public at large to produce outcomes, to track children's progress, and to increase their suc- cess in school?
• take good care of young children and help them to grow and learn and flourish?
— Gaye Gronlund
References
Bodrova. E.. D. Leong, & R. Shore. 2004. Child outcome .standards in pre-K programs: What are standards: what is needed to make them work? Preschool Policy Matters 5 CMarch): 1- 12. http://nieer.org/resources/pollcybriefs/ 5.pdf
Early Childhood Education Assessment Con- sortium, Council of Chief State School Offi- cers. 2005. The words we use: A glossary o( terms for early childhood education stan- dards and assessment, www.ccsso.org/ projects/SCASS/proiects/early_childhood_ education_assessment_consortium/publica- tions_and_products/2840.cfm
NAEYC & N M ; C S / S D E (National Association ol Early Childhood Specialists in State Depart- ments of Education). 2002. Joint position statement. Early learning standards: Creating the conditions for success, www.naeyc.org/ about/positions/pdf/position_statenient.pdf
Scott-Uttle. C, S.L. Kagan, & VS. Frelow. 2005. Inside the content: The breadth and depth of early learning standards. Greensboro, NC: Regional Educational Laboratory at SERVE. www. ser ve.org/_down loads/publications/ I ns idecontentfr.pdf
Excerpt adapted from G. Gronlund, Make Early Learning Standards Come Alive: Connecting Your Practice and Curriculum to State Guide- lines (St. Paul, MN: Redleaf: Washington, DC: NAEYC. 2006). 1-6, Copyright © 2006 Gaye Gronlund. Reprinted with permission of Redleaf Press. Available from NAEYC.
THE AUTHORS OF THE ARTICLES IN THIS CLUSTER help to answer Gaye Gronlund's queries by describing creative and thoughtful strategies for implementing learn- ing standards. They share deveiopmentaily appropriate strategies that support children in achieving the goals set in learning standards.
In "Got Standards? Don't Give Up on Engaged Learn- ing!" Judy Harris Helm provides a framework teachers can use to plan and implement engaging learning experi- ences that allow children to achieve standards and learn required knowledge and skills.
Jennifer Benson and Jennifer Leeper Miller, authors of "Experiences in Nature: A Pathway to Standards," show how teachers can use nature explorations to imple- ment learning standards for toddlers and preschoolers. Through a series of vignettes, they demonstrate how children's explorations in the natural world can meet multiple standards.
"A Bat, a Snake, a Cockroach, and a Fuzzhead: Using Children's Literature to Teach about Positive Character Traits," by Julia Kara-Soteriou and Heather Rose, describes their use of children's literature to focus on positive character traits and to address learning stan- dards for second-graders. The authors include suggested adaptations teachers can make to offer similar learning experiences for younger children.
Walter F. Drew, James Christie, James E. Johnson, Alice M. Meckley, and Marcia L. Nell, authors of "Con- structive Play: A Value-Added Strategy for Meeting Early Learning Standards," present three principles for using constructive play to meet early learning standards. They emphasize the important role of teachers in connecting children's play and exploration with learning standards.
— Deny Koraiek, Editor in Chief
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