NAECS/SDE. Newsletters. Spring 1995 Vol.2 No. 2

Published co-operatively by the Colorado, Iowa, and Nebraska Departments of Education

First Impressions / Primeras Impresiones
Week of the Young Child
Texas' Strategies
The Colorado Quality Standards
Transition Activities Planning
ERIC Resource List
Readying Schools for Young Children

First Impressions / Primeras Impresiones

The Texas Education Agency has published First Impressions / Primeras Impresiones: Report of the Task Force on Early Childhood and Elementary Education. In order to respond to the issues of diversity, retention, inappropriate curriculum and assessment, and the changing nature of schooling, the Task Force has developed a vision of what early childhood and elementary education should look like in Texas.

The cornerstone of the Report is the implementation of developmentally appropriate educational practices. The Task Force defines developmentally appropriate early childhood and elementary education as programs and practices which: "(1) focus on the principles and stages of child development, (2) foster individual interests and understanding; (3) value cultural and linguistic diversity; and (4) recognize the social nature of learning." Such programs and practices sacrifice neither "academic quality nor intellectual rigor."

The Task Force's vision includes four key elements:

Developmentally appropriate curriculum which uses flexible grouping of students on a continuous basis for active, participatory involvement and presentation of knowledge through interdisciplinary themes and units.
School calendars which permit flexible and extended-year schedules to accommodate each child's learning style and pace.
Abundant opportunities for each child to attain high standards of achievement through acceleration and enrichment of all learning activities on a continuous basis.
Performance-based assessments that demonstrate continuous student progress toward academic standard, and allow continuous movement through the system by the students upon attainment of benchmark standards.

The following strategies are recommended as means through which developmentally appropriate early childhood and elementary programs may be implemented in the state:

Nurture the full intellectual, physical, social, and emotional growth of each child. Recognize that each child's growth occurs over developmental stages, tempered by a learning style and pace that is individually unique.

Provide developmentally appropriate curriculum that is ageappropriate, interdisciplinary, enriched to support each child's academic and personal growth, and connected to clearly articulated state and local educational goals.
Support educational success with a firm foundation in reading. Assure that reading instruction is age- and individually-appropriate and supports the complex interactions between reader and text. Structure the reading curriculum to provide explicit and systematic integration of phonemic awareness training and understanding of alphabetic principles within meaning-based literature- and language-rich learning environments.
Group students flexibly to support individual learning needs. Do not use past academic performance or perceived ability to track students.
Eliminate retention. Employ curriculum, instructional practices, and schedules and calendars that overcome the need to retain students in grade.
Provide a flexible, seamless learning continuum from prekindergarten to grade 12.
Implement performance-based assessment strategies that adhere to developmentally appropriate principles of curriculum and instruction.
Prepare early childhood and elementary educators with programs that integrate knowledge of pedagogy and child development.
Support early childhood and elementary educators and students with student-staff ratios that are predicated upon the developmental needs of children.
Actively solicit meaningful parent and family participation in the education of their children.
Coordinate early care programs, school- and community-based early childhood education programs, and elementary programs to assure a seamless transition between programs and continuous educational progress for each child.
Establish partnerships with health and human service agencies, child care providers, community organizations, cultural institutions, and local businesses to meet a range of individual and community educational, health, and human service needs.

"Programs for young children should not be seen as either play-oriented or academic. Rather, developmentally appropriate practice, whether in a preschool or a primary classroom, should respond to the natural curiosity of young children, reaffirm a sense of self, promote positive dispositions towards learning, and help build increasingly complex skills in the use of language, problem-solving, and cooperation." - Joan Lombardi

For more information, or to obtain a copy of First Impressions / Primeras Impresiones, contact the Texas Education Agency, Publications Distribution Office, 1701 North Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78701-1494, (512)-463-9734, and refer to Publication Number GE4 170 04.

Week of the Young Child

The 1995 Week of the Young Child is scheduled for April 23-29. The theme is EARLY YEARS ARE LEARNING YEARS- MAKE THEM COUNT! For more information contact NAEYC at 1-800-424-2460.

Texas' Strategy

THE OLD SYSTEM	THE NEW SYSTEM
Children adapt to a pre-organized school structure.	Schools are organized to accommodate active student involvement in learning.
Learning occurs in distinct, nine-month intervals; students not meeting expectations are remediated and/or retained.	A flexible calendar offers abundant time for acceleration and enrichment; early prevention and intervention ensure that children are not allowed to fall behind from the beginning.
Learning is organized and regulated in terms of seat time.	Curriculum allows for continuous progress; content meets rigorous standards; it is relevant, engaging, and meaningful to children.
Teachers impart knowledge through lecture.	Educators facilitate learning, organizing learning around student experiences, strengths, and educational goals.
Grouping is by ability or age.	Flexible grouping occurs across age, ability and achievement levels; teachers reconfigure groups based on learning needs.
Evaluation of student and school performance are based solely on standardized test results.	Evaluation is continuous, using multiple performance-based assessments to inform instruction and evaluate programs.
Education system is separate from other community systems and services.	Education system collaborates with other community systems and services to serve all children and their families.

TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENT	PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
Takes snapshot of the student's performance; highly susceptible to day-to-day variations in behavior and interest	Portfolios grow with the student; checklists show progress; present longitudinal picture
Isolated activity; disrupts instruction	Ongoing process; not intrusive to instruction
Age and grade are important variables	Assessment organized around individual student; indicates learning needs
Limited ability to measure progress in all developmental domains	Checklists can include outcomes in all academic, social, and physical domains
Test design provides limited assessment of thinking and communication	Able to assess higher-order thinking, communication skills, and problemsolving
Drives local curriculum to take the form of narrow, isolated tasks	Draws upon local curriculum objectives and outcome standards

The Colorado Quality Standards

The Colorado Department of Education has issued Quality Standards for Early Childhood Care and Education Services. The planning document has been in Colorado communities for the last two years in the form of a working draft which has been "field tested," and for which comments have been sought. Based on the input received in this process and on the contributions of leading professionals in Colorado, the draft version has been significantly revised.

These Quality Standards reflect the values of parents, educators, administrators, and policymakers across Colorado who are striving for the best possible education and care for young children. They do not provide mandates for the content of instruction, but rather offer guidelines for how instruction should be implemented. They are a working document designed to guide early childhood care and education programs in their movement toward quality services for all young children. As a means of self-evaluation, the Quality Standards can help programs assess the goals they have achieved and those which they are seeking to attain. This evaluation will also provide information regarding training, technical assistance, and other resource needs. As a part of the Colorado Department of Education's review process, programs will be expected to demonstrate that they are using the document for program development and staff inservice planning.

Two years ago the working draft merged the "best practices" for early childhood special education programs and the highly respected standards developed by NAEYC. The Quality Standards now incorporate enhancements in the areas of family-centered services, community collaboration to meet children's needs, diversity, transition, the roles and functions of the teaching team, and extensions of the standards into the primary grades (K-3) for children through the age of eight. These enhancements and extensions were developed by consulting with representatives from organizations such as the American Montessori Society; Association Montessori Internationale; Colorado Association for the Education of Young Children; Colorado Association for Family Child Care;

Colorado Department of Human Services; Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Community Development Institute Technical Assistance Support Center; Head Start Resource Access Project; High/Scope Educational Research Foundation; local child care centers, community colleges, private schools, school districts, and universities; National Association for the Education of Young Children; Office of the Governor; and other state departments of education. These representatives collaboratively used documents from their organizations, such as the Child Care Professional Credential and the Head Start Performance Standards, in the revision.

The Quality Standards for Early Childhood Care and Education Services are available for purchase by interested parties outside of Colorado at a cost of $25.00. Inquiries may be directed to: Colorado Foundation for Families and Children, 1580 Logan Street -Suite 740, Denver, CO 80203, (303)-894-2149.

Transition Activities Planning

The Oregon Department of Education, in conjunction with its Head Start - State Collaboration Project, has identified 12 activities which might be incorporated into planning transitions for children as they move from preschool to kindergarten and the primary grades. These activities are:

Fall Kindergarten Parent Meeting
Kindergarten staff welcome parents into their children's classrooms, share information, discuss parent concerns, and promote parent involvement. Parents are also informed about the Kindergarten Parent Packet Program, through which information and learning activities are supplied to parents on an ongoing basis throughout the school year.
Shared /Cross Training
Neighborhood and community early childhood professionals from the private and public sectors are invited by kindergarten staff to participate in school staff development opportunities. Elementary school staff are encouraged to attend community early childhood trainings offered in the private and public sectors. joint planning and program implementation are encouraged.
School Liaison Identification
A staff person at the elementary school is designated to be a liaison between the school and private and public preschool programs and parents.
Buddy School System
Working partnerships are developed between elementary schools and preschools in the community. Activities are designed which encourage class to class, child to child, and/or teacher to teacher interaction and communication.
Kindergarten Parent Packet Program
This information and learning activities distribution system is adopted by all elementary schools. Community preschools introduce the program to incoming kindergarten parents in the spring.
Parent Classes and Programs
Classes and programs for parents, which are held in elementary schools, are publicized and opened to parents of preschoolers.
Early Childhood Teams
The elementary school early childhood teams (K-2) are broadened to include program staff members of private and public preschools. The resultant teams meet three times a year to discuss mutual interests and concerns.
Referral of Children With Special Needs
Early contacts between elementary schools and preschool children with special needs, and their families, are encouraged and supported. Preschools begin to refer children in January.
Kindergarten Registration
Dates for kindergarten registration are publicized throughout preschool programs.
Transfer of General Information
Neighborhood and community preschools share names and addresses of preschool parents with elementary schools. The schools contact these prospective kindergarten parents and issue invitations to kindergarten orientation.
Kindergarten Orientation
The elementary schools provide an overview of kindergarten for prospective families.
Transfer of Children's Files for Incoming Kindergartners
Preschools physically transfer student records to the receiving elementary schools.

For more information about Oregon's Early Childhood Transition Plan, contact Dell Ford, Specialist with the Oregon Head Start - State Collaboration Project, at the Oregon Department of Education, 700 Pringle Parkway, SE, Salem, Oregon 97310-0290, (503)-378-5585.

The enclosed Resource List for Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Primary Education was developed especially for Of Primary Interest. Thanks go to Bernard Cesarone, Diane Rothenberg, and their colleagues at ERIC.

Readying Schools for Young Children

Dialogue continues around the first of the national goals for education: by the year 2000, all children will start school ready to learn. One of the chief proponents of schools being readied for children, rather than children being readied for schools, is Sharon Lynn Kagan, senior associate at the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. Kagan has stated that in readying schools for young children, parents and early childhood care and education professionals need to be deliberate as they set priorities and implement strategies.

Kagan offers two approaches to this aspect of changing schools, the first involving "think strategies, the mental precursors to action" and the second focusing on "action steps that can be undertaken in total or in part."

cde.gif (83534 bytes) Think Strategies

Conceptualize ready schools within the context of broader school and social reform.
Recognize that the needs of young children and their families will be diverse and may differ from those of older children and their families.
Recognize that ready schools need to exist within "ready communities."

Action Strategies

Create the most pedagogically robust, developmentally appropriate environments for learning that are feasible.
Create and ensure ongoing linkages with and supports to and from families.
Create linkages with community services.
Commit to community building.

According to Kagan, the early childhood care and education movement, like other reform movements, cannot be successful unless this nation accepts the social responsibility for its children, and citizens refuse to tolerate ambiguity regarding the role of schools in American society. Schools which are ready to serve young children and their families, she says, are schools which are, in fact, ready to benefit the nation.

Her article, "Readying Schools for Young Children: Polemics and Priorities," appeared in the November 1994 issue of Phi Delta Kappan. Copies of the article are available from the Director of Administrative Services, Phi Delta Kappan, P. 0. Box 789, Bloomington, Indiana 47402, (812)-339-1156.

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