Early Childhood Standards

I am currently working on a committee for my state to see how closely our preschool standards are aligned in preparing children for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for kindergarten. It is always delightful to work with a group that is in tune with what is developmentally appropriate for early childhood children. A number of times during our meetings we have come to the conclusion that it is most appropriate for a certain skill to begin in kindergarten, not preschool. It has also been a pleasant discovery to find that our state preschool standards are providing adequate preparation for most kindergarten skills that are in the CCSS.<br /><br /><br />While serving on this committee, I have expressed my desire that we provide a usable document that an early childhood teacher can use "at a glance" to prepare her lesson plans. Sometimes we create large documents that many teachers do not take the time to read completely or we use terminology that is not always easy to understand. While I think it is critical for us to create a solid complete document, I also think it is important to have a simpler road map for teachers to use on a daily basis. Unfortunately, teachers don't always have access to complete professional development to help them 'decipher the code' of a government document. Hence, my request that we make a document usable for the masses. We must do that if we want the standards taught regularly in the classroom.

Early Childhood Standards

I am currently working on a committee for my state to see how closely our preschool standards are aligned in preparing children for the Comm...

Read more »

New DfE Research

The <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Department for Education</a> tends to release a batch of research reports at the end of each month, and the latest ones have just been published. There are too many to list all of them here, but some of the new material which seems particularly useful is linked below. Remember that if the prospect of reading a 100+ pages report is too daunting, then the executive summary will give you a quick flavour of the content!<br /><ul><li style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR108A.pdf" target="_blank">Evaluation of Every Child a Writer: Report 1</a></li><li><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR108B.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Evaluation of Every Child a Writer: Report 2</span></a><br /></li><li style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR114.pdf" target="_blank">Evaluation of Every Child a Reader</a></li><li style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR121A.pdf" target="_blank">Parenting Early Intervention Programme Evaluation</a></li></ul>The complete Publications section of the DfE website can be <a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/" target="_blank">found here</a>.

New DfE Research

The Department for Education tends to release a batch of research reports at the end of each month, and the latest ones have just been publ...

Read more »