Background
There is a growing recognition in California and across the nation of the importance of high-quality preschool in preparing children for success in school and in closing the achievement gap. The achievement gap seen in elementary school that increases in kindergarten and beyond traces back to the young children who come to school unprepared for the expectations of our educational system. More consideration is being given to preparing children for school as educators strive to meet the high expectations of California 's educational reform efforts.
Three major trends have recently focused public attention on the value of children's preschool education: (1) the unprecedented labor force participation of women with young children, which is creating a pressing demand for child care; (2) an emerging consensus among professionals and, to an even greater extent, among parents that young children should be provided with educational experiences; and (3) the accumulation of convincing evidence from research that young children are more capable learners than current practices reflect and that good education experiences in the preschool years can have a positive impact on school learning.1
In the last ten years, an explosion of brain research about children's first five years of life has documented the profound influence of early experiences upon children's cognitive development. An investigation of neurobiology, behavioral and social sciences, concluded that what happens in the first five years of life absolutely matters.2 This period provides a foundation that will support a child all the way into adulthood. The course of a child's development can be altered through effective early childhood instruction.
While preschool advantages hold for all children, poor children show stronger effects in acquiring basic knowledge,3 a finding that addresses California 's unique and diverse demographic needs. In California there is a large increase in the number of immigrant families in which nearly half of all children have at least one parent born outside of the U.S.4 These children are less likely to attend preschool and are likely to have parents who speak little or no English. In addition, 20 percent of California children, ages zero to five, live in poverty.5
However, there is also a definite achievement gap among different ethnic groups in California. In a recent PACE report, Latino kindergarteners scored about 17 points below whites on early language and preliteracy assessments. It is estimated that 8 to 12 points of this gap can be erased if less-advantaged Latino and black children enter preschool programs early (i.e., before age four) and attend school regularly.6
In California, preschools, particularly publicly funded ones, have had a long, successful history. Today, well over half (62 percent) of all California's young children attend preschool or Head Start programs prior to kindergarten.7
Nationally, the President created Good Start, Grow Smart, as a companion to the No Child Left Behind Act, to encourage states to establish early learning guidelines for preliteracy and prenumeracy. Several states are also moving to implement universal preschool programs, including Oklahoma where children, after one school year, were found to significantly increase their scores in letter-word identification, spelling, and applied problems.8 In addition, over three quarters of the states have developed some form of content standards to guide instruction in their preschool programs.
California is lagging in its efforts to prepare children for success in school and in closing the achievement gap. Universal preschool is an idea whose time has come. These preschools must be of high quality and readily available to all families. Since California kindergartens have become more focused on academic goals, preschools need to strengthen their efforts to help young children gain the skills they need to succeed in school in developmentally appropriate ways.
The Preschool Experience
In planning the curriculum, teaching strategies, and the environment in high-quality preschools, teachers need to first understand the particular needs, skills, and behaviors of three- and four-year-olds. From ages three through five, children develop increased mastery of language and begin to think symbolically and logically. These developments allow them to observe, investigate, and engage with the physical and social environment in new ways.9 Preschool-age children's development of gross and fine motor skills enables them to move confidently through space; manage finer, more complex tasks; and take more care of personal needs. Preschool is also the ideal setting for influencing children's healthy eating and daily activity behaviors, which will affect their health for a lifetime.
Culture, age, and individual differences affect the learning and development of the preschool-age child. Typically developing children of the same age vary widely in their mastery of various social, cognitive, and physical skills; nevertheless, identified progressions of skill development are common to all children. The young three-year-old is markedly different from the five-year-old across all developmental domains.
Three- and four-year-olds are active learners, who learn by doing. They learn through investigation, problem solving, play, and focused teacher-directed instruction. These young children learn by exploring, thinking about, and inquiring about all sorts of phenomena.
Certain features of high-quality preschools need to be provided to achieve desired results or outcomes for children. The early learning content in preschool programs must be academically rigorous, be based on high expectations, and utilize different teaching, curriculum, and organizational strategies. These high-quality preschool programs realize that young children are active learners who need to learn through a variety of hands-on activities. To do this, the programs must provide a balance between child-initiated, free-choice learning and intentional, teacher-directed instruction.
These programs include early childhood pedagogy that focuses upon early language development and early literacy, mathematics, and other academic subject matter. They consider the special needs of children with disabilities and children who are second-language learners.
A quality preschool curriculum that supports a three-to-five-year-old's optimal learning has certain indicators of effectiveness, including (1) children are active and engaged; (2) goals are clear and shared by all; (3) curriculum is evidence-based; (4) valued content is learned through investigation and focused, intentional teaching; (5) curriculum builds on prior learning and experiences; (6) curriculum is comprehensive; (7) professional standards validate the curriculum's subject matter content; and (8) the curriculum is likely to benefit children.10
Preschool for All: A First-Class Learning Initiative
The Preschool for All: A First-Class Learning Initiative proposes critical state and local policy actions to guide preschools toward their primary role of preparing three- and four-year-olds for kindergarten through grade two (K-2) education.
These components include:
- Develop high-quality pre-K content standards.
- Build a first-class professional learning system for preschool teachers.
- Implement a results-based accountability system.
- Create seamless transitions from pre-K to kindergarten and first grade.
- Involve all stakeholders in the learning process.
Develop High-Quality Pre-K Content Standards
This Preschool Initiative includes the development of Pre-Kindergarten Content Standards by the California Department of Education (CDE), in collaboration with other education experts, beginning with reading/language arts and mathematics. These standards, currently under development, will be fully articulated with California academic content standards for kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) for use in CDE publicly funded preschool programs. The standards will be voluntary in private and other publicly subsidized programs. It is expected that these standards will be accepted for use in most California preschool programs.
Content standards are grade-level expectations that specify what students should know and be able to do.11 They indicate knowledge and skills essential to the discipline that should be taught and learned in preschool and elementary school. They express shared expectations for schooling, enabling educators to focus on what they value, and provide a common language for assessing programs in meeting their goals.
Content standards have many purposes and values.12 The primary use of the standards is to improve instruction. Schools must help preschoolers master certain content areas, such as math and literacy. This content mastery helps young children use their knowledge to make sense of their world. Children who have more experience in domain-specific knowledge, such as math, acquire complex skills more rapidly. The schools recognize that children's self-esteem stems from success.
The standards may be used to guide selection of the preschool curriculum and to align instruction with learning expectations. The expectation is that the standards will help teachers teach with greater intentionality and, as a result, children will have more productive early learning experiences. These standards should help improve children's readiness for school and the overall quality of preschool programs in California. The standards will recognize the purposeful and playful nature of preschool learners. The standards will consider the needs of young children with disabilities and of English learners, ensuring that they meet the same high-level expectations in literacy and language and mathematics.
The pre-K content standards will help young learners develop the preliteracy and prenumeracy skills they will need when they enter kindergarten or first grade. In early literacy the preschooler will begin to learn concepts, such as how to handle a book; to recognize letters, words, and sounds; to rhyme words; to recognize his or her name; to write letters and letter-like shapes; and to understand simple sentence structure. In early numeracy the preschooler will learn concepts, such as number and quantity; simple addition and subtraction; sorting and classifying of objects; identification of common shapes; time; and the measuring, comparing, and ordering of objects.
Upon completion of the standards, the CDE will develop a Preschool Curriculum Framework focusing on early literacy and language and mathematics. The Preschool Curriculum Framework will be modeled after the K-12 reading/language arts and mathematics frameworks. It will be based on the discipline-specific pre-K content standards and will provide guidance to teachers in selecting standards-aligned curricula, enabling them to raise their benchmarks for child achievement and mastery in realistic ways.
Build a First-Class Professional Learning System for Preschool Teachers
"As California develops local and statewide efforts to make high-quality preschool education available to all four-year-old children, the attention of policy makers and program planners has turned increasingly toward how to ensure a well-trained, stable, and linguistically and culturally diverse preschool teaching workforce. A central part of this discussion is the setting of appropriate education and training standards for preschool teachers."13
Research clearly indicates that improving student achievement is a function of increasing the skill of educators.14 This focus also requires attracting the best and brightest to the field of education. There is an emerging consensus among researchers, policymakers, and the public that one key to boosting achievement is to ensure that a committed, highly skilled teacher is in every classroom.
California needs to make great strides in the preparation, support, and professional development of its preschool teachers. Our efforts must focus on four areas: (1) recruitment; (2) preservice; (3) support of new educators; and (4) continued support of experienced teachers. Recruitment of talented college graduates and second-career individuals who reflect both gender and ethnic diversity is essential. Preschool credential programs must be developed and exist in a partnership between community colleges and four-year universities.
Schools need to also establish strong relationships with the teacher education programs at higher education institutions in their local area. Schools need to work with schools of education by providing classroom placements for student teachers. At the same time, schools need to help ground the curriculum and instruction of schools of education in the realities of the day-to-day school life. High schools can even play a role in encouraging young adults to become preschool and elementary educators. Research has repudiated the commonly held misconception that teachers of young children need little formal education and training.15
High-level, research-based professional development for both preschool teachers and early elementary teachers lies at the heart of educational reform.16 Support of new educators and continued support of experienced teachers is vital. Preschools and elementary schools need to provide teachers with training focused on implementing the standards so that they can help children succeed in school. There is a growing awareness of, and respect for, the intellectual challenges of early childhood education. Through professional development more can be done to coordinate policy and practice so that preschool and elementary programs can benefit from each other's knowledge and experience. This initiative recommends such professional development collaboration.
Professional learning should be directed toward solving the real problems faced by teachers and enhancing a shared vision for preschool and elementary teachers of a particular school.17 Elementary schools need to include staff from feeder preschools in their professional development activities. The schools need to expand training and education for preschool caregivers since research shows that when providers are better educated and trained, children engage in more complex play and are better prepared for the demands of elementary school.18 By organizing joint workshops that bring together primary grade and preschool teachers, and by facilitating visits to each other's classrooms, elementary schools can contribute to the readiness of their future kindergarteners. Both types of programs can use creative scheduling and team-teaching strategies so teachers can attend joint professional development sessions, and, thus, acquire effective teaching methods.
These professional learning activities need to reach beyond the classroom. Schools should involve the parents and communities in their professional development activities by clarifying how the children will benefit from the program and ensure parental buy-in.19 It may be necessary to make changes in classroom and program practices, in local organizations and policies, and in state level resources and, perhaps, regulations. Parents, classroom staff, local preschool and elementary administrators and school boards, and state policymakers will need to exert leadership and work together.
Implement a Results-Based Accountability System
The CDE has implemented a desired results system for its early childhood education programs that is consistent with the K-12 accountability system. This system was created to ensure that children in state-subsidized early childhood education programs were being provided with high-quality educational experiences that focused on and monitored their development and learning. The system is based on outcomes for children and families as well as program standards, assessment, and evaluation tools that support the desired results. The assessment of children involves teacher observation using a developmental profile to assess children's learning and development. The purpose of this assessment is to determine the current status of children in each of the developmental domains and ensure they are making progress over time. This initiative will establish pre-K content standards and the development of standards-aligned assessment to more fully articulate pre-K education with K-12 education.
Preschools need to set high standards for all children. Child assessment helps preschools determine what extra help and instruction are needed for each child and classroom.
Assessing student learning and providing extra help when needed are crucial activities in preschool and the early elementary grades.20 Preschools and early elementary schools need to challenge every child. They may set different goals for different children, reflecting different rates of development, but they do not allow children to fail.
The challenge is to develop assessment and evaluation tools and procedures that are valid and reliable.21 The programs need to organize assessment and screening strategies that are fair and valid and that do not devalue cultural differences. The challenge is to develop preschool assessment practices that are aligned with the curriculum, honor the ways that young children learn, and look at a wide range of behaviors and intellectual capacities. No single assessment can provide this kind of information.
Preschools and elementary schools need to put into place systematic methods -- both formal and informal -- for assessing children's progress in achieving results. These include diagnostic, ongoing, and summative assessments. Assessment should be integrated into the daily practice of teaching and conducted in a manner that blends into the child's routines and activities.
Preschool instruction must be planned, implemented, and evaluated on measures of student and school success. Assessment procedures need to be aligned with the pre-K content standards. Preschool administrators and teachers need to regularly document, review, and share evidence of student achievement. These achievement data need to inform decision making. Content coverage is strongly related to young children's achievement, so it is important for schools to teach what they want preschoolers to know; the material taught cannot be haphazard. Frequent assessment of children's learning helps teachers gauge the most appropriate content and pace for instruction.
The CDE currently is carrying out a large-scale research study of its individual child assessment tool, the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP). The DRDP, which is administered at the beginning and end of the school year, is used by teachers to observe children's progress across all the developmental domains.
In the future the CDE will also develop preschool ongoing performance monitoring instruments that can measure children's early literacy and language and math skills on a more regular basis. These performance assessment instruments basically will assess children's more specific, academic content skills throughout the years so that preschool teachers can modify their curriculum and instruction to fit the needs of their children.
Create Seamless Transitions from Preschool to Kindergarten and First Grade
Schools need to strive for continuity and smooth, seamless transitions from preschool to kindergarten through grade two.22 Schools can also smooth the transition between home and school. By planning for these transitions, they help young children make sense of their complex world.
There are specific transition strategies that can be employed by schools, both at the preschool and the elementary levels.23 For instance, schools can work throughout the year to narrow the gap between the culture of the home and the culture of the school by working closely with parents and community organizations. This is particularly true of children who are not native English speakers and from other low-income minority families. Some schools reach out to local families well before the children reach age five. They send personal communications suggesting steps that parents can take to help children get off to strong, healthy starts. They may provide home visits before children enter kindergarten. They invite parents to school for visits to their children's classrooms. They encourage parents to read to their children, starting in the earliest years, and to take them to the library. They help parents find high quality-preschools.
It is imperative that elementary schools and local, feeder preschools work together to develop formal policies that strengthen continuity and ease transitions.24 They need to provide a better alignment of their expectations, curriculum, and assessments across preschool and K-2 classrooms. Preschool and K-2 teachers need to exchange information and ideas, visit each other's classrooms, and collaborate on curriculum development and assessment practices. They need to share resources and provide joint training that includes both age-level staffs. Finding out where children have spent their preschool years is a logical first step as part of the kindergarten intake process. These formal procedures will need the involvement and support of the principals and district-level administrators as well as the preschool directors.
Involve All Stakeholders in the Learning Process
Research shows clearly that children are more likely to succeed in learning when parents actively support them.28 When family members read with their children, talk with their teachers, and participate in school or other learning activities, they give their children a tremendous advantage. The 1997 National Education Goals Panel Report noted that one of the indicators of school readiness was family-child reading and storytelling activities. It is clear that one of the most important things that parents can do is help their young children develop their reading skills. How well children learn to read directly affects not only how successful they are in school but also how well they do throughout their lives. When they learn to read, they have the key that opens the door to all knowledge.
It is essential that preschool programs involve parents, businesses, and communities in their program. "Parents are children's first and most important teachers. A key to success for any early childhood program is meaningful parent involvement, and this need for parent involvement does not change when children enter kindergarten. Effective preschools and elementary schools go beyond traditional parent activities such as fund-raising and parent-teacher conferences. Mindful of parents' busy lives, they offer paths to involvement that are realistic and convenient, making it clear that family members are welcome to participate in whatever way they prefer and can best manage. Such programs recognize the diversity of their students' homes, reinforcing the importance of the learning that occurs at home, and they communicate respect for all kinds of families."25
One strategy to ensure successful parent involvement is for preschool administrators and district administrators to reach out to local employers, encouraging them to adopt policies that help parents balance the responsibilities of work and family life.26 The preschool programs also can encourage parents' employers to give them the time they need to attend teacher conferences and other school activities. In high-quality preschools, children see their parents and neighbors being treated with respect.
Research also has demonstrated some effectiveness for programs that help parents and other adults in the family gain the skills they need to become full partners in their children's schooling.27 In addition to large-scale parent education programs, such as Even Start, that stress family literacy, local preschool family literacy programs can also make a difference. Helping parents learn to read will ensure that parents can help their children learn to read as well.
High-quality preschools recognize that their program alone cannot meet the broad spectrum of child and family needs.29 Partnerships with local community colleges and universities will add richness to the quality of the educational services they provide. Children are more likely to make a successful adjustment to school when they have easy access to a range of services and supports in their community. Adequate health care and nutrition are especially vital to children's well-being and success in school.
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The time has come for California to embrace voluntary preschool for all of its children to close the achievement gap and to ensure their success in school and in life.
High-quality preschools must be educational in nature. Instruction needs to be based on pre-K content standards that are aligned with K-12 standards. Preservice and inservice professional learning systems must prepare teachers and administrators for delivery of research-based, standards-aligned instruction in core content areas. A system of accountability must be established to assess the development and learning of our preschoolers.
To be effective, transitions between preschool and elementary school should be smooth and seamless. Preschool experiences should be enriched by enfranchising parents, businesses, and the local communities as partners with a stake in the success of their young learners. Only then will universal, high-quality preschools and elementary schools truly be ready to help young children succeed in school.
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Footnotes:
1 Bowman, Barbara, M. S. Donovan, and M. S. Burns (Eds.), Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers (Executive Summary). National Academy Press, 2000.
2 Shonkoff, J.P., D.A. Phillips (Eds.), From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, D.C. National Academy Press. National Research Council Institute of Medicine, 2000.
3 Bridges, Margaret, B. Fuller, R. Rumberger, and L. Tran, "Preschool for California's Children, Promising Benefits, Unequal Access. PACE, Policy Brief (Report) 04-32004.
4 The California Report Card, Focus on Children in Immigrant Families, 2004. Children NOW.
5 The California Child Care Portfolio, California Child Care Resource and Referral Network [http://www.rrnetwork.org] (Outside Source), 2003, San Francisco, CA. .
6 Bridges, Margaret, B. Fuller, R. Rumberger, and L. Tran, "Preschool for California's Children, Promising Benefits, Unequal Access. PACE, Policy Brief (Report) 04-32004.
8 Gormley, William T., Jr., T. Gayer, D. Phillips, and B. Dawson, The Effects of Universal Pre-K on Cognitive Development. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
9 California Department of Education, Prekindergarten Learning Development Guidelines, Sacramento, CA, 2000.
10 National Association for the Education of Young Children, Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation, November 2003.
11 Kendall, John S., Setting Standards in Early Childhood Education, Educational Leadership, pp. 64-68, April 2003, quoting from The National Education Standards and Improvement Council (1993).
12 Kagan, Sharon Lynn, C. Scott-Little, and V. S. Frelow, Early Learning Standards for Young Children: A Survey of the States, Young Children, Washington, D.C., September 2003.
13 Bellm, Dan, M. Whitebook, A. Cohen, and C. Stevenson, Teacher Credentialing in Early Care and Education: Prospects for Universal Preschool in California and Lessons from Other States, Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California at Berkeley.
14 Telling the
Whole Truth (or Not) about Highly Qualified Teachers, Education
Trust, Washington, D.C., 2003. http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdon/yres/C638111D-04E3-4COD-9f68-20E700949498A6/O/tellingthetruthteachers.pdf (Note: The preceding link is no longer active).
15 Ready Schools, National Goals Panel Report, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 17.
