4 Quality in Early Childhood Education

Components of Quality

After rigorously reviewing research on early childhood program quality, the National Academy of Science (NAS) reported in Eager to learn: Educating our preschoolers (2000) that quality in early education can be attributed to the presence of specific characteristics found in classrooms and throughout systems. Aligned with these findings are the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) 10 research-based quality standards benchmarks for pre-K programs in its annual State of Preschool yearbook and assessment of comprehensive large-scale systems in its 15 Essential Elements report based on research by Jim Minervino (2014). Leaders benefit from understanding these critical quality components in order to support teachers, develop strong family and community relationships, and improve children’s learning.

Following are several key terms and topics every early education leader should understand:

Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) As children progress through various developmental stages, it is essential for teaching practices to recognize and adapt to the varying degrees of skill and understanding. This has implications for teaching practices, learning environments, and educational policies. Whereas DAP is linked positively to children’s learning, developmentally inappropriate practices yield negative short- and long-term results. It is imperative for leaders to understand and promote DAP.

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Activity

  • Simon Dic’e (Simon Says)

Classroom Quality For many young children, a significant amount of their early learning time is spent in group settings or classrooms. The quality of the learning experience in these settings makes the difference between positive gains and lost opportunities. Effective learning environments address physical space, program activities, and adult/child interactions, as well as making supports available to families and teachers to meet diverse needs and abilities of all learners and continuously improve the program. Several tools are available to early education leaders to measure classroom quality.

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Activities

  • What are these children doing?

Early learning standards What should young children know and be able to do at different points in their lives? Approaches to teaching and learning are most effective when they comprehensively incorporate all aspects of children’s development and learning within a continuum rather than focusing on narrow academic growth. The National Education Goals Panel (1995) defined these domains in Reconsidering children’s early development and learning: Toward common views and vocabulary  which serve as the foundation for state expectations for early development and learning outcomes across P – 3rd grade, commonly referred to early learning standards. (NEGP). Early education leaders must be knowledgeable about early learning standards to ensure teachers are exposing children to appropriate learning opportunities and materials.

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Activities

  • What are these children doing?

Pedagogy  Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching. Methods and materials used for teaching young children whose cognitive capabilities are still developing must differ from those used with older students if they are to be effective. Seating 4-year-olds in desks and asking them to complete worksheets in a whole group activity is unlikely to produce the intended outcomes identified in state early learning standards. Early education leaders recognize this and promote teaching practices, including classroom design, which are aligned with child development principles.

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Curriculum   Curriculum for young children may be expressed as an equation of variables related to teaching content and process:

What x How x When x Where x For whom x By whom x How often x With what accommodations

WHY

Absent the denominator of “Why” (a.k.a. early learning standards), everything above the line results in simply doing activities with children which may lack coherence or purpose. There is a distinction between caring for or occupying children and educating them. Effective curricula may be manufactured or teacher-constructed, balancing knowledge of particular children enrolled in the class with intended results of early learning standards. Some skills and information are best learned through teacher-directed methods and others through a child-initiated approach with appropriate guidance from knowledgeable adults or peers. There is general agreement among early educators and child development specialists that play is a valuable approach for young children to acquire skills, apply and master new thinking, and it should remain an essential component in daily scheduling. There is no single best curriculum to be used with all children in all circumstances, and early education leaders are wise to review curriculum packages for appropriate content and technical features.

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Activities

  • What are these children doing?

Assessment Early education leaders realize the importance of assessment in the field, and appropriately distinguish between child and program assessment. Child assessments take two forms- screening and assessment. The purpose of screening is to provide a relatively quick, global determination of a child’s developmental status to identify general concerns that warrant more thorough and focused study, generally using a diagnostic assessment tool by trained specialists. Child assessment represents a more thorough examination of a child’s development and learning which can be performed once for a snapshot of child status or periodically repeated to gauge both performance and progress. On-going assessment is of a formative nature, valuable for adapting children’s learning experiences, or summative at the end of a period of time for a definitive performance rating. Screening and assessment may be performed on-demand or as a more passive observational measure.

Program quality is also assessed in early childhood. Program assessments frequently examine quality through an observational environmental evaluation and/or the quality of adult-child interactions contributing to learning and emotional support.

Kindergarten readiness assessment (KRA), also known as kindergarten entry assessment (KEA)  has garnered much attention in recent years to determine how “ready” incoming kindergartners are for school. KRA represents a hybrid assessment in many states where there is variation across intended use and application. Some states assess children at the end of preschool to collect data while others use observational data from kindergarten teachers after the first several weeks of school. Instruments are designed for specific purposes (ie., determine individual child development, design curriculum, measure preschool program effectiveness, funding) and should not be misapplied for purposes beyond their intent.

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Family engagement Recognizing that even the best early education programs touch children for a fraction of children’s early years, early education programs seek to engage parents and family members in meaningful, genuine ways. Leaders and teachers who view parents as equal partners, not simply as secondary contributors or beneficiaries, in all phases of children’s lives are likely to have greatest impact on children’s development and learning. Positive relationships in the early years promote positive relationships throughout a child’s educational future.

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