Building Bridges

As highlighted by recent reports, today’s system of care and education for our youngest learners is both fragmented and inadequate. Too often, early learning opportunities are undermined by developmentally inappropriate academic expectations that create anxiety, misaligned teaching and learning practices that create confusion and myopic policies that create competition rather than collaboration. Happily, a consensus is growing for repairing this fragmentation and building sturdy bridges from early childhood education to primary school.

During a recent webinar hosted by REL Northwest, I discussed what is needed to create a successful continuum for children moving from preschool to kindergarten and beyond. I identified three critical components: Leadership, aligned learning, and family and community engagement.

Leadership
Defined broadly to include all levels of leadership, this work requires innovation, determination and enthusiasm from classroom to administration, advocacy to policy making. To have an aligned approach to early childhood education preschool through grade 3 (P-3), we need coordinated education systems from state to local district. States that have strong political will—which can mean determined policymakers, advocates, or even judicial mandates–are often able to more effectively implement high quality and aligned early childhood systems. Leaders at the state level—found across offices and agencies–must be committed to breaking out of professional silos to enable educators to work collaboratively. And local school board, administration and classroom leadership is key to implement streamlines and coordinated policies and practices.

The National Association of Elementary School Principals recent report Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities: Competencies for Effective Principal Practice provides a useful resource. The document highlights several actionable recommendations for school building leaders such as establishing schools as a hub of preK to grade three learning for families and communities, ensuring developmentally appropriate teaching, and building professional capacity across the learning community are included, among others, in this report.

To be effective, local leaders must intentionally make connections between birth-to-age-five education and care with their K-3 system. A good example of such collaboration is the New Jersey Early Childhood Academy, a cross-district professional learning community established in New Jersey through a partnership between the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO), and the New Jersey Department of Education. This forum brings together school district early childhood teams including a central administrator with some decision-making authority, a building level leader, and an early childhood teacher. Responding to needs of each district, we have focused on creating a cohesive and aligned system pre-K to grade 3 for topics including student assessment, professional learning communities and teacher evaluations systems, and aligning effective instructional practices across the continuum.

Aligned Learning
Alignment in teaching and learning across the early childhood continuum is crucial for children to benefit and thrive. We often see children leave preschool with one idea of how school works only to enter kindergarten and confront a completely different approach to teaching and learning. Data from FirstSchool research documents the changes in classroom experiences across grade levels using the EduSnap classroom observation tool. One common–and potentially confusing–difference for children is the switch from a large amount of free time/choice in preschool to a minimal amount, if any, in many kindergarten classrooms. In New Jersey, the state education department encourages alignment by sharing best practices for preschool, kindergarten, and providing recently released First through Third Grade Implementation Guidelines to cover the P-3 early childhood education continuum. Indeed, for children to succeed, attention must be paid to transition and alignment from K to grade 1 and grade 1 to 2 and so on, with practices in place to support children’s movement from grade to grade.

Family and Community Engagement
No continuum of early childhood is complete without engaging families and communities. The systematic inclusion of families in activities and programs promoting child development, learning, and wellness is critical for effective learning with long-lasting benefits. Note this requires systematic inclusion with intention and coordinated effort focused on creating a culture of family and community engagement–rather than simply a series of individual events. Educators recognize benefits of including families in meaningful ways. Research highlights the positive impact of engaging families on children’s attendance, outcomes and attitudes toward school. However, family engagement in their child’s programs and schools also provides positive effects for the adults and families. Engaged families feel more involved in the community and connected to helpful resources—all of which can help children crossing those bridges from home or preschool, to primary school, and beyond.

To hear directly from local educators and policymakers implementing high-quality, aligned early childhood systems, view the webinar. Here you will see how having all necessary pieces in place—committed leadership, aligned learning, and family and community engagement—creates positive outcomes for children, families, and schools. Children gain a cohesive and comprehensive high-quality early learning experience with smooth transitions that lays a firm foundation for future learning. Families gain access to resources and support in a community setting. And schools benefit from a systematic improvement in both teaching and learning.

Shannon Riley-Ayers, Associate Research Professor at NIEER, conducts research and provides technical assistance in preschool through grade three with a focus on teaching quality, assessment, and professional learning.  She led the writing and implementation of the New Jersey First through Third Grade Implementation Guidelines.  She is co-author with Dorothy Strickland of the policy brief Early Literacy: Policy and Practice in the Early Years (NIEER) and the book Literacy Leadership in Early Childhood: The Essential Guide (Teachers College Press). She is first author of the Early Learning Scale (NIEER), a comprehensive performance-based assessment system for preschool and kindergarten.