A New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum (2024) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 12-41
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From page 12... ...
. These guidelines state that high-quality preschool programs are learning environments in which teachers create a caring community of learners, intentionally support children's learning and development, foster reciprocal partnerships with families, observe and assess children's development and learning, and use curriculum as a planning tool to promote children's learning (NAEYC, 2020)
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Among the former children, 83% were in center-based care (i.e., child care centers, Head Start programs, preschools, pre-Ks, and other early childhood programs) , 26% were in relative care, and 14% were in nonrelative care.
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. For instance, state-funded preschool programs offered in lowincome and racially/ethnically marginalized communities tend to have lower quality scores compared with programs in predominantly White and affluent neighborhoods (Bassok & Galdo, 2016; Valentino, 2018)
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. Preschool curricula -- the focus of this report -- are key dimension of overall structural and process quality and differ across multiple dimensions, such as theoretical underpinnings, content, developmental domains covered, format, expectations for teachers and children, and assessment strategies (Duncan et al., 2015; Jenkins & Duncan, 2017)
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The 13-member committee included experts in early childhood education, early childhood development, equity, curriculum development, implementation science, public policy, children with disabilities, multilingual learners, child health, mental health, and neuroscience. BOX 1-1 Statement of Task The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will convene an ad hoc committee to conduct a study on pre-k curriculum quality for children ages three through five, with special attention to the needs of Black and Latinx children, dual language learners, children with special needs, and children experiencing poverty.
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to conduct a comprehensive literature review and synthesize research findings related to high-quality pre-K curriculum. The aim of this literature review was to inform the committee in its effort to build a consensus definition of high-quality preschool curriculum, with special attention to the needs of Black and Latine children, multilingual children, children with disabilities, and children experiencing poverty.
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For example, some early evaluation studies of preschool programs were conceptualized and designed from a deficit-oriented perspective without recognizing the knowledge and strengths of children and families from marginalized communities (NASEM, 2023a) ; this perspective may have affected researchers' interpretation of what it means for curriculum to be high-quality and effective in promoting desired outcomes.
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Conceptual Framework The committee's conceptual framework for understanding factors that influence and define high-quality preschool curriculum (Figure 1-1) draws on a number of sources to describe and define factors that affect the development and implementation of high-quality preschool curricula and guides the organization of this report (Garcia Coll et al., 1996; Iruka, 2020; Iruka et al., 2022; Spencer, Dupree, & Hartmann, 1997)
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Developmental outcomes for diverse groups of children and contributors to both their risk and resiliency can be influenced by poverty, race, school quality, and neighborhood factors, as well as intermediate experiences of stress, including the safety of their physical environment and exposure to violence (Reading, Haynes, & Shenassa, 2005; NASEM, 2023a) Similarly, their strengths and assets, including their sense of agency, are influenced by the family and community contexts, which then impact the system at the level of early childhood programs, including family engagement and reciprocal relationships, culturally and linguistically responsive learning environments, child characteristics, teacher characteristics and support, and program quality (NAEYC, 2019)
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Children from diverse backgrounds benefit from culturally and linguistically responsive education in a variety of ways, and this report highlights the fallacy of previous suppositions that merely supplementing mainstream early childhood programs with culturally relevant material is adequate for all learners (Nãone & Au, 2010)
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INTRODUCTION 1-11 FIGURE 1-1 A conceptual framework for understanding factors that influence and define high-quality preschool curriculum. 11 Prepublication Copy, Uncorrected Proofs
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. Comprehensive curricula (also called global or whole-child curricula)
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and different funding mechanisms (including tuition paid privately by families; private funding such as foundation grants or university sponsorship; and publicly funded pre-kindergarten, Head Start, child care subsidies, and other public funding streams) together in order to maximize access to programs or to enhance the quality (Morris & Smith, 2021)
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This lens can be used to examine how history and ideology can play a significant role in influencing which curricula are widely used in early education programs as well as opportunities to identify where existing curricula may be excluding or perpetuating harmful narratives about marginalized communities and to elevate excluded, ignored, or erased perspectives. Many preschool curricula purport to be rooted in sociocultural or constructivist theories of development, which posit that people develop and learn by interacting with others, exploring their environments, and building on their prior experiences (Branscombe et al., 2014; DeVries et al., 2002; Zigler & Bishop-Josef, 2006)
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seek to do: create an environment that is enriching and engaging for children (i.e., child-centered) , and facilitates their cognitive development and social competence through interactions with one another, adults, and the physical environment.
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Locally developed curricula and no use of curriculum are less common in Head Start programs than in other publicly funded preschool programs (Doran et al, 2022) .; this difference in use is most likely due to programmatic requirements (e.g., Head Start Program Performance Standards require a curriculum)
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In addition, Head Start and many state-funded pre-K programs require the implementation of comprehensive curricula (Fantuzzo et al., 2011) The commissioned literature search revealed that comprehensive curricula are often advertised as complete sets of instructional materials and strategies that cover most or all domains.
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-- that science is seldom attended to in the early grades and that language/literacy is prioritized over other domains. Preschool Curricula by Setting Preschool education can be offered in various settings, including public schools, Head Start agencies, private schools, private child care centers, and home-based or family child care (FCC)
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. Nationally representative surveys indicate that locally developed curricula are especially common in family child care settings and private child care centers, where teachers/providers generally have more flexibility to design their own lesson plans and assessment tools (Doran et al., 2022; National Survey of Early Care and Education Project Team, 2015; Jenkins et al., 2019)
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. The philosophies underpinning existing early childhood programs often were historically grounded in one of two perspectives: the first held that "lower income families were incapable of properly socializing their children"; the second emphasized the "potential benefits that would accrue to young children from a program attuned to their developmental needs -- one that also prepared them for elementary school," noting that "as far back as the 1820s and 1830s, infant education was promoted as a kind of ‘head start' for children's educational careers" (Cahan, 1989, pp.
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From page 32... ...
. The commissioned literature review found that among the 17 mainstream preschool curricula identified, only 5 -- the Creative Curriculum for Preschool, Galileo Pre-K Online Curriculum, HighScope Preschool Curriculum, Frog Street Pre-K, and World of Wonders -- showed moderate evidence of cultural responsiveness (i.e., the curricula provide general guidance on effective practices, but do not provide specific, embedded teaching strategies throughout the materials)
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Curricula that fail to take the lived experiences of the plurality of minoritized children, families, and communities into account maintain the status quo. REPORT ORGANIZATION The committee was charged with developing a new vision for high-quality preschool curriculum that would support equitable curriculum development, state- and program-level preschool curriculum decisions and selection, and local curriculum implementation.
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. Quality in home-based child care: A review of selected literature (OPRE Report No.
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. Adult outcomes as a function of an early childhood educational program: an Abecedarian Project follow-up.
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. Boosting school readiness with preschool curricula.
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Preschool curricula and children's development. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 12, 514– 549.
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upon child development (Curriculum Quality Analysis and Impact Review of European Early Childhood Education and Care)
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Department of Education. National Center on Child Care Quality Improvement, 2018.
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School Readiness Consulting. https://www.michigan.gov/ /media/Project/Websites/mde/ogs/cdc 2/landing_page_docs/michigan_findings_report_final.pdf?
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. Head Start Program Performance Standards.
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