District Efforts to Create Connections Across the Preschool-to-Elementary Divide

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Implementing and Scaling-Up Reform in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Districts have begun to take up the “PreK-3 approach” to create stronger instructional pathways across the early years of a child’s education. PreK-3 initiatives – those that straddle the divide between preK and elementary – presents potential challenges that aren’t accounted for in the literature. I explore these challenges by considering the conceptions that district administrators have of district efforts to create and sustain connections from preK to elementary. Findings indicate that conceptions varied based on work role and ideas about the appropriate nature of teaching and learning in the early years. This contributes to our understandings of policy implementation by explicating the role that districts play in the implementation of initiatives that require reaching beyond their traditional K-12 boundaries.

Author

• Abigail Stein, Northwestern University