Identifying the Infrastructure Needed to Support Early Learning Standards as a Driver of System Reform

• In Event: Systems Thinking From Different Vantage Points: PreK-12

Abstract

Early learning standards (ELS) are a policy strategy for increasing children’s learning, improving teachers’ practices, and increasing continuity across birth through third grade (B-3) systems. This paper addresses gaps in the literature by examining how one state’s ELS are contributing to B-3 system building and illuminating areas where infrastructure must be improved to better support B-3 reform efforts. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with 12 early childhood leaders, findings describe the mechanisms ELS use to improve continuity across programs for birth through age five and identify critical areas of early childhood system infrastructure (e.g., training, policy, addressing structural inequities) that are undermining efforts to increase B-3 continuity.

Author

• Kaitlin Northey, University of Vermont