Governors Role in Aligning Early Education and K-12 Reforms
The National Governors Association has published a new white paper titled, Governors Role in Aligning Early Education and K-12 Reforms: Challenges, Opportunities, and Benefits for Children. The paper calls on Governors to bring state agencies together and develop coordinated strategies to better serve all children, starting at birth. Recommendations include:
- Leadership and Governance—Redesign or create new governance structures that facilitate alignment of ECE and early elementary policies and practices.
- Learning Standards—Ensure early learning standards and early elementary standards are aligned with each other.
- Child Assessments—Develop aligned birth-to-grade 3 assessments that help monitor children’s progress toward the academic and developmental goals that are reflected in states’ early learning standards and the CCSS.
- Accountability—Incorporate promising practices from early learning into accountability policies that apply to the early elementary grades.
- Teacher/Leader Preparation and Professional Development
- Strengthen the capacity of ECE teachers/leaders to prepare children for the CCSS.
- Help ECE and K–3 teachers align their approaches to teaching and learning.
- Develop credential and certification policies for elementary teachers and principals that support both the CCSS and best practices in early education.
- Resource Allocation and Reallocation—Realign resources to support access to high-quality ECE programs.
