RI EARLY LEARNING & DEVELOPMENTSTANDARDS

1 RI EARLY LEARNING & DEVELOPMENTSTANDARDSTHESE EARLY LEARNING STANDARDS ARTICULATE SHARED EXPECTATIONS FOR WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN SHOULD KNOW AND BE ABLE TO DO. FURTHER, THEY PROVIDE A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR MEASURING PROGRESS TOWARD ACHIEVING SPECIFIC LEARNING GOALS. (Kendall, 2003; Kagan & Scott-Little, 2004)RI EARLY LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS1 INTRODUCTIONA cknowledgements ..2 Rationale ..3 Intended Use ..3 History ..4 Guiding Principles ..5 Essential Practices ..6 Organization of The Standards ..8 Outline of The Standards.

2 10 EARLY LEARNING and Development ..69 Physical Health and Motor Development ..12 Social and Emotional Language Literacy ..34 Cognitive Development ..43 Mathematics ..48 Science ..54 Social Studies ..58 Creative Arts ..61 TABLE OF CONTENTSRI EARLY LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS2 INTRODUCTIONThe Rhode Island Board of Education adopted the Rhode Island EARLY Childhood LEARNING and Development Standards on May 23, 2013. The Race to the Top EARLY LEARNING Challenge grant provided funds for the revision and expansion of the state s EARLY LEARNING and development the Course for Success: Rhode Island s EARLY Childhood LEARNING and Development Standards were made possible by many dedicated individuals giving countless hours to the project.

3 We are grateful for the multitude of EARLY childhood stakeholders: The RI EARLY LEARNING Council (ELC), ELC EARLY LEARNING and Development Standards Subcommittee, family child care providers, child care administrators and teachers, Head Start, providers participating in BrightStars, RIDE Pre K, public school, and special education programs and parents who provided input and made recommendations that enriched the level of content and quality of the standards. Rhonda Farrell of the Rhode Island Head Start Association, and Colleen Dorian of Family Child Care Homes of Rhode Island deserve special recognition for arranging the many public feedback sessions.

4 Special thanks to Leslie Gell from Ready to Learn Providence and Simmy Carter and Bryna Hebert of the Providence Center for ensuring the voice of the Spanish speaking EARLY childhood community was incorporated into these must also recognize those who were instrumental in drafting multiple versions of the EARLY LEARNING and development standards:ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe Core Team: Kristen Greene Rhode Island Department of EducationMichele Palermo Rhode Island Department of EducationSusan Dickstein, PhD Bradley Hospital EARLY Childhood Center/Brown Medical SchoolRhode Island Association for Infant Mental HealthRuth Gallucci Rhode Island Department of EducationBrenda Duhamel Rhode Island, Office of Health and Human ServicesSara Mickelson Rhode Island Department of EducationJudi Stevenson-Garcia Rhode Island Department of EducationConsultants and National Experts.

5 Clancy Blair Professor of Applied Psychology, New York UniversityDouglas H. Clements Kennedy Endowed Chair in EARLY Childhood LEARNING and Professor, University of DenverLinda Espinosa Professor of EARLY Childhood Education (Ret.) University of Missouri, ColombiaKathleen Hebbeler Manager of the Community Services and Strategies Program, SRI InternationalLinda Kimura Director, Babies Can t WaitJeffrey Capizzano Policy Equity GroupCatherine Scott-Little Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, University of North CarolinaDorothy Strickland Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor of Education Emerita, Rutgers, The State University of NJKaren Anderson Education Development Center, IncJackie Bourassa Education Development Center.

6 IncOr scan this code with your device for our mobile-friendly version. Visit EARLY LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS3 INTRODUCTIONFrom birth, children are curious and motivated to learn. As they grow and learn, their brains change dramatically, especially during the first three years of life. These changes are influenced by genetics and environmental experiences (including relationships and physical conditions) as children develop in realms of thinking, speaking, behaving, and reasoning. (Kupcha-Szrom, 2011; Center on the Developing Child, 2012) By interacting with their world, young children make discoveries, figure out how things work, try out new behaviors, learn social rules, and solve problems.

7 High-quality EARLY LEARNING and relationships enhance their development in every way: social, cognitive, linguistic, artistic, and physical. When they actively explore environments and materials, children build concept knowledge and thinking skills. When they are able to develop nurturing and supportive relationships with caregivers (their parent or other primary caregiver, adult family members, and other familiar adults), childcare providers, and teachers,* they are also laying a solid foundation for LEARNING .

8 (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2004) EARLY development across all domains secures this foundation for a child s later success in school and in life. (Maine Department of Education, 2005) EARLY LEARNING standards articulate shared expectations for what young children should know and be able to do. Further, they provide a common language for measuring progress toward achieving specific LEARNING goals. (Kendall, 2003; Kagan & Scott-Little, 2004) Charting a Course for Success in the Ocean State: Rhode Island s EARLY LEARNING and Development Standards (hereafter, The Standards) outlines EARLY LEARNING expectations at key benchmarks, from birth to 60 months of presented in a stand-alone document, these standards should not be considered in isolation.

9 They comprise one key element of the state s EARLY LEARNING system has and have been strategically designed to work in conjunction with other parts of the system assessment, curriculum, professional development, program standards, and workforce competencies. The Standards are designed to promote high-quality care and education for the state s youngest children, including those at risk for entering kindergarten without adequate foundations for success. In this way, the document serves as a valuable resource to the entire EARLY care and education community.

10 * A child s teacher is anyone invested and involved in the child s LEARNING : parents, caregivers, therapists, and doctors, as well as preschool and school teachers** A child s primary caregiver may be a parent but also may be a relative or someone outside the biological family. For purposes of simplicity, this document uses the word family to mean that person (or persons) who has assumed the primary responsibility of caring for and raising a USEE arly LEARNING is the foundation of Rhode Island s entire educational system.