Governor’s Role in Aligning Early Education and K-12 Reforms

Posted by on October 22, 2012

Come together

As more and more states pursue reforms in both early childcare (ECE) and the K–12 education system, governors are uniquely placed to bring together state agencies to coordinate ECE and K–12 systems to better serve all children, starting at birth. A paper from the National Governors Association outlines steps governors can take to bring the two systems into alignment. Doing so requires leaders from both systems to analyze their respective goals, approaches, and reform strategies, identifying commonalities. Governors, their staff, and other state policy leaders must develop concrete actions to promote greater alignment of reforms in key areas. In particular, state policy leaders must redesign or create new governance structures that facilitate this alignment. Leaders should ensure that early-learning standards and early-elementary standards are in sync, and should develop aligned birth-to-grade 3 assessments to monitor student progress. Promising practices from early learning must be incorporated into accountability policies that apply to the early elementary grades, and leaders should revamp teacher/school-leader preparation and professional development to strengthen capacity of ECE teachers and leaders, aligning approaches to teaching and learning. Finally, policymakers must develop credential and certification policies for elementary teachers and principals that support both the Common Core State Standards and best practices in early education.

See the report: http://www.nga.org/cms/home/nga-center-for-best-practices/center-publications/page-edu-publications/col2-content/main-content-list/governors-role-in-aligning-early.html

Related: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/10/10/07obrien.h32.html