School-Wide Programs Solutions

Strengthening the Pre-K–3 Continuum

There is no longer any doubt about the efficacy and long-term impact of quality early childhood programs on the social, emotional, and academic lives of the participating children. Economists, business leaders, social scientists, child development specialists, and educators have joined in a demand for more—and better—preschool opportunities. Research is showing that aligning Pre-K-3 curriculum, instruction, and assessment with the state can increase achievement and student well-being across all the elementary grades and, with Pre-K-12 alignments, has the potential to impact secondary and post high school achievement as well. Early investment in strong, standards-focused approaches will clearly yield better outcomes.

Building the base for improved achievement and well-being is an appropriate program for a school-wide project. It will, however, require:

• A high-quality, literacy-based, and standards-focused Pre-K curriculum
• Alignment of Pre-K-3 standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessments
• Professional development that focuses on content and child development
• Leadership and support for the initiative

The solution strategies offered are shaped by ongoing face-to-face and online professional learning, supported and enhanced by focused coaching, and monitored and measured by ongoing classroom walkthroughs and formative assessments.

Implement a High-Quality Pre-K Curriculum: Regardless of the specific curriculum selected, all high-quality preschool curricula is literacy based, promotes active learning, reflects the standards, and focuses on fostering the academic, social, emotional, and physical development of the children. Once the curriculum is selected, Teachscape consultants will work closely with the teachers to provide professional learning and coaching focused on the critical aspects of all preschool curricula—those shown to most closely align with success in school.

• Offer face-to-face and online professional learning and access to Internet-based multimedia resources that promote a focus on phonemic awareness, read alouds, alphabet knowledge, early math, and on designing the classroom environment, including the rules and routines that will impact classroom-based interactions. The professional learning will be built around eCIRCLE learning resources, proven effective through three years of rigorous, scientific study of student knowledge and skills.
• Provide coherent and standards-focused coaching to enable Pre-K teachers to implement their curriculum effectively, incorporate research-based instructional practices, ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness, and assess child development through district/state guidelines.

Align Pre-K-3 Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment with the Standards: Typically, preschool and elementary school teachers work in isolation from each other. Expectation, schedules, class sizes, and classroom structures often differ, leading to lack of understanding among the adults and difficult transitions for the children. To ensure the potential benefits of the Pre-K-3 continuum, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and standards must be aligned vertically and address social-emotional skills, including self-regulation, as well as academic content knowledge and skills. To enable this, Teachscape consultant will:

• Promote Pre-K-3 coherence by aligning standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Teachscape consultants will convene Pre-K-3 teachers and guide them through the process of analyzing, unpacking, and vertically aligning Pre-K-3 standards with core curriculum, instructional approaches, and assessments in critical content areas.
• Develop and support a Pre-K-3 community built on common expectations, understandings, and goals. As part of the alignments process, Teachscape consultants will help the teachers identify challenging content at each grade level and begin the process of focusing on these areas in earlier grades.

Provide Professional Learning Focused on Standards-Based Outcomes: Ensuring that the alignment of standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessments translates into practice requires coherent and focused professional learning. Teachscape coaches will use face-to-face and online sessions to develop a common base of knowledge and skills about teaching and learning in Pre-K-3 and at-elbow coaching to help the teachers apply the knowledge and skills to their classroom practice. The focus of their work will include:

• Building a continuum of mathematics and literacy skills by focusing on common key areas, such as the Big Ideas in mathematics, using read alouds to promote comprehension and language development, developing phonemic awareness and phonetic skills, increasing fluency, and deepening student understanding of text. Teachscape online resources will inform the professional learning in this area.
• Supporting students who are culturally and linguistically diverse by developing an understanding of ELLs and the strategies, practices, and structures that promote the development of their academic knowledge and English language skills. Teachscape learning resources will guide deep understanding of effective ways to help children develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
• Promoting high achievement through research-based practices that can be applied to all content areas. Teachscape consultants will use the suite of online resources to help the teachers develop a range of age and developmentally appropriate instructional strategies that are research based and proven effective.
• Using data to inform practice and monitor achievement. Teachscape consultants will help the teachers build their capacity to use data to monitor student learning and inform aligned instructional practices. Data will be collected, analyzed, and applied to promote improved student achievement in literacy and mathematics, reflecting processes presented through Teachscape online resources.

Promote Powerful Leadership: Developing and sustaining a powerful Pre-K-3 continuum must be promoted and supported by the school leaders to ensure a common vision and the development of a community of professionals focused on the development of young children. In many schools, however, the principals are not comfortable with Pre-K or primary grade curriculum, classroom management practices, or assessment procedures. Teachscape consultants will help address this by:

• Enabling school leaders to recognize and understand effective early childhood teaching practices through studies of best-practice videos, reviewing pertinent research, and understanding the research base of the practices through commentaries by experts. In addition to the face-to-face and online sessions, leaders will have access to the online resources for independent study or use with individual or groups of teachers.
• Providing tools and processes to guide walkthroughs of early childhood classrooms and capture data on classroom practices. The coaches will help the leaders analyze and apply these data to improve programs, strengthen the Pre-K-3 alignment, and ensure sustainability.
• Ensuring school leaders can ease the transition between Pre-K and the elementary grades for children, their parents, and the faculty. Through the professional learning sessions, coaches will work closely with the leaders to help them deepen their knowledge of Pre-K-3 curriculum and instruction and ensure that the vertical alignment supports a continuum of effective teaching and learning.

The unified, vertically aligned and coherent approach to developing, supporting, and sustaining a Pre-K-3 continuum sets a strong foundation for success in the early childhood years and beyond. It is a very effective way to use Title I school-wide funds for a high-impact and sustainable program.