Transitions and Alignment in Early Childhood Education

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Transitions and Alignment in Early Childhood
Education

• Wexford-Missaukee
• Early Childhood Leadership Network
• March 2008

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Strong Connections Between Home and School Can
Help Ease Children's Transition Into School
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What do we mean by transitions?

• It is a process of adapting to change

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When Children are prepared for making transitions
to a new program, they gain self confidence and
are more likely to succeed
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Definitions

• Transition The dictionary defines transitions as
  the process of changing from one form, state,
  activity, or place to another. Throughout our
  lives each of us go through many transitions.
  What we do as parents and professional educators
  of young children can make a tremendous
  difference in how these future adults will
  respond to the question of how they would rate
  their first school experiences.
• Think of transition as a process that
  occurs over time rather than a one time event.
  When transition is viewed as a process, this
  encourages thoughtful planning and collaboration
  between early childhood programs, elementary
  school programs, and other community
  agencies/organizations involved in childrens
  transitions to school.
• 2.Alignment - Focuses on the context and best
  practice in instruction
• 3. Transition and Continuity Focuses on the
  activities that support children and their
  families as the move from one setting to another.

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Definitions continued

• Two types of alignment are defined in this work
• Horizontal alignment Synchronization among
  standards, assessments, and curricula within a
  given age level.
• Vertical alignment Synchronization among
  standards, assessments, and curricula between
  given age levels (e.g., Early Childhood Program
  and Kindergarten)

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Overview

• Part I Review of Transition Work
• Its Importance
• Past Efforts to Address Transitions
• Transition components to consider
• Action Plan for Transitions
• Part II Alignment Work
• Background and Rationale
• Definitions
• Research Questions
• Results
• Implications and Recommendations

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Part I

• Review of Transitions Work

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Why is the Transition from Early Childhood
Programs to Kindergarten Important?

• The transition from a familiar home or
  Pre-Kindergarten environment to Kindergarten can
  be difficult as children must adjust to new
  rules, new friends, and new ways of learning.
• The increased academic accountability in
  Kindergarten programs puts new academic demands
  on children.
• There are high costs associated with not ensuring
  continuity which include poor performance in
  school, difficulty making friends, and other
  mental health and adjustment problems.

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Research

• Project Developmental Continuity (1974)
• Head Start Transition Project (1987)
• National Transition Study (1992)
• Chicago Longitudinal Study (1998)
• Abecedarian K-2 Transition (1999)

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What does all this tell us?

• Transitions are not very easy to implement.
• Transitions are not heavily present, despite
  numerous efforts.
• Great deal of emphasis in many efforts on the
  activities of transition, not the substance.
• When it works, it works WITH a quality
  preschool.
• Seems to be limited emphasis on
• Comprehensive programming
• Pedagogical alignment of standards, curriculum,
  and assessment

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Transition Components to plan for
Determine current program and service compared to
future program and service Curriculum Structure
or routines Behaviors Communications with
parents Communications with staff Parent
Involvement Transition activities
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Part II

• Alignment Work

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Overview of Part II
Background and Rationale Results Implications
and Recommendations
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Background and Rationale

• Context
• Focus on Early Childhood Education
• New focus on systems
• New focus on accountability
• Neglected focus on alignment
• Alignment is the essence of quality

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Background and Rationale

• Standards, curriculum, and assessment have been
  examined independent of one another
• Discussed in three very different bodies of
  literature, often by different scholars, with
  different degrees of attention (e.g., curriculum
  has received the lions share of attention over
  the years)
• Refocus on alignment, given the accountability
  movement.

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Background and Rationale

• Why Alignment is Crucial
• Without such alignment, it is impossible to
  gauge
• If that which we want young children to know and
  be able to do relates to what is being taught
  (the alignment of standards and curriculum).
• If that which is being assessed relates to either
  what children should know (the standards) or what
  is being taught (the curriculum).
• Without such an analysis of alignment,
  assessments remain inaccurate (not to mention
  costly) indicators of often irrelevant
  information.

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Preschool Alignment

• Head Start Transition Mandates see web site
  www.wmisd.org
• click Early Childhood
• MSRP (Michigan School Readiness Program)
  Transition Mandates see web site www.wmisd.org
• click Early Childhood

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Results

• There was a much stronger focus on developing
  the whole child (fostering cognitive, social,
  emotional, and physical growth) in the
  pre-kindergarten documents than the kindergarten
  documents.
• In general, there was tremendous emphasis on
  language and cognitive development and virtually
  no emphasis on physical and motor development in
  the kindergarten documents social and emotional
  development also received little attention.
• Greater horizontal alignment existed among the
  standards, curricula, and assessments within
  pre-kindergarten than kindergarten. In part, this
  seemed to be due to the fact that among the
  pre-kindergartens there was greater reliance on
  packaged curricula, which often were linked to
  assessments.

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Results

• Some, though far less, horizontal alignment
  existed at the kindergarten level. This occurred
  in communities that developed their own standards
  and curriculum.
• There was virtually no vertical alignment of
  pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs
  standards, curricula, or assessments.
• There is great ambiguity surrounding the
  definitional and operational differences between
  alignment (of standards, curriculum, and
  assessment) and transition/continuity activities.

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Implications and Recommendations

• Transition planning is complex!
• Transition includes alignment of every component
  of your Early Childhood Programs
• Transition includes partners such as parents,
  teachers, community, and local schools
• Consider developing an Action Plan specific to
  transition
• A template will be available through the Early
  Childhood Leadership Network by June of 2008

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Next steps for 2008-2009

• Early Childhood Leadership Network Transition
  subcommittee will develop the following forms
• Transition Action Plan Template
• Forms to support transition activities
• Procedures
• All resources will be placed on the
  www.wmisd.org Early Childhood website