What Guides PreK Programs?

Autor/inn/en	Graue, Elizabeth; Ryan, Sharon; Wilinski, Bethany; Northey, Kaitlin; Nocera, Amato
Titel	What Guides PreK Programs?
Quelle	In: Teachers College Record, 120 (2018) 8Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0161-4681
Schlagwörter	Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education; Federal Programs; Academic Standards; Developmentally Appropriate Practices; Child Care; Comparative Analysis; Case Studies; Interviews; Observation; Educational Policy; Predictor Variables; Educational Practices; Program Implementation; New Jersey; Wisconsin + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Pre-school education; Vorschulerziehung; Entwicklungsbezogene Bildung; Kinderfürsorge; Kinderbetreuung; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Beobachtung; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Prädiktor; Bildungspraxis
Abstract	Background/Context: Early childhood education joined the standards movement in 2002 with the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative (Brown, 2007), with advocates arguing that standards were a tool for creating more continuity and coherence in PreK systems (Bowman, 2006; Kagan 2012). Critics posed concerns about a perceived poor fit between standards-based and developmentally appropriate practices, pointing to standardization and pressure from the K-12 system (Brown, 2009; Goldstein, 2007). With growth in public PreK programs guided by state early learning standards, we set out to understand what guides PreK programs. Setting: We sampled two states with mature PreK programs: New Jersey (NJ), a targeted, highly regulated full-day program for 3- and 4-year-olds and Wisconsin (WI), a universal, local control half-day program for 4-year-olds. Both programs implement PreK programs in schools, Head Start, and child care classrooms. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of the project was to compare the role of standards in PreK programs in NJ and WI, analyzing standards conceptualization and enactment by district administrators and teachers. Research Design: We designed a multi-state, comparative case study including interviews with state actors who identified rural, midsize, and urban districts for fieldwork, weekly observations of PreK classrooms in elementary schools, Head Start, and childcare centers and interviews with the teachers in these sites. Conclusions: Policy and standards alone were not very good predictors of the PreK programs' enacted practices. The logic of practice embedded in standards evolved through policy enactment in the local context, through the work of actors, like local child care advocates, the administrative designs of district leaders, and the policies of the adjacent K-12 system. The nonlinear implementation of early learning standards in this study shows the importance of looking beyond policy inputs and child outcomes and the need to include the administrative and instructional practices between if we are to understand how to best support young learners and their teachers. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Teachers College, Columbia University. P.O. Box 103, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 212-678-3774; Fax: 212-678-6619; e-mail: tcr@tc.edu; Web site: http://www.tcrecord.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01