Ford School professor Christina Weiland coauthored an opinion piece with Deborah Phillips for The Hechinger Report about how the preschool curriculum has been underdeveloped and overlooked. Weiland wrote that there is a long overdue movement in states and districts across the country to update K-3 reading and math curricula," however, "this movement has a big blind spot: preschool."
"Most public preschool programs succeed in offering children well-organized classrooms in which they feel safe to learn and explore," wrote Weiland. "But they fall short in building the critical early learning skills on which a child’s future literacy and math skills depend."
"The seeds of the large, consequential learning gap between children from higher-income and lower-income families in language, literacy, and math skills in middle and high school are already planted by the first day of kindergarten," Weiland wrote. "Strong preschool experiences matter," Weiland wrote.
"As with all education, some programs are more effective than others, and curriculum is a key active ingredient." Weiland pointed out, "Most preschool programs rely on curricula that do not match the current science of early learning." However, "The good news is that we don’t have to start from scratch" because "we have ample research that points to what makes a preschool curriculum effective."
Weiland suggested three changes to update and reform the curriculum. First, "Public preschool programs need to update their lists of approved curricula, based on evidence, to clearly identify those that improve young children’s learning and development," that way schools can know what curriculum they need to adopt. "Second, because the most effective preschool curricula tend to target only one or two learning areas, programs need to combine curricula to cover all vital areas." And lastly, "Linking curricula to teacher professional development and coaching is required for effective implementation."
Weiland concluded, "We can’t stop with these three changes." Continued reforms and changes will need to be made they said. Weiland also noted that "None of these changes will solve the problem of the inadequate funding that affects many preschool programs and fuels high teacher turnover. But they can provide teachers with the best tools to support learning."
Read the full opinion piece here.
