Guidelines for Early Childhood Curriculum

The following Indicators of Effectiveness are also included in the position statement as guidelines for planning and implementing early childhood curriculum (adapted from the NAEYC and NAECS/SDE Position Statement, 2003):

1. Children are active and engaged. Children from babyhood through primary grades and beyond need to be cognitively, physically, socially, and artistically active. In their own ways, children of all ages and abilities can become interested and engaged, develop positive attitudes toward learning, and have their feelings of security, emotional competence, and connection to family and community supported.
2. Goals are clear and shared by all. Curriculum goals are clearly defined, shared, and understood by all stakeholders (for example, program administrators, teachers, and families). The curriculum and related activities and teaching strategies are designed to help achieve these goals in a unified, coherent way.
3. Curriculum is evidence-based. The curriculum is based on evidence that is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically relevant for the children who will experience it. It is organized around principles of child development and learning.
4. Valued content is learned through investigation, play, and focused, intentional teaching. Children learn by exploring, thinking about, and inquiring about all sorts of phenomena. These experiences help children investigate “big ideas,” those that are important at any age and are connected to later learning. Pedagogy or teaching strategies are tailored to children’s ages, developmental capacities, language and culture, and abilities or disabilities.
5. Curriculum builds on prior learning and experiences. The content and implementation of the curriculum builds on children’s prior individual, age-related, and cultural learning, includes children with disabilities, and supports background knowledge gained at home and in the community. The curriculum supports children whose home language is not English in building a solid base for later learning.
6. Curriculum is comprehensive. The curriculum encompasses critical areas of development, including children’s physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language development, cognition and general knowledge, and subject matter areas such as science, mathematics, language, literacy, social studies, and the arts (more fully and explicitly for older children).
7. Professional standards validate the curriculum’s subject matter content. When subject-specific curricula are adopted, they meet the standards of relevant professional organizations (for example, the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance [AAHPERD], the National Association for Music Education [MENC]; the National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE]; the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM]; the National Dance Education Organization [NDEO]; and the National Science Teachers Association [NSTA]) and are reviewed and implemented so that they fit together coherently.
8. The curriculum is likely to benefit children. Research and other evidence indicate that the curriculum, if implemented as intended, will likely have beneficial effects. These benefits include a wide range of outcomes. When evidence is not yet available, plans are developed to obtain this evidence.

As you consider the above curricular guidelines, it is important to keep in mind that the basis of all curriculum design is children and their right to grow in all domains with content that is socially relevant, intellectually engaging, and personally meaningful to them (Krogh & Slentz, 2001).