Pulling PreK into a K-12 Orbit: The Evolution of PreK in the Age of Standards

We might call this decade the era of early childhood. In the US, federal and state governments invest in the creation of public pre-kindergarten (preK) programs and create standards that articulate goals for practice and benchmarks that can be used to evaluate success. How have these trends provided...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Early years (London, England) England), 2017-01, Vol.37 (1), p.108-122
Main Authors: Graue, M. Elizabeth, Ryan, Sharon, Nocera, Amato, Northey, Kaitlin, Wilinski, Bethany
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Case Studies
Comparative Analysis
Developmentally Appropriate Practices
Elementary Secondary Education
Interviews
Preschool Education
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We might call this decade the era of early childhood. In the US, federal and state governments invest in the creation of public pre-kindergarten (preK) programs and create standards that articulate goals for practice and benchmarks that can be used to evaluate success. How have these trends provided a context for the evolution of preK curriculum? In this paper, we analyze the enactment of preK policy in New Jersey, a highly regulated preK program and Wisconsin, a local control state. We argue that standards-based practice is evolving into accountability in public preK programs, where outcomes set parameters for planning and teachers and children are increasingly regulated. As preK is more closely affiliated with the K-12 sector (elementary and secondary), preK programs are subject to the logic of alignment, benchmarks and assessments. Even when early learning standards support child-centered approaches to curriculum they are overruled by accountability discourse.
ISSN:0957-5146
1472-4421
DOI:10.1080/09575146.2016.1220925