Standards-Based Practices

What's In This Kit?
This training kit helps teachers understand important skills that children must possess for success in school and in life. The Standards of Experience identified by Dr. Lilian Katz and the skills identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills should be an integral part of early childhood curriculum. The kit helps Learners to see the value of quality standards and better use them for program improvement.

This training kit contains the following components:

• Expected training outcomes and learning objectives
• Training research, models, benchmarks
• Preparation and implementation steps
• Handouts
• The article “Standards-Based Practices: Going Beyond Rote-and-Remember to Deepen Children’s Learning” by Edward Greene and Martha Abbott-Shim
• References and resources
• Training Certificate for Learner �" Certificate of Attendance and Participation

Who's the Target Audience?
The target audiences for this training kit are beginning, intermediate, and advanced Learners who are working with young children (2 through 5 years).

Teacher Skill Level

beginning intermediate advanced

Children's Age Level

infants toddlers preschoolers school-agers birth to 8

Kit Timeline:
Preparation time for this kit is estimated at 1.5 hours. Implementation and actual training time is 3.0 hours, which includes 1.5 hours of face-to-face training and 1.5 hours of independent study and an applied activity project. There is an optional bonus activity, which can add as much as 1.0 hour to the training time.

Training Outcomes:

By the end of this training, Learners will be able to:

• identify the purpose of standards at the national and state levels as a means of achieving meaningful learning.
• name, explain, and give examples of the 4 critical skills identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
• apply the distancing practices of Dr. Irving Siegel’s Four-Step Distancing process model.
• identify the limitations and disadvantages of “rote-and-remember” type activities.

These training outcomes address the following American Standards:

• National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria & Guidance for Assessment (2014). More information on NAEYC’s standards can be found at www.naeyc.org.

• 2.A. Curriculum: Essential Characteristics
• 2.A.10 The curriculum guides teachers to incorporate content, concepts, and activities that foster:
• a. social development.
• b. emotional development.
• c. physical development.
• d. language development.
• e. cognitive development.
• f. integrate key areas of content including literacy, mathematics, science, technology, creative expression and the arts, health and safety, and social studies.
• 2.D. Areas of Development: Language Development
• 2.D.03 Children have varied opportunities to develop competence in verbal and nonverbal communication by:
• a. responding to questions.
• b. communicating needs, thoughts, and experiences.
• c. describing things and events.
• 2.D.06 Children have varied opportunities and materials that encourage them to have discussions to solve problems that are:
• a. interpersonal.
• b. related to the physical world.

Note: Downloadable PDFs are only available for download in pdf format. Directions for downloading follow immediately after purchase.