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Charles Bruner State Early Childhood Policy Technical Assistance Network October 14, 2004

NCSL Web-Assisted Audio Conference Considering Social and Emotional Development in an Era of Accountability. Charles Bruner State Early Childhood Policy Technical Assistance Network October 14, 2004. Social/Emotional vs. Cognitive Development. Not Either/Or but Both/And

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Charles Bruner State Early Childhood Policy Technical Assistance Network October 14, 2004

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  1. NCSL Web-Assisted Audio ConferenceConsidering Social and Emotional Development in an Era of Accountability Charles Bruner State Early Childhood Policy Technical Assistance Network October 14, 2004

  2. Social/Emotionalvs. Cognitive Development • Not Either/Or but Both/And • Not Fuzzy and Unmeasurable, but Part of Accountability/Continuous Improvement System

  3. Beyond the Fuzzy/Academic Language Language and Literacy/Cognition • Knowing a lot of words • Talking in sentences • Knowing sounds • Learning alphabet and numbers Social and Emotional/Approaches to Learning • Paying attention to teacher • Working together in groups • Not getting too frustrated doing new tasks

  4. Seven Things Legislators Need to Know About School Readiness 1. The Earliest Years Count (learning begins at birth). 2. Nurture (as well as nature) Matters. 3. School Readiness is Multidimensional (school readiness is more than just what children know). 4. School Unreadiness Costs (it’s expensive). 5. Parents Work. 6. Quality Matters. 7. Investments Pay Off.

  5. Physical/Social and Emotional/Cognitive Interact and Reinforce all kindergartners (3,863,000) and kindergartners lagging behind in one or more areas Social and Emotional (1,193,000) Health (1,205,000) 598,000 294,000 511,000 192,000 120,000 Cognitive (753,000) 195,000 246,000 Source: Child Trends analysis of ECLS-K, base year public-use data for 1998-1999

  6. Teachers/Employers Value Social and Emotional Skills • Surveys of early elementary teachers rate social and emotional developmental challenges as biggest barriers to teaching • Employers consistently state that approaches to learning/”soft skills” (social and emotional factors) more important than content knowledge for most jobs

  7. Measurement of“What Children Know and Can Do”at Kindergarten Entry • Important to answer legislative questions of: “Where are we now?”, “Are we making progress?”, and “Is what we are doing making a difference?” • Paper and pencil tests don’t work to fairly measure very young children, even on content knowledge • Requires observational, natural setting models to cover five dimensions and shouldn’t be used to “judge” individual child • States have developed tools for measuring all five dimensions of school readiness on a statewide basis for benchmarking purposes (Maryland, Vermont, Minnesota, Missouri) • Also possible to develop more narrow measures that focus on vocabulary and pre-literacy alone (Utah)

  8. One Person’s Outcomeis Another Person’s Input – The Need for Kindergarten Assessment • Kindergarten assessment important input for No Child Left Behind 3rd grade testing • Kindergarten assessment essential outcome for early childhood strategies • Politics to date suggest that proactive approach that includes social and emotional with language and cognitive elements is accepted, but that resistance to any measurement can result in imposition of narrow measure

  9. State Early Childhood PolicyTechnical Assistance Network c/o Child and Family Policy Center 1021 Fleming Building 218 Sixth Avenue Des Moines, Iowa 50309-4006 515.280.9027 www.finebynine.org

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