Assessment – Curriculum | Teach 'Em the Way They Learn

The success of any school or program depends on continuing assessment of all of its aspects – not just child progress. To assure the high quality of education young children deserve, the curriculum, the staff, and the processes and procedures of the total program need to be evaluated by the current program staff and administration, local or state regulatory and licensing agencies and ideally, by a reputable accreditation organization.

The Curriculum – Any curriculum used and all learning experiences devised should be evaluated for quality, developmental appropriateness, practicality, and relevancy to the needs of the children in a program. Things to keep in mind when choosing a curriculum:

The quality of a curriculum should be judged on the expertise, educational and experiential background of its authors, on its comparison to high quality established curricula already in use, on the validity of its research, on its recommendation or approval by a reputable local, state, or national education accreditation agency or association, and on its appropriateness to the particular mission of the program.
Developmental appropriateness should be evaluated by the philosophy of the curriculum in relation to valid child development theories, standards and milestones.
Practicality can be determined by actual use of the curriculum and determination of its ease and efficiency in a program or in a classroom.
Whether a curriculum is relevant to a particular learning community can be assessed by having familiarity with the needs and aspects of the children and families in the program and making sure the curriculum matches in need, interests, ethnicities, language differences, and experiences.
A program can certainly use elements from a number of curricula, or can mandate that its teachers exclusively follow the tenets of a single curriculum.
In choosing a curriculum, administrators and teachers should also ask for parent input and advice.

So, How Do We Choose?? – surprised mary 2 Here is a brief comparison of some of the best Early Education Curricula in the business including Bank Street, Creative Curriculum, High Scope, Kamii-DeVries, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, and Winter Park (my own creation). The best programs and classrooms are ones in which teachers are allowed and encouraged to pick from each of these types of excellent, developmentally appropriate, child-centered, highly researched curricula, and use what is best in each for the children in her learning community.