Transcript NCSL Tele-Conference Social and Emotional Development

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
• Not Fuzzy and Unmeasurable, but Part of
Accountability/Continuous Improvement
System
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
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.
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)
598,000
Health
(1,205,000)
294,000
511,000
192,000
120,000
195,000
246,000
Cognitive
(753,000)
Source: Child Trends analysis of
ECLS-K, base year public-use data
for 1998-1999
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
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)
One Person’s Outcome
is 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
State Early Childhood Policy
Technical 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