Implementing a High-Quality Early Learning Curriculum: Lessons from Maine
High-quality, coherent early learning experiences are foundational to children's optimal learning and development. Yet, in the U.S., even as preschool availability has increased, many children lack access to high-quality learning experiences.
Key findings
- Leverage state and local readiness for change.
- Adapting curricula to the local context can strengthen implementation.
- Piloting a curriculum first can provide useful feedback before a broader rollout.
- An opt-in, incremental approach can facilitate buy-in and reduce overwhelm.
- Flexible approaches can result in uneven implementation.
- Provide ongoing professional development, prioritize teacher collaboration, and support administrators to facilitate and sustain implementation.
- Plan for common challenges, such as variability in teacher needs, logistical challenges, and insufficient professional development support.
- Anticipate the need for long-term systems support and adaptation.
High-quality, coherent early learning experiences are foundational to children's optimal learning and development. Yet, in the U.S., even as preschool availability has increased, many children lack access to high-quality learning experiences. Further, children's Kindergarten through 2nd grade experiences are rarely designed to build on their Pre-K experiences, despite evidence supporting the benefits of curricular alignment across Pre-K through 2nd grade. In particular, Kindergarten to 2nd grade classrooms too often fail to support how young children learn best through playful, intentional activities.
Some newer research-based, aligned P-2 curricula aim to turn this tide. These curricula follow a scope and sequence; incorporate playful learning; emphasize a balance of whole-group instruction, center-based activities, and small group instruction; encourage child agency; and follow a central question or theme across classroom activities. Despite their promise, these curricula are not yet widely used.
In our view, the limited scale-up of research based, aligned P-2 curricula is partially due to a lack of research on how these curricula can be implemented at large scale. To help fill this gap, our team, with support from the Gates Foundation, is releasing a series of briefs focused on the experiences of localities that have implemented evidence-based P-2 curricula. In this brief, we summarize Maine's implementation story in scaling up a new curriculum, For ME, in P-2 classrooms.
Drawing on classroom observations and interviews with state and local practitioners, we describe lessons learned in Maine. In doing so, we aim to support other localities considering a pivot to better match leading guidance in the field.
