The standards/accountability movement has led
to states and other stakeholders spelling out what
children should know and be able to do at various
grade levels. Swift improvement in student
achievement across all student subgroups has
been demanded. Under that mandate, many policy
makers and administrators understandably gravitate
toward tools and strategies intended to expedite
the education enterprise, including “teacher
proofing” curriculum, lessons, and schedules. As
a result, in some states and districts, teachers in
publicly funded early childhood settings report
that they are allowed far less scope in classroom
decision making than they were in the past,36 in
some cases getting little to no say in the selection
of curriculum and assessments or even in their use
of classroom time