Alignment is desirable, indeed critical, for
standards to be effective. Yet effective alignment
consists of more than simplifying for a younger
age group the standards appropriate for older
children. Rather than relying on such downward
mapping, developers of early learning standards
should base them on what we know from research
and practice about children from a variety of
backgrounds at a given stage/age and about the
processes, sequences, variations, and long-term
consequences of early learning and development.32
As for state-to-state alignment, the current situation
is chaotic. Although discussion about establishing
some kind of national standards framework
is gaining momentum, there is no common set of
standards at present. Consequently, publishers
competing in the marketplace try to develop curriculum
and textbooks that address the standards
of all the states. Then teachers feel compelled to
cover this large array of topics, teaching each only
briefly and often superficially. When such curriculum
and materials are in use, children move
through the grades encountering a given topic in
grade after grade—but only shallowly each time—
rather than getting depth and focus on a smaller
number of key learning goals and being able to
master these before moving on.33
Standards overload is overwhelming to teachers
and children alike and can lead to potentially
problematic teaching practices. At the preschool
and K–3 levels particularly, practices of concern
include excessive lecturing to the whole group,
fragmented teaching of discrete objectives, and
insistence that teachers follow rigid, tightly paced
schedules. There is also concern that schools are
curtailing valuable experiences such as problem
solving, rich play, collaboration with peers, opportunities
for emotional and social development,
outdoor/physical activity, and the arts. In the
high-pressure classroom, children are less likely
to develop a love of learning and a sense of their
own competence and ability to make choices, and
Copyright © 2009 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children
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they miss much of the joy and expansive learning
of childhood.34