Human Services News

National Center for Children in Poverty:

This brief provides a blueprint for state and local policymakers, early learning administrators, teachers, families, community leaders, and researchers to use effective preschool curricula and teaching strategies to help low-income young children close the achievement gap in early literacy and math to be ready for kindergarten like their more affluent peers.

It is part of a series of publications from the Pathways to Early School Success project of NCCP that addresses the question: "What will it take to ensure that young low-income children succeed in the early school years?"

Other issue briefs in the Pathways project have focused on the importance of strategies to promote social and emotional competence in infants, toddlers and preschoolers: Helping the Most Vulnerable Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families, and Resources to Promote Social and Emotional Health and School Readiness in Young Children and Families---A Community Guide.

For low-income preschoolers, increasing early literacy and math skills is vital to closing the achievement gap between them and their more advantaged peers.

New research shows that an intentional curriculum and professional development and supports for teachers are important components of effective preschool classrooms and programs.

A special focus on these strategies is important because many low-income children in early learning settings fall behind early and remain very much behind their peers in reading and math.

The key aspects of an effective intentional curriculum (see box) are consistent with a joint position statement on curricula issued by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association of State Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education.

An intentional curriculum is directive without using drill and kill strategies; it is fun for young children and promotes positive peer and teacher interactions.