InfoGuides: Hye Jung's Playground: Find Education Standards, Policy, Legislation

Early Childhood Education Standards

The purpose of this box is to connect you to early childhood education standards in the U.S. and international including those for

Virginia
Maryland
Washington, D.C.
National
International

Virginia's Foundation Blocks for Early Learning: Comprehensive Standards for Four-Year-Olds
This document describes specific learning and development standards for four-year-olds in the areas of reading, mathematics, science, history and social science, health and physical development, personal and social development, music and visual arts.
Virginia Early Childhood Inclusion Guidance Document
This guidance document is designed to assist Virginia’s school divisions and early childhood communities in identifying, developing and sustaining inclusive opportunities within high-quality, early childhood programs for children with disabilities
Virginia’s Unified Early Learning and Development Standards for All Children Ages Birth–5
This document is designed for adults who teach and care for young children in a variety of settings including home-based child care, center-based child care, Head Start classrooms, early intervention programs, private preschools, public early childhood programs, and Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) classes.

Early Childhood Initiatives
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has established a number of early childhood initiatives promoting best practices in early pedagogy in support of Maryland school reform efforts. Includes Maryland Model for School Readiness, Standard and Instruction Toolkit, Common Core Standards.
Early Intervention and Special Education Services
The MSDE, Division of Early Intervention/Special Education Services has established partnerships to support the mission of access, equity, and progress for students with disabilities across a continuum of services and programs, with a focus to elevate performance and narrow the existing achievement gap.
Maryland Early Learning Framework
Provides common goals for how parents, teachers, and early childhood education providers can support young children's learning.
Maryland Early Learning Standards
The early learning standards define the key aspects of development and learning that are the foundation for a child’s school and life-long success. While the progress of children toward the standards will vary depending on a number of factors, the standards act as a guide for educational and programmatic decisions by child care providers, PRE-K-Grade 2 teachers, and public school administrators.

District of Columbia Early Learning Standards (DC ELS)
The District of Columbia Early Learning Standards include indicators for infants, toddlers, two-year-olds and preschoolers, as well as exit expectations for children leaving pre-K and kindergarten. These standards provide parents and teachers with information about expectations for what children know and be able to do and describe how children progress at various ages and development levels. They focus on the whole child and include a broad range of domains because young children’s learning and development are interrelated and cross all areas of learning.
Kindergarten Readiness Standards.
The standards or learning criteria are organized into several domains. For children ages three to five, the categories are: Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development including Health and Safety, Language and Literacy, Mathematical Thinking, Scientific Inquiry, Social Studies, and Creative Arts.
The Common Core Aligned Early Learning Standards
The Early Learning Standards include alignment with the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics (2010) as well as the Next Generation Science Standards (2013). The standards are also aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five (2015), thus ensuring that all children receive the same standards-based instruction and appropriate learning experiences regardless of program auspices.
PreKindergarten Standards and Learning Activites
Addresses the following ECE strands: language development,beginning reading, informational text, literary text, research, writing, and English language conventions

The 10 NAYEC Program Standards
NAEYC has set 10 standards for early childhood programs that can help families make the right choice when they are looking for a child care center, preschool, or kindergarten. The standards and criteria are also the foundation of the NAEYC Accreditation system for early childhood programs. To earn accreditation, programs must meet all 10 standards.
Children NOW
Children Now takes a whole-child approach, covering the full-range of key children’s issues, from prenatal through age 26, including early childhood development, education, children’s health, childhood trauma and resilience, foster care, and youth justice.
Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices
The DEC Recommended Practices were developed to provide guidance to practitioners and families about the most effective ways to improve the learning outcomes and promote the development of young children, birth through age 5, who have or are at-risk for developmental delays or disabilities. The purpose is to help bridge the gap between research and practice by highlighting those practices that have been shown to result in better outcomes for young children with disabilities, their families, and the personnel who serve them.
Head Start Program Performance Standards
Contains program performance standards Parts 1301-1305 dealing with governance, operations, financial and administrative requirement, federal administrative procedures and definitions.
Initial Practice-Based Standards for Early Interventionists/Early Childhood Special Educators
Represent the first standards to focus specifically on the preparation of professionals who work with young children ages birth through 8 who have or are at-risk for developmental delays and disabilities and their families, across home, classroom and community settings.
NAEYC Early Learning Program Standards
Designed to help educators and administrators think through options, opportunities, & trade-offs as you support children and families
National Pre-K and Early Learning Evaluation Center
The National Pre-K and Early Learning Evaluation Center provides: 1) Assistance with designing and implementing pre-k and early learning programs; 2) Evaluation services for states and federally funded pre-k and early learning programs; 3) Dissemination of evaluation findings to policymakers and other stakeholder groups
Standards for AMI Montessori Classrooms
Established by the AMI Scientific Pedagogy Group, the standards insure that each school offers programs for their children that allow for their full intellectual, social, and psychological growth and that the approach is consistent with what is presented in AMI training courses worldwide.

Association for Childhood Education International
ACEI shares new approaches to the education of children and ensuring that these approaches are delivered in ways that enhance children's individual skills and abilities and provide opportunities for success in life.
Early Childhood Policies & Systems in Eight Countries
This study gives an overview of the current status of ECE in Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Oland, the Russian Federation and the U.S. This initial analysis enables in-depth comparison of policy provision within the different countries, with the goal of learning from the range of approaches to implementation adopted.
Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) and School Readiness
UNICEF, its national counter-parts and other partner organizations identified the need to clarify expectations of children’s development and achievement, and indicators against which such development would be measured.

FindPolicy.org This link opens in a new window
Search across leading think tanks in a policy area. Search engines within FindPolicy include: Climate, Economy, Development, Foreign Policy, and general Public Policy. There are also country-level and regional searches.
Left Index This link opens in a new window
A complete guide to the diverse literature of the left, with an emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. A secondary emphasis is on significant but little known sources of news and ideas. Covers topics such as politics, economics, the labor movement, ecology and environment, women's studies, race and ethnicity, social and cultural theory, sociology, art and aesthetics, philosophy, history, education, law, and globalization.
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic index of research, policy and scholarly discourse on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. Coverage spans from 1900 and earlier to the present.
Policy File Index This link opens in a new window
Access domestic and foreign public policy research and analytical papers on governmental and legal topics, representing the work of think tanks, research groups, and academic institutes from 1990 to present.
Public Administration Abstracts This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes bibliographic records covering areas related to public administration, including public administration theory, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Covers the core disciplines in women’s studies and feminist research, largely from 1972-present (some earlier material included). Includes sociology, history, political science & economy, public policy, arts & humanities, international relations and education. Contains over 2,000 periodicals, and other sources such as newspapers, newsletters, books, book chapters, proceedings, theses, dissertations, NGO studies and other grey literature.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Image-based legal research database includes such collections as: Legal Classics, Law Journal Library, U.S. Supreme Court Library, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, Treaties and Agreements Library and more. Bridges the gap in legal history by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of law and law-related periodicals.
Legal Collection This link opens in a new window
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Includes scholarly publications of law journals, documents, and case studies, including over 250 full-text journals. Provides information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, and ethics. Indexing and abstracts are provided for all journals in the collection.
Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
A Federal legislative history service that makes available researched compilations of digital full text publications created by Congress during the process leading up to the enactment of U.S. Public Laws.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Formerly LexisNexis Academic. Provides access to a wide range of news (includes New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times), business (company news, industry forecasts), government (legislative news, tax information), legal (news, case law) and reference information.
Virginia Legislature This link opens in a new window
Covers the Virginia General Assembly legislative sessions from 1994 onward. Provides the full-text of Bills and Resolutions, the code of Virginia, and the Administrative Code.

Child & Family Social Work

Provides a forum where researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, and managers in the field exchange knowledge, increase understanding, and develop notions of good practice.
From 1996 to present
Children & Society: The International Journal of Childhood & Children's Services

Embraces academic research, policy, and practice in relation to the health, education, and welfare of children from infancy through to adulthood.
From 1996 to present
Education Finance and Policy
Topics explored in the journal include: school accountability; school choice; education standards; equity and adequacy in school finance; within- and across-school and district resource allocation; teacher compensation; training and labor markets; instructional policy; higher education productivity and finance; and special education.
from Winter 2006 to present
Education Policy Analysis Archives

Publishes issues comprised of empirical articles, commentaries, and special issues at roughly weekly intervals, all of which pertain to educational policy, with direct implications for educational policy.
from 1993 to present
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
Publishes rigorous, policy-relevant research of interest to those engaged in educational policy analysis, evaluation, and decision making. Coverage from 1979 to the present
Educational Policy
Educational Policy blends the best of educational research with the world of practice, making it a valuable resource for educators, policy makers, administrators, researcher, teachers, and graduate students.
from 03/01/1987 to present
International Journal of Child Care & Education Policy

This journal disseminates research and analysis regarding major issues of child care and education policy relating to young children and their families to a broad international readership, including policymakers, researchers, and practitioners.
From 2014 to present
International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership
Dedicated to enriching the education policy, leadership, and research use knowledge bases, and promoting exploration and analysis of policy alternatives.
2006 to present
Journal of Education Policy
Publishes original, critically and theoretically informed research that discusses, analyses and debates policymaking, policy implementation and the impact of policy at all levels and in all facets of formal and informal education.from 01/01/1997 to present
Journal of Law and Education

Devoted exclusively to school law, with emphasis on critical current & emerging issues, serving both the legal & educational professions.
from 01/01/2005 to the present
Leadership and Policy in Schools

Aims to provide a high-quality forum for educational researchers, practitioners and policymakers to publish analyses and research about how school leaders and educational policies utilize fiscal, material, and human resources to bring about change in education and effectiveness in schools.
from 2002 to present

Legislation & Policy

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) This link opens in a new window
Provides a wide range of scholarship in international affairs from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, conference proceedings, books, journals, and policy briefs. Also includes teaching materials such as case studies and course packs of background readings. Contains links to international affairs centers, institutes, and other resources; U.S., international, and foreign government sites; environmental studies web pages; and news media services. All sections updated monthly.
Left Index This link opens in a new window
A complete guide to the diverse literature of the left, with an emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. A secondary emphasis is on significant but little known sources of news and ideas. Covers topics such as politics, economics, the labor movement, ecology and environment, women's studies, race and ethnicity, social and cultural theory, sociology, art and aesthetics, philosophy, history, education, law, and globalization.
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic index of research, policy and scholarly discourse on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. Coverage spans from 1900 and earlier to the present.
Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Covers the core disciplines in women’s studies and feminist research, largely from 1972-present (some earlier material included). Includes sociology, history, political science & economy, public policy, arts & humanities, international relations and education. Contains over 2,000 periodicals, and other sources such as newspapers, newsletters, books, book chapters, proceedings, theses, dissertations, NGO studies and other grey literature.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Image-based legal research database includes such collections as: Legal Classics, Law Journal Library, U.S. Supreme Court Library, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, Treaties and Agreements Library and more. Bridges the gap in legal history by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of law and law-related periodicals.
Legal Collection This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes scholarly publications of law journals, documents, and case studies, including over 250 full-text journals. Provides information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, and ethics. Indexing and abstracts are provided for all journals in the collection.
Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
A Federal legislative history service that makes available researched compilations of digital full text publications created by Congress during the process leading up to the enactment of U.S. Public Laws.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Formerly LexisNexis Academic. Provides access to a wide range of news (includes New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times), business (company news, industry forecasts), government (legislative news, tax information), legal (news, case law) and reference information.
Virginia Legislature This link opens in a new window
Covers the Virginia General Assembly legislative sessions from 1994 onward. Provides the full-text of Bills and Resolutions, the code of Virginia, and the Administrative Code.

Child & Family Social Work
Provides a forum where researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, and managers in the field exchange knowledge, increase understanding, and develop notions of good practice.
From 1996 to present
Children & Society: The International Journal of Childhood & Children's Services
Embraces academic research, policy, and practice in relation to the health, education, and welfare of children from infancy through to adulthood.
From 1996 to present
Education Policy Analysis Archives
Publishes issues comprised of empirical articles, commentaries, and special issues at roughly weekly intervals, all of which pertain to educational policy, with direct implications for educational policy.
from 1993 to present
Infants and Young Children
Focuses on vulnerable children from birth to five years of age and their families.
2002 to present
International Journal of Child Care & Education Policy
This journal disseminates research and analysis regarding major issues of child care and education policy relating to young children and their families to a broad international readership, including policymakers, researchers, and practitioners.
From 2014 to present
Journal of Child & Family Studies
An international forum for topical issues pertaining to the mental well-being of children, adolescents, and their families.
from 01/01/1992 to present
Journal of Early Intervention
Offers articles related to research and practice in early intervention for infants and young children with special needs and their families.
From 1981 to present
Journal of Law and Education
Devoted exclusively to school law, with emphasis on critical current & emerging issues, serving both the legal & educational professions.
from 01/01/2005 to the present
Leadership and Policy in Schools
Aims to provide a high-quality forum for educational researchers, practitioners and policymakers to publish analyses and research about how school leaders and educational policies utilize fiscal, material, and human resources to bring about change in education and effectiveness in schools.
from 2002 to present

Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes
Fostering sustainable change in state policy and practice for children birth to third grade. Including innovating to improve children's futures, promoting cradle to college and career learning and success, partnering to enhance early learning outcomes
Consortium for Policy Research in Education
A community of researchers from renowned research institutions and organizations committed to advancing educational policy and practice through evidence-based research. CPRE has adopted an openly-available peer-reviewed publishing model by which member-created research and outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other barriers, in a central open access repository (Scholarly Commons) subsidized by the University of Pennsylvania. You can access CPRE research via our Scholarly Commons repository.
First Five Years Fund: Legislative Tracker
Their mission is to ensure all children from birth through age five have equal access to affordable, comprehensive, high-quality care and education to support their healthy development and help them achieve their full potential in school and life. FFYF has developed a tracker for the early childhood legislation introduced in the 117th Congress. FFYF also has a tracker for early childhood legislation put for forth in the 116th Congress. Inclusion of legislation in the tracker does not represent an FFYF endorsement of the policy changes proposed.
IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Brings together IDEA information and resources from the Department and our grantees. Includes information for students, parents, educators, service providers, and grantees.
National Education Policy Center
The mission of the National Education Policy Center is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence.
National Institute for Early Education Research
Conducts and communicates research to support high quality, effective, early childhood education for all young children.
National Program Standards Crosswlak Tool
The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (ECQA Center) is pleased to provide this online program standards crosswalk tool that is prepopulated with national early childhood program standards (e.g., Head Start, accreditation, Caring for our Children). This tool is designed to help States that are developing and aligning program standards for licensing, quality rating and improvement systems, and/or prekindergarten programs, to search and compare the content of several sets of national standards.
U.S. Department of Education: Initiatives for Early Learning
Find the latest information about ED's work in supporting our nation's youngest learners.
Virginia Department of Education: Special Education
Includes resources for parents, social-emotional wellness quick guides, guidance from VA's Department of Special Education & Student Services, many resources for educators, parents, and the public.
WrightsLaw
Parents, educators, advocates, and attorneys come to Wrightslaw for reliable information about special education law and advocacy for children with disabilities. It includes links to hundreds of articles, cases, and resources

Children's Self-Determination in the Context of Early Childhood Education and Services
The book presents case studies to unravel how childhood and young children's self-determination are constructed at the intersection with intergenerational relationships. Coming from different disciplines and using a diverse range of methodological traditions, the contributions in the volume eventually converge to generate a rich, complex and multi-layered analysis of contemporary cultures of childhood and young children's rights.
Springer e-Book
Developments in Child & Family Policy in the EU in 2019
The objective of this report is to provide an overview of developments in the area of child and family policy across the European Union, with a focus on developments that took place in the year of 2019.
Available from Publications Office of the EU
Support Mechanisms for Evidence-Based Policy-Making in Education
The report describes the mechanisms and practices that support evidence-based policymaking in the education sector in Europe. It comparatively looks at institutions and practices in evidence-based policy-making, as well as the accessibility, and mediation, of evidence. The report presents more detailed information on each individual country, with specific examples of the use of evidence in policy formulation for each separate country.
Available from Publications Office of the EU
The Quality Agenda in Early Childhood Education: Questioning Local and Global Policy Perspectives
This book investigates notions of ‘quality’ in early childhood settings both in Australia and globally. After experiencing quality reform as an educator, the author turned to research as a means by which to better understand early childhood quality reform and agenda over time. This book questions how early childhood reform policy and agenda have constructed quality - what it is presumed to be and do - over time and the implications of these 'truths'.
Springer e-Book
Under-three Year Olds in Policy & Practice
Cross Disciplinary insights and innovations establishes a path for the much-needed examination of the experiences of infants and toddlers in contemporary educational settings across the globe.
Springer e-Book