School Readiness and Early Childhood Classroom Learning
Overview
In Virginia, School Readiness means preparing all children for kindergarten by supporting learning in classrooms serving children ages birth to five in all site types: schools, child care centers, and family day homes.
Virginia’s Definition of School Readiness
Virginia’s definition of school readiness describes the capabilities of children, families, schools and communities that promote student success in kindergarten and beyond.Virginia's Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS), Birth to Five Learning Guidelines (Spanish)
Virginia's ELDS articulate the skills and knowledge young children need to demonstrate by the end of preschool in order to be successful in kindergarten, and act as a foundational set of classroom guidelines supporting the Commonwealth’s unified quality measurement and improvement system: VQB5.
The standards are intended to help early childhood educators, families, and stakeholders:
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understand the basics of child development,
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implement effective classroom activities,
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and engage in high-quality teacher child interactions.
The ELDS focus on five Areas of Development:
1. Approaches to Play and Learning
2. Social and Emotional Development
3. Communication, Language, and Literacy Development
4. Health and Physical Development
5. Cognitive Development (Science, Social Sciences: People, Community and Culture, Mathematics and Fine Arts)
Early Childhood Classroom Learning Initiatives
Virginia's early childhood learning initiatives focus on key classroom practices including the use of high-quality curriculum, assessment, and resources to support classroom learning.
Early Childhood Curriculum is one of two nationally recognized quality indicators measured in VQB5.
Early childhood screeners and assessments provide teachers, families, and leaders with detailed information about children’s skills that can be used to individualize instruction and support students’ diverse learning needs.
VDOE offers free resources and tools to support leaders and teachers to promote high quality instruction in classrooms.
Classroom Learning Partnerships
The Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) is a coordinated assessment system that is used statewide to measure children’s school readiness skills in the areas of mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills.
STREAMin3 provides access to low-to-no cost comprehensive early childhood curriculum for any publicly-funded birth to five programs in Virginia. In addition to the curriculum, participating programs have access to free professional development and technical assistance to support implementation.
VECC offers individualized coaching and consultation service to VQB5 sites and classrooms with the greatest need to improve the quality of teacher-child interactions and promote healthy social-emotional environments. VECC also offers resources for professional development to birth to five educators state-wide.