Diptongos

Alignment between the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework

and the California Preschool Learning Foundations


Introduction

The Head Start Act (as amended in 2007) promotes alignment with the Head Start Early Learning Framework, Curriculum, Assessment, and State Standards. In California, these standards are the Preschool Learning Foundations.

TheCalifornia Department of Education and WestEd have developed an alignment of the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework with the California Preschool Learning Foundations, through a process facilitated by the California Head Start Collaboration Office, and in partnership with the California Head Start Association and the California Center of the Office of Head Start Training andTechnical Assistance Network.

This document supports Head Start education managers and education supervisors by demonstrating the ways in which these two sources align with each other, and the ways in which they share similar goals for children in all areas of learning and development. The alignment of the Head Start Early Learning Framework with the California Preschool Learning Foundationsprovides a valuable resource to facilitate the coordinated and aligned functioning of all the components of education in an early childhood program –curriculum goals, teaching strategies, and assessment.

The California Center of the Office of Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network can provide support to programs through the process of reviewing the alignment of the Head Start EarlyLearning Framework and the California Preschool Learning Foundations and ensuring the programs’ curriculum, assessment, and school readiness goals are also aligned with these two documents.

The Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework and the California Preschool Learning Foundations share common goals-- to strengthen preschool education and young children’s school readiness, and topromote all aspects of child learning and development in early childhood programs. The Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework delineates the developmental building blocks essential for children’s school and long-term success. The framework is intended for children, three to five years old, and is organized into 11 domains: Physical Development & Health, Social & EmotionalDevelopment, Approaches to Learning, Logic & Reasoning, Language Development, English Language Development, Literacy Knowledge and Skills, Mathematics Knowledge & Skills, Science Knowledge & Skills, Creative Arts Expression, and Social Studies Knowledge & Skills. The California Preschool Learning Foundations describe knowledge and skills that, with appropriate support, most children can be expected toexhibit as they complete their first or second year of preschool. Foundations are presented for children at around 48 months of age and at around 60 months of age, and address nine domains of learning and development: Social-Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, English-Language Development, Mathematics, Visual and Performing Arts, Physical Development, Health, History-Social Science, andScience.

About the Alignment

The following analysis describes the alignment between the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework and the California Preschool Learning Foundations. The purpose of this alignment is to illustrate the ways in which these two sources correspond in content and share similar goals for children in all areas of learning and development. In thisalignment, the 11 domains of the Head Start Framework are presented according to the structure and order in the original Head Start Framework. For each domain in the Head Start Framework, the alignment indicates the components of the preschool foundations that correspond in content.

An alternative version of the alignment, one in which components of the Head Start Framework are aligned to the...