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What Do Parents Need to Know about the Illinois Early Learning Standards?
You may be among a growing number of Illinois parents who have heard of the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks. Like many other parents, you may have questions about what the Standards and Benchmarks are. You may want to know how the Standards might affect your preschooler's education. You might also wonder what families can do at home that might help children meet the Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks.
What are the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks?
The Illinois Early Learning Standards are designed to help teachers and caregivers plan educational experiences for young children that will help them be ready for kindergarten. The Standards are statements about the goals of education in Illinois. A Benchmark is a step on the way to a goal appropriate for a particular age group. The Benchmarks are essentially a list of things most young children should be able to learn, know, and do before they start kindergarten.
The Illinois State Board of Education developed the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks with the cooperation of many early childhood educators and experts throughout Illinois. The Early Learning Standards match the Illinois Learning Standards for students through Grade 12. They also match the Illinois Five-2-Six Standards that are being developed for kindergarten.
You can find the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks in English and Spanish on the Internet at the following Web address: http://illinoisearlylearning.org/standards/index.htm.
Why do we need Learning Standards for children who aren't even in kindergarten yet?
The federal government now requires each state to develop pre-kindergarten standards. The Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks put into words the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that early childhood educators have always known are important. The Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks are a set of guidelines that can help professionals in any program with curriculum development, planning, and assessment. In that sense, they are similar to the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework (http://www.hsnrc.org/CDI/pdfs/UGCOF.pdf). The Illinois Early Learning Standards also play a role in the efforts of the Illinois Gateways to Opportunity (http://ilgateways.com) system to enhance the professional development of Illinois early care and education personnel.
The Illinois Early Learning Standards give teachers and caregivers a way to think about what each child can do. For example, does Sam look at the pile of pennies and say, "One, two, seven, five?" Or does he touch one coin at a time and carefully count, "One, two, three?"
Dr. Barbara Bowman of the Erikson Institute says, "The Illinois Early Learning Standards are excellent because they recognize the interconnectedness of emotional, social, cognitive, and physical development and learning-the whole child. Like all good standards, they should be used as the base for reflective teachers as they create learning experiences that build on what children already know and capture their interest in learning" (Illinois Early Learning Standards, p. 2).
How are the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks organized?
The Illinois Early Learning Standards cover 8 Learning Areas. The Illinois Standards for elementary through high school students use the same Learning Areas:
- Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Sciences
- Fine Arts
- Foreign Languages
- Physical Developmentand Health
- Social and Emotional Development
In each Learning Area, you will find at least one State Goal, at least one Learning Standard, and at least one Benchmark.
- Every State Goal describes something that we want for all children by the time they finish high school.
- Each Learning Standard under a State Goal describes something children need to know or be able do to meet that Goal.
- Each Standard has at least one Benchmark. An early childhood Benchmark describes something that a child needs to know or do to address the Standard by the end of the preschool years.
Here is what a section of the Illinois Early Learning Standards looks like.
STATE GOAL 1:
Read with understanding and fluency.
Learning Standard A:
Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections.
Benchmarks:
1.A.ECa: Understand that
pictures and symbols have meaning and
that print carries a message.
Here is how to read that section of the Illinois Early Learning Standards:
- STATE GOAL 1, above, is Read with understanding and fluency. That means that students should be able to read easily and understand what they read by the time they finish high school. But long before high school-even during preschool -children can learn concepts and skills that will help them when they are ready to read.
- Learning Standard A under State Goal 1 is Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections. That means that by the end of high school, students should understand whatever they read because they know many words and can figure out what new words mean. A person who can analyze words and who has a strong vocabulary will be able to read road signs, newspaper articles, instruction booklets, novels, and school textbooks. We can't expect a preschool child to have the same skills that older children have. But preschoolers can learn a lot about words even before it's time for them to learn to read.
- Benchmark 1.A.ECa, above, is Understand that pictures and symbols have meaning and that print carries a message. That means that preschoolers can learn that pictures, letters, words, and numbers mean something-an important step in learning to read. (Benchmarks are labeled with numbers and letters. "EC" indicates early childhood Benchmarks.)
How will the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks affect my child?
Is your child in a program that receives Early Childhood Block Grant funding? By law, its comprehensive services must be aligned with the Illinois Early Learning Standards. The teachers there will use the Early Learning Benchmarks within the Standards to help them plan activities for the children in their classrooms. They will provide a variety of experiences designed to help children to reach the Benchmarks.
Many teachers in programs that do not receive block grant money also choose to adopt the Standards. If your child is in such a program, his teachers may be using the Illinois Early Learning Benchmarks to help them plan curriculum and assess children's knowledge and skills.
Early childhood programs that use the Illinois Early Learning Standards are NOT required to use any specific curriculum. A wide range of experiences, activities, or curricula can be used to help children achieve the Benchmarks.
For example, a preschool teacher would want to plan activities to help children notice pictures and symbols (Illinois Early Learning Benchmark 1.A.ECa). The teacher might make name tags for children's cubbies so they can begin to see what their own names look like. The teacher might point to book illustrations as she reads aloud and ask the children, "What do you think is going on in this picture?" She might make sure to include a set of toy road signs in the block corner and put a 0-to-10 number chart on the wall where children can see it easily.
What are some important things to know about the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks?
The Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks were developed by a group of people with many years of experience in teaching young children. The Standards are meant to recognize the needs of "the whole child." That means they are built upon the idea that knowledge and skills in one learning area affect knowledge and skills in other areas. The Standards allow for a balance of child-initiated and teacher-initiated learning experiences. They also take into account the fact that children develop at different rates.
The Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks were tested in classrooms throughout Illinois before the Illinois State Board of Education adopted them.
Many preschool activities address more than one Benchmark at a time. Teachers do not need to come up with a separate activity for each Benchmark.
For example, when Tamika's class studied turtles, Tamika met some Science Benchmarks by observing a box turtle and making sketches of it. When she reported to her classmates about what happened when she fed a worm to the turtle, Tamika also met Language Arts Benchmarks. Some kinds of play also enable children to meet more than one Benchmark at a time. After Tamika's class took the turtle to a veterinarian for a check-up, several children worked together to build a pet hospital using blocks and toy animals. They took turns acting as the doctors and pet owners. They were meeting Benchmarks in Social Science and Social and Emotional Development.
How will a teacher know if my child is meeting the Early Learning Benchmarks?
A teacher may be able to tell whether or not a child has met some of the Benchmarks simply by watching or talking to the child. For instance, if Sarah is able to express ideas using paints, pencils, and clay, her teacher will know that she meets one of the Fine Arts Benchmarks.
If you visit a program that uses the Illinois Early Learning Standards, you might see the Early Learning Benchmarks posted in the hallway, the office, or the classrooms. The teachers will probably collect children's work that shows they are meeting Benchmarks. A teacher might keep a folder for each child, so parents can see during conferences how their children are doing in school.
For example, to show Amaya's parents that their daughter knows that pictures and symbols have meaning (Benchmark 1.A.ECa), the teacher hands them some pieces of Amaya's work. One item is a folded page of invented letters that Amaya called "My Newspaper." Another is a photograph of Amaya holding a book open, turning pages while telling the story to her friend. The "newspaper" lets the teacher and parents see that Amaya knows that people use print to communicate in a variety of ways. It also indicates that she has worked on forming letters herself. The photograph shows that Amaya uses book illustrations to help her recall the meaning of the words in a story.
In Illinois, many preschool programs use the Work Sampling system to collect samples of a child's work that show what he or she has learned. To find out more about Work Sampling in Illinois, see the transcript of Using Work Sampling in Pre-K Settings, an online Chat with master teacher Sallee Beneke (http://illinoisearlylearning.org/chat/beneke/trans.htm), and Resources on Work Sampling (http://illinoisearlylearning.org/chat/beneke/sup.htm).
Just because a program uses the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks does not mean that your child will have standardized tests in preschool. In fact, the Illinois Early Learning Standards do not call for testing.
Can parents use the Illinois Early Learning Standards and Benchmarks?
As a parent, you might use the Standards and Benchmarks in several ways. For example, reading the Benchmarks can give you an idea of the kinds of skills and experiences that kindergarten teachers would like every child, including yours, to have before entering kindergarten. You can also find out whether your child's program uses the Standards and Benchmarks. If it does, you might ask the teacher which Benchmarks your child's class is working on. The teacher will be able to tell you how the classroom activities help the children meet Benchmarks.
Families can also work together with early childhood programs to provide learning experiences for their children. So, you might use the Standards and Benchmarks to help you think of things to do at home that might give your child the skills and knowledge he or she will need for kindergarten. The Illinois Early Learning Benchmark Project can connect you to Internet resources with fun, educational activities you can do at home with your child (http://illinoisearlylearning.org/standards/benchmarks.htm). Click on the underlined number of any Benchmark to link to a list of Web articles. Find a title that interests you. Then click on the underlined Web address to link directly to the article.
Keep in mind that many everyday family activities are rich sources of knowledge and skills for preschoolers. Do you play active games outdoors with your children? Do you take them to a store, a park, a zoo, or a museum? Do they travel with you on public transportation? Do they help you cook or set the table? Do older siblings read out loud to your preschooler? If you look through the Illinois Early Learning Standards, you may see many ways that your daily family life addresses important Benchmarks.
You don't need to test your children on the Benchmarks. Just include them in family experiences and conversations. Then pay attention to what they say and do throughout the day.
Your child is probably doing things every day that show she is meeting some of the Benchmarks. For example: You and your 4-year-old drive by a billboard with the logo of her favorite sports team. "Look, Mom, the Cubs!" she shouts. That's a clue that she connects the team's symbol with the team itself. In other words, she understands that pictures and symbols have meaning (Benchmark 1.A.ECa). Another example: Three-year-old Vijay watches his older brother using a tape measure to find the length of a shoe. Later, Vijay holds a piece of string up to his own shoe and says, "My string is too short." That's a clue that he is starting to think about measurement (Benchmark 7.A.ECa).
Keep in mind that your child grows and learns at his or her own pace. The children in a classroom will meet Early Learning Benchmarks at different times. Even within your family, your children will probably not meet every Benchmark at the same age.
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