Resources on Early Learning

Illinois Early Learning Standards

The Illinois Early Learning Standards, developed by the Illinois State Board of Education with the assistance of hundreds of educators, were first introduced in draft form in June 2000. Among those playing a major role in formulating the draft standards were the Chicago Public Schools, DeKalb Community Unit School District, Indian Prairie School District, and Rockford Public School District.

“Standards are an essential first step for designing effective preschool curricula since they represent an agreed upon agenda for teaching and learning. 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.”

— Barbara Bowman, Erikson Institute

Since publication of the draft, hundreds of educators and parents, and a wide array of national, state and local experts, have commented on the standards. This final draft of the standards is a synthesis of their many views.

The standards are organized to parallel in content the Illinois Learning Standards for K-12 education. Included are benchmarks for learning in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Physical Development and Health, Fine Arts, Foreign Language, and Social/Emotional Development.

The goal of the standards is to provide teachers and caregivers useful information that is directly needed as part of their daily classroom work. For those who are interested, the complete Illinois Learning Standards for K-12 may be found on the Illinois State Board of Education web site, http://isbe.net/.

ISBE acknowledges with great thanks the very thoughtful and knowledgeable comments that have helped shape these standards. A list of contributing school districts and early childhood programs appears at the end of this document. There is no doubt that without this assistance, the standards would not exist today.