April 21 is National Kindergarten Day. Explore our resources to help teachers, educational leaders, and families support young learners.
Seven Crucial Conversations in Early Childhood Education
Where Have We Been and Why Does It Matter?
Edited By: Nancy File, Nancy E. Barbour, and Andrew J. Stremmel
Designed to spark an interchange of ideas, this book presents several decades of the lived experiences of influential leaders engaged in conversation about seven major topics in early childhood education. Each chapter includes a “Reflections” essay from a volume editor that includes important source material and theoretical and research perspectives.
Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education
Diversifying Curriculum and Pedagogy in K–3 Classrooms
Gloria Swindler Boutte, Jarvais J. Jackson, Saudah N. Collins, Janice R. Baines, Anthony Broughton, and George Lee Johnson Jr.
Engage in Pro-Black teaching with young children as an antidote to endemic anti-Black racism in schools and society. This easy-to-understand book provides evidence-based curriculum examples, pedagogies, and resources; demonstrates how teachers can achieve Pro-Black teaching while also addressing curricular standards; and explains the benefit of Pro-Black teaching for all children.
Principals as Early Learning Leaders
Effectively Supporting Our Youngest Learners
Julie Nicholson, Helen Maniates, Serene Yee, Thomas Williams Jr., Veronica Ufoegbune, and Raul Erazo-Chavez
This practical and comprehensive resource will assist elementary school principals who are responsible for leading preschool and pre-K programs. Focusing on essential issues of equity, the authors present current research on child development, trauma-responsive practices, and strategies for reducing bias and preventing the use of exclusionary discipline with young children.
Resisting the Kinder-Race
Restoring Joy to Early Learning
Christopher P. Brown
Brown examines how kindergarten devolved from nurturing children into a race that dashes them from skill to skill. This book reimagines the Kinder-Race, offering both practical and political strategies that can alter the day-to-day practices of the kindergarten classroom and the policies that currently define PreK–12 education in the United States.
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-3)
Third Edition
Thelma Harms, Richard M. Clifford, and Debby Cryer
The long-anticipated new version of the internationally recognized Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale®, ECERS-3, focuses on the full range of needs of preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. This widely used, comprehensive assessment tool measures both environmental provisions and teacher-child interactions that affect the broad developmental needs of young children, including cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and health and safety.
ECERS-3 also includes Items assessing developmentally appropriate literacy and math activities.
The Play’s the Thing
Teachers’ Roles in Children’s Play
Elizabeth Jones and Gretchen Reynolds
Responding to current debates on the place of play in schools, the authors have expanded their groundbreaking book to include significant developments in the broadening landscape of early learning and care, such as assessment, diversity and culture, intentional teaching, inquiry, and the construction of knowledge.