Partnering With States to Develop Equitable, Inclusive, and Aligned Resources
WestEd facilitates the development of state standards, child assessment measures, and curriculum resources that reflect current research and support developmentally appropriate, equitable and inclusive practice. We also partner with states to facilitate the development of a cohesive system of early learning resources to promote statewide school-readiness efforts.
Working collaboratively, we develop and provide trainings for the early childhood workforce to support professional learning and effective use of statewide standards, assessment, and curriculum resources.
Our Approach
Partnering With States to Develop Resources Aligned With Their Vision and Needs
We partner with states in the development of early learning resources that are aligned with their vision and current needs in the field. This process includes the following:
- Reviewing, aligning, and developing plans to reflect statewide diversity
- Conducting environmental scans to inform needs and opportunities for support
- Gathering input through meetings with diverse representatives from early learning programs (administrators, educators, care providers in family child care homes) and early learning policymakers
- Assessing needs related to capacity and sustainability
Using Subject Matter Expertise to Guide Resource Development
Our content experts work collaboratively with external content experts and states’ leaders in the following ways:
- Ensuring early learning standards across all domains of learning and development reflect the most current research
- Developing reliable and valid assessments that measure children’s development from birth to age 8 across all learning and development domains
- Supporting alignment of early learning standards, assessment, and curriculum with systems-building efforts to support quality care and qualified staff
- Developing equitable and inclusive curricula and educator resources to implement new or refreshed standards or assessments
Centering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Early Learning Resources
We embrace a strengths-based approach to early learning and ensure the resources we develop authentically reflect the diversity in children’s abilities, cultures, languages, and life experiences. Our approach includes the following:
- Engaging external experts in diversity, equity, and inclusion as reviewers and thought partners throughout the development process
- Ensuring children’s diverse strengths, needs, and vulnerabilities are authentically reflected in early learning standards, assessment, and curricular materials
- Promoting multilingualism and children’s use and development of their home languages as an asset and a strong foundation for learning and development across domains
- Facilitating inclusive learning opportunities and incorporating universal design for learning