What Educators Know about Teaching Young Children — But Policymakers Ignore

DEY Senior Advisor Nancy Carlsson-Paige writes an op-ed in Valerie Strauss’ The Answer Sheet in the Washington Post (3/15/17).

A new survey of early childhood educators found that they are highly concerned about how corporate school reform mandates are hurting children, especially those from low-income families, and how their own voices have been ignored about what young kids really need to learn.

The survey (see below) was conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Public Policy Forum and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Though the sample was not representative of early childhood educators, the results, presented at a recent policy forum, are in line with other surveys about how they view their work.

Here’s a piece on the survey and the problems it exposes, written by Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood development expert who has been at the forefront of the debate on how best to educate — and not educate — the youngest students. Carlsson-Paige is a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Ma., where she taught teachers for more than 30 years and was a founder of the university’s Center for Peaceable Schools. She is also a founding member of a nonprofit called Defending the Early Years, which commissions research about early childhood education and advocates for sane policies for young children.

Click to read the full article.