Uniting the Best of Early Childhood, Elementary and Special Education

 

 

FirstSchool is a pre-K–grade 3 initiative led by FPG and the UNC-CH School of Education to promote public school efforts to become more responsive to the needs of an increasingly younger, more diverse population. To create a seamless transition for children in pre-kindergarten through third grade schools need to unite the best of early childhood, elementary and special education.

A new grant from the WK Kellogg Foundation will support continuing collaboration with our partners in North Carolina, new partnerships in Michigan, and nationwide outreach. Read the full press release.

FPG Child Development Institute has entered into a partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to use the FirstSchool framework for Pre-K through 3rd grade education to guide the reorganization of the Department. Read full FPG/DPI press release.

A new series of brief reports, Issues in Pre-K-3rd Education, discusses many of the key elements that schools, administrators, and policymakers need to address as they move forward in their pre-K through third grade efforts.

• What is FirstSchool?
• Financing Services for 3-and 4-Year Olds in a P–3 School
• FirstSchool Learning Environments: Supporting Relationships
• Using Developmental Science to Transform Children’s Early School Experiences
• Time is of the Essence
• Issues in Education for Children Three to Eight in Six Countries
• Framework for Curriculum and Instruction
• 21st Century Teacher Education for FirstSchool: A Model of Collaborative Inquiry

New topics will be added on an ongoing basis. Sign-up for alerts to be notified when these issues become available.

Also just published is Rethinking early schooling: Using developmental science to transform children's early school experiences by Sharon Ritchie, Kelly L. Maxwell, and Sue Bredekamp.

This chapter in Oscar A. Barbarin and Barbara Hanna Wasik's Handbook of Child Development & Early Education describes four foundational processes that are central to early learning and discusses the implications of developmental science for teachers' professional development.

 

FirstSchool has received financial support from the Foundation for Child Development, FPG Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and private donors.