An Examination of Educator Standards for Early Grade Teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines two longstanding but thinly evidenced claims regarding credentialing requirements for teachers in the early grades (pre-K, K, 1, 2, and 3): 1) that elementary education (ELED) educator standards, under which many U.S. early grade teachers are prepared, address early instructional practices less adequately than early childhood education (ECE) guidelines; and 2) that states’ ECE educator standards often inadequately address essential features of early instruction. Content analysis is used to examine how frequently state and national ECE and ELED educator standards referred to the following essential ECE terms: development, community, family, exceptionality, observation, play, relationships, adversity, and self-regulation. The results provide empirical support for the claims investigated here. Specifically, the data indicate that essential ECE terms are mentioned less often and insufficiently emphasized and/or omitted more often 1) by ELED than ECE educator standards and 2) by state-level than national-level ECE standards. For example, the results indicate that 17 states have ECE educator preparation standards that do not refer to play or adversity; and 27 states have ELED standards, for licenses that include the early grades, that do not mention play or self-regulation. Policy implications are discussed.