Family concepts in early learning and development standards

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the use of concepts related to families, parents, and the home in 51 state-level early learning and development standards documents. Guidelines from six national family involvement, engagement, and school-partnership models were used to create the Family Involvement Models Analysis Chart (FIMAC), which served as this study's analysis tool. Results showed that the vast majority of units examined did not align with family involvement guidelines from the six national models. In addition, the small percentage of units that aligned with national models – as well as the units related to family concepts that were not aligned with these models – tended to incorporate family concepts in the contextual narrative of the standards documents and not within the letter of the standards in their strict sense (the statements describing what students are supposed to know and be able to do). States desiring to implement early learning and development standards congruent with research-based practices should integrate families into standards documentation.

Keywords:

• early learning and development standards documents
• family involvement
• national frameworks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Bridget A. Walsh, Ph.D., CFLE, is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research and publications emphasise family involvement and engagement as well as early childhood vocabulary acquisition and learning.

Claudia Sanchez, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Bilingual and ESL Education, Department of Teacher Education at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. Her research and publication interests include parental involvement in grades Pre-K-12, bilingual/ESL teacher preparation, and ESL teaching methodologies.

Angela M. Lee, M.A., is a graduate assistant and a doctoral student pursuing a Ph.D. in learning, development, and technology from the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research and publication interests include virtual environments and flipped classrooms in higher education, glass cliff phenomenon, statistics, and educational technologies.

Nicole Casillas, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in Education with an emphasis in Special Education and Disability Studies in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her current research interests include autism spectrum disorders and video self-modelling.

Caitlynn Hansen, M.S., is a recent graduate from the Human Development and Family Studies programme in the College of Education, at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her professional interests are centred on family studies. Caitlynn is now a faculty member at San Joaquin Delta College in California.