MSDE panel recommends new early learning standards, citing research and broad stakeholder input

The State Board of Education'Education Policy Committee on Monday recommended that the full board adopt a revised set of early learning standards developed by the Maryland State Department of Education's Division of Early Childhood.

The draft standards, presented by Dr. Shana Cook and Dr. Collins of MSDE, replace decade-old guidelines and "clearly articulate what students should know and be able to do," Cook said, adding they incorporate the latest research in brain and learning sciences and were informed by a 50-state scan with WestEd.

MSDE staff said the new standards move from year-based to month-based age bands for infants and toddlers, cover domains such as social-emotional development, approaches to learning, language and literacy, early cognition and STEAM, and physical well-being and motor development, and include child and teacher examples in multiple languages. "There are callouts for specific populations of students, which include children experiencing homelessness, children who speak a home language other than English, and children with disabilities," Cook said.

Staff described an extensive engagement process: the Division of Early Childhood engaged about 175 stakeholders between spring 2022 and spring 2023 through focus groups and structured interviews and made revisions based on that feedback to "close feedback loops," Cook said. MSDE also benchmarked the draft against other states and worked to eliminate jargon.

The committee heard questions about design choices. Dr. Meinkel asked why play was embedded throughout rather than made a separate strand; Cook said the team debated the issue but integrated play because "play is learning," while retaining a single standard to guide higher-order play and planning professional development and instructional video examples. On why early cognition sits with STEAM, Cook said that pairing better shows coherent developmental trajectories across the birth-to-3 age range.

MSDE staff said the next phase includes producing an alignment document to link the early learning standards to college-and-career-ready standards and planning a professional development rollout. The agency said it will host an early learning symposium on April 9 and open registration to early childhood educators, and named Nikisha Savage as leading work on early learning and instruction and Vanessa Jones as director of family support services for rollout and family engagement.

The committee voted to recommend adoption of the standards to the full State Board. The chair said the committee's recommendation will be forwarded to the board for action at its next meeting.

The committee's recommendation follows months of stakeholder review and signals MSDE's next steps include training, alignment documents, and practical resources for educators and families.