Academic rigor meets developmentally appropriate practice

In this day and age of high-stakes academic testing and accountability, children are expected to know more and more at a younger and younger age. Early childhood educators struggle to help children meet academic expectations while teaching in a developmentally appropriate way. They struggle to explain to stakeholders—administrators, policy makers, families, and even colleagues—why and how developmentally appropriate teaching practices are best for children’s learning, and why and how embracing each child’s individual unique strengths and personal experiences improves the child’s ability to succeed in school.

RIGOROUS DAP in the Early Years: From Theory to Practice provides teachers with a roadmap for teaching that helps children meet academic expectations and maintains focus on the appropriate development of the whole child.

RIGOUROUS DAP includes:

• Consideration of the current context of publicly funded early childhood education by focusing on practices that meet the needs of individual children
• Addresses issues created by testing and accountability
• Incorporates culturally relevant and sustaining practices
• Strategies for early educators to engage stakeholders in and outside the early childhood classroom in conversations about how to educate young children for school success