BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Louisiana Department of Education is inviting stakeholders to provide public comment and feedback on the state’s draft revisions of Louisiana’s Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS). These drafted revisions are the culmination of a year-long effort led by a committee of early childhood experts and stakeholders from around the state. The standards serve as a framework for supporting the implementation of high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood programs. These standards are intended to help early childhood educators and families across Louisiana deepen their understanding of how children grow and develop in order to best prepare them for kindergarten and beyond.
The goals of the standards revision process are to make stronger connections to kindergarten readiness expectations and to create a scaffolded alignment of developmentally-appropriate indicators across age-bands. Other revision goals are to ensure a strong integration of language that supports children with disabilities and dual language learners, embed commonly-used assessments with intentionality to increase alignment, and update resources to reflect current research and Department initiatives.
“Louisiana must continue to be a leader in early childhood education,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “This process of engagement and improvement will make environments even stronger for Louisiana’s youngest learners.”
During their April 6, 2022, meeting, the ELDS Review Committee unanimously endorsed the drafted standards revisions, which will establish a common vision for what the state of Louisiana wants children to learn before they enter kindergarten. The Department posted an online public comment portal to give stakeholders the opportunity to share their feedback on the revised standards and indicators. The portal can be accessed in the Standards Review Committee Library until May 9, 2022. The Department will consider the public’s feedback to make further revisions and submit the updated Early Learning and Development Standards to BESE for approval in June.
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