1. Teaching and Learning
Brief Overview of Standard: To ensure that young children’s experiences are developmentally appropriate, programs are expected to incorporate a comprehensive curriculum and child assessment system that are aligned with the Illinois Early Learning Guidelines for Birth to Three and Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards for Age Three to Five.
Center for Early Learning Literacy
A major focus of CELL is technical assistance and coaching that is provided to support early literacy practices for young children birth to 6 years of age.
A Checklist for Early Childhood Curriculum
Selecting or developing a curriculum is an essential part of defining and organizing quality educational experiences for young children. Program managers and teaching staff members can use this checklist to evaluate and select a curriculum that meets the needs of children and families.
Early Language Development Standards – for English and Spanish
WIDA (World Class Instructional Design and Assessment) has created Early Language Development Standards, for English and Spanish, for use by early childhood practitioners, including child care, Head Start, preschool/prekindergarten educators, and caregivers. The purpose of the ELD standards is to provide a developmentally sound framework for supporting, instructing, and assessing dual language learners (DLLs), ages 2.5-5.5 years.
Illinois Early Learning Guidelines for Birth to Three
The Illinois Early Learning Guidelines for Children Birth to Age 3 provide early childhood professionals and policy makers a framework for understanding child development by presenting information on what children know and should do and what development looks like in everyday life. The main goal of the Guidelines is to offer early childhood professionals a cohesive analysis of children’s development with common expectations and common language. These Guidelines also provide suggestions and ideas on how to create early experiences that benefit all children’s learning and development.
Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards for Preschool
The Illinois Early Learning Project has launched a convenient HTML version of the 2013 Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards (IELDS), ages 3 to kindergarten enrollment age, allowing users easy access from a variety of platforms. The HTML version includes a handy drop-down feature that shows the Example Performance Descriptors for most standards.
Infants Have Their Own Curriculum: A Responsive Approach to Curriculum Planning for Infants and Toddlers
Curriculum plans focus on how to best create a social, emotional, and intellectual climate that supports child-initiated and child-pursued learning. Staff can use this information as a basis for selecting or developing curriculum for infants and toddlers in their care.
The State of Illinois and its administering agencies (ISBE, IDHS, DCFS) do not "approve" or "endorse" any specific curriculum for implementation in any of its funded and/or regulated early childhood programs. The Curriculum Crosswalk is solely to determine whether the curriculum is aligned with the Illinois Early Learning Guidelines for ages birth–3, and/or the Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards for ages 3–5. If determined aligned, the curriculum is accepted by ExceleRate Illinois as evidence of program compliance with Standard 1B, Curriculum for centers and Standard 1D, Curriculum for family child care.
- Aligned curricula are generally acceptable for use in both center-based and family child care settings, unless the publisher provides a separate and distinct curriculum for family child care.
- Child Assessment Tools which accompany and align with the curricula on this list are generally acceptable for Child Assessment Standard 1E in centers and Standard 1D in family child care. A separate alignment process is not required unless the child assessment tool is independent of the curriculum.
- Even though a curriculum is determined to be aligned with the Illinois Early Learning Guidelines and/or the Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards, it may not meet all criteria as set forth by individual early childhood programs, such as Preschool for All and Head Start. Please check with the appropriate administering agency for specific guidelines.
- If programs use a core curriculum and then layer on additional or supplement curriculum specific to certain program areas (i.e. literacy, math/STEM, social-emotional, inclusion, etc…) only the core curriculum must be on the aligned curriculum list.
Bank Street Developmental Interaction Approach
The Creative Curriculum®
Curiosity Corner Preschool Curriculum
DIG (Discover, Inspire, Grow) Preschool Curriculum, Abrams Learning Trends
Frog Street Pre-K
Frog Street Threes
Frog Street Toddlers
Frog Street Infants
FunShine Express Early Learning Curricula
Gee Whiz Family Child Care Curriculum
HighScope Infant and Toddler Curriculum
HighScope Preschool Curriculum
The Innovations Series
Innovations: The Comprehensive Infant Curriculum
Innovations: The Comprehensive Toddler Curriculum
Innovations: The Comprehensive Preschool Curriculum
InvestiGator Club Inquiry-Based Learning System
Learn Every Day™: Infants, Toddlers and Twos
Learn Every Day™: The Preschool Curriculum
Mother Goose Time Comprehensive Curriculum
Open a World of Learning (OWL)
Program for Infant Toddler Care/PITC
The Redleaf Family Child Care Curriculum
WEE Learn Early Childhood Curriculum
Proprietary Curriculum – not available for use in other programs
American Montessori Society (proprietary curriculum - only for AMS)
The Empowered Child (ages 3-5, proprietary curriculum - only for Child Time Schools)
Goddard Schools Flex Learning Program Curriculum (ages birth-5, proprietary curriculum - only for Goddard Schools)
Early Innovators (ages 3-5, proprietary curriculum - only for La Petite Academy schools)
Kids 'R' Kids First Class Curriculum (ages birth-5, proprietary for Kids 'R' Kids)
Knowledge Universe (proprietary curriculum - only for KinderCare)
Learn As We Grow (ages 2-3, proprietary curriculum – only for Learning Care Group)
Learn from the Start (birth – age 3, proprietary curriculum – only for Learning Care Group Schools)
Life Essentials (proprietary curriculum - only for schools operated by Kiddie Academy)
Life Smart (ages 3-5, proprietary curriculum – only for Tutor Time schools)