Month: February 2025

Kindergarten is the first year of school for most children. Kids learn to use the pencil to write their names and the alphabet, and they begin identifying numbers and shapes.

They learn that the world is large and that people near and far are alike and different. They also explore the natural environment.

Cognitive Growth

Cognitive growth is a vital component of overall child development. Children develop critical thinking skills, improve their ability to understand multiple points of view, and become more able to follow multi-step instructions. All of this prepares them to thrive in future learning environments and supports healthy social interactions with peers.

Infants build their cognition through sensory experiences and motor activities, with key milestones including object permanence and understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. They also use their growing language skills to engage in imaginative play and follow simple instructions.

Lev Vygotsky found that social make-believe play is a key context for cognitive growth. It helps children to follow internal ideas and social rules, rather than their impulses, and to practice activities that they are too young to perform in real life. While promoting cognitive growth requires specific curricular approaches and thoughtful professional development, many opportunities to stimulate cognitive growth are found in everyday interactions between young children and responsive adults.

Social and Emotional Development

A child’s social-emotional development is as important as his or her cognitive growth. It is what influences their ability to form and maintain relationships with others, understand and follow rules, and build self-confidence.

This development is a process that begins long before a child enters kindergarten and continues throughout their academic career. It includes a child’s ability to express emotions in socially acceptable ways, tolerate frustration, and develop positive relationships with peers.

Educators across the country are struggling with how to set their students up for success in kindergarten. They’re finding that many children are coming to school knowing their ABCs and 1-2-3s, but without the skills necessary for classroom success—like listening, following instructions, writing, using tools like scissors and pencils and more. Educators tell EdSurge that much of this has to do with children’s social-emotional development.

Physical Development

From a young age, children learn about their bodies through movement. They wiggle and kick, gaining control over their fingers and toes, then figuring out how to sit, crawl, walk, run, jump, and throw objects. This physical development gives them greater independence as they explore their world and develop the coordination to overcome their body’s limitations, for example, rolling a ball back and forth with a friend (social-emotional).

While genetic factors influence height and body composition, the environment also influences physical growth and motor skills. For example, infants and toddlers build fine-muscle (motor) skills by grasping toys with their hands and fingers, which eventually leads to scribbling and writing as they get older (communication). Parents provide scaffolding for their children’s physical development by holding them up when they stand on a chair or couch (physical), helping them climb stairs in a zigzag pattern (locomotor), or playing catch with them (recognition and social-emotional). Regular exercise also helps support physical development by building strong bones and muscles and promoting healthy weight gain.

Identity Development

A strong sense of identity contributes to a child’s self-esteem, confidence and positive view of the world. Identity development happens throughout childhood and is influenced by the interactions children have with peers and caregivers.

At an early age, children develop a gender identity based on their biological characteristics and developmental influences. This is often different than the sex assigned at birth. It may be boy, girl, or something in between.

The best way to promote healthy gender identity is through unconditional love and acceptance. Parents can support this by reading books that show different ways to be a boy or a girl and encouraging children to play with toys of all kinds.

Teachers’ professional identities can be challenged by their views on classroom leadership, heightened attention to kindergarten readiness, and new relationships with administrative bodies as they work to implement publicly funded early learning policies. Developing these identities requires a balance of autonomy, professional support and a sense of belonging.

Reading intervention is individualized instruction for students who need help with the fundamentals of reading. It typically occurs in a small group setting with instruction targeted to the student’s instructional level.

Research shows that students with learning disabilities benefit from reading intervention programs like Lexia(r) Core5. These programs provide explicit, systematic instruction paired with guided practice, corrective feedback and independent practice using aligned student materials.

Identifying the Needs

For students with reading difficulties, identifying their individual needs is the first step in providing intensive interventions. This involves using screening and diagnostic assessments to identify specific skills that need to be addressed.

Effective reading intervention strategies often target foundational skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics decoding and word recognition, or fluency (reading quickly). For older struggling readers, strategies can also address comprehension strategies.

Research indicates that the most successful reading intervention strategies include repeated, systematic, and explicit instruction of a targeted skill. For example, students may repeat the same passage while receiving feedback and support from teachers or peers. Students with more severe reading difficulties are more likely to benefit from individualized, intensive instruction.

These strategies can be provided as supplemental small group instruction, or as separate pull-out classes for extended periods of time. However, these instructional models require a significant commitment of resources and personnel. Obtaining appropriate intervention materials, training teachers in the use of these programs, and allocating space for this type of instruction are challenging in many schools.

Developing a Plan

When a teacher plans a reading intervention program for students who need extra support, it’s important to include multiple evidence-based strategies. Teaching different strategies helps to ensure that a student’s specific weaknesses are addressed and that they’re learning in a way that makes sense for them.

Typically, interventions will include a variety of different strategies, including those that focus on phonics and decoding, vocabulary instruction, and comprehension strategies. The goal of these strategies is to provide students with the skills and tools they need to be successful in their literacy instruction.

Students also need to be inspired to develop positive attitudes toward reading. A good way to encourage this is by establishing a dedicated daily reading time. This creates a habit and makes it easier for students to associate reading with a fun activity rather than a chore or something they’re forced to do. This is especially beneficial for struggling readers.

Providing Explicit Instruction

Reading intervention provides students with direct and intensive instruction on a targeted set of skills, like phonological awareness, sound-symbol correspondence, patterns and conventions of print, morphology and semantics. Students are taught these concepts in a small group setting with their teacher and/or certified Reading Specialist.

In addition to addressing the core reading skills, reading intervention can provide students with strategies that build fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. These strategies can help students bridge the gap between their current reading level and grade-level reading expectations.

Explicit instruction refers to a teaching strategy that makes learning crystal clear by breaking down content into manageable pieces and clearly modeling the steps involved in each lesson. It also offers students lots of practice opportunities and feedback, allowing them to master new skills.

Explicit instruction has been proven effective for students with learning disabilities. It reduces the amount of cognitive load on students as they try to hold both prerequisite knowledge and new material in their working memory. Click here to learn more about this approach.

Providing Practice

A comprehensive reading intervention program is designed to teach foundational skills, such as phonological awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary. These skills are the building blocks that enable students to decode words accurately, make connections between the text and prior knowledge and understand the meaning of the text they read.

Teachers should also provide instruction that helps students develop morphological awareness, which is the ability to recognize prefixes, suffixes and base words in their context. This type of instruction can help students pull apart and define words that do not follow traditional patterns, which can improve their ability to read faster.

The most effective reading interventions are delivered in small, homogenous groups and occur daily or several times per week for 20 to 40 minutes. The length of the reading intervention should be sufficient to allow students plenty of time for practice and application. To find a curriculum that fits your school, consult the What Works Clearinghouse’s list of effective programs.

Children learn by observing, gaining experience and adapting knowledge. Learning experiences must match a child’s emerging competencies and be challenging but not frustrating.

A quality education empowers children to improve their own lives and those around them. It equips them with the fundamental and specialized knowledge that they need to enter the workforce, contribute to economic growth and drive innovation and progress.

1. Social and Emotional Development

Developing children’s social-emotional skills is essential for their overall well-being and future success. Children with strong social-emotional skills are better able to manage their emotions and behaviors, have more positive relationships, and thrive in new situations.

Toddler social-emotional development includes learning to express their feelings in healthy, age-appropriate ways. They also learn to share and play cooperatively with peers.

They develop a sense of self and others and are able to distinguish between real and imaginary objects and events. By 4 years of age, children can play in cooperative, imaginative ways with 1 or 2 peers and engage in role-playing. They can also handle aggression and understand responsibilities. They learn to respect different cultures, histories, and perspectives. They also become more resilient and able to cope with stress and failure.

2. Physical Development

As children grow, they experience changes and advancements in their body’s physical health. This includes their gross motor skills (large movements such as walking, jumping and climbing) and fine motor skills (precise movements like gripping, grabbing and throwing objects).

Infants and toddlers develop their physical and motor development based on their interactions with the world around them. For example, when seven-month-olds use their motor skills to push a button on a toy, they learn that pressing the button results in an exciting sound.

Children who regularly engage in physical activities, such as playground visits and sports, have better muscle strength and coordination, and a healthy level of body fitness. This is essential for their physical and motor development. This is why the Pedagogical Framework recommends approaches and practices that promote physical development.

3. Language Development

Language development is a vital part of children’s growth and learning. It lays the foundation for literacy and relationships, and enables them to think clearly and express their emotions.

Children first learn to decode spoken language, and then to verbally communicate. Their vocabularies and grammar skills continue to grow throughout childhood as they explore new concepts through hands-on experiences, songs and rhymes, and reading books with them.

From about 18 to 24 months, toddlers go through a vocabulary spurt and acquire words that are related by sound (e.g., big-small, tall-short). This also allows them to start incorporating grammatical rules, such as determiners (a, the) and -ing inflection, into their speech, as well as the use of single dimension adjectives such as high-low and long-short.

4. Academic Development

Academic development aims to transform teaching and learning in positive ways. However, its influence is difficult to measure in ways that are meaningful and manageable.

Educators foster learning by challenging children with goals that are just beyond their current mastery and supporting them as they strive to reach these goals. This requires rich connections between subject areas, while allowing each to retain its core conceptual, procedural and epistemological structures.

Moreover, the knowledge we have about academic development is dominated by its practitioners, and can be self-justificatory and defensive. McNaught notes that this predominantly practical focus may stem from institutional factors such as appointment criteria, for example. It also could reflect a culture that favours research over practice. The solution is to develop creative methods of evaluating academic development.

5. Communication Skills

Children need to develop communication skills to be able to get their needs met and interact with others in a variety of settings. These include school, work, and social gatherings. Effective communication skills help children feel comfortable in these environments, as well as in their own homes and families.

Teaching kids to use appropriate body language when talking to people helps them communicate more effectively. Also, it is important to teach them to listen attentively to others and not interrupt conversations.

Parents should teach their children to respect and recognize other people’s feelings, as well as help them build on their language skills by helping them create a “feelings” vocabulary. This is especially important for pre-teens, who are prone to angry outbursts when they don’t feel understood by their peers.

The education industry is a vital part of our nation’s economy. It’s no wonder many companies in this sector provide their employees with comprehensive benefits plans that include access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, short- and long-term disability coverage, life insurance options, and a robust retirement savings plan.

But what about the mental health and wellbeing of those in this industry?

What is an Education Support Professional?

It takes a team to make public education work, and the thousands of school support professionals across Michigan are part of that team. They are paraeducators, secretaries, paraprofessionals, custodial and maintenance employees, food service workers, bus drivers, and other school district staff who provide services related to classroom learning, student health, maintaining quality schools, and more.

ESPs keep students healthy, safe, supported and engaged so they’re ready to learn. It’s hard to imagine schools operating for one day without them.

ESPs are the backbone of our schools and communities. They deserve decent wages, respect on the job, and a voice in their decisions about the work they do. MEA is fighting to ensure that all ESPs get the tools they need to do their jobs well.

How do I become an Education Support Professional?

Education support services companies offer a wide range of employee benefits. These can include medical, dental and vision insurance, short-term disability coverage, long-term disability coverage, life insurance options, a retirement savings plan and plenty of paid time off.

ESPs are critical to the school community, and it’s hard to imagine a day in a public school without them. They keep students healthy, safe, supported, engaged and challenged so they’re ready to learn.

NEA provides professional development and learning opportunities that allow for a career of excellence for all ESPs. These association-convened programs are designed to give ESPs the tools they need to elevate their leadership and professionalism throughout their careers. ESPs can also access a wide variety of resources on the ESP Learning Network. These tools are helpful in their career-long efforts to build a culture of excellence in public schools. ESPs are critical to the success of our students, and their impact is even stronger when they have clear expectations, are valued and have ongoing professional growth.

What are the responsibilities of an Education Support Professional?

Education support professionals make sure students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged to grow. Their unwavering commitment to students and school communities deserves recognition.

ESPs work in schools, career and technical centers, intermediate units, colleges, and daycares. They are secretaries, paraprofessionals, custodial and maintenance workers, food service staff, bus drivers and other transportation employees and more. Without them, the bell wouldn’t ring or classrooms would be empty.

ESPs often grew up and live in the same community where they work, some even went to the very schools they serve. This strong tie helps them understand what families need and establishes strong, two-way communication with their community. They also play important roles in the components of Counseling, Psychological and Social Services; Health Services and Nutrition; and Physical Environment. They are often required to perform complex activities requiring limited judgment and decision-making within clearly defined procedures. They may also be required to disseminate information and promote programs to students, school districts, the public and other agencies.

What are the career options for an Education Support Professional?

Education support professionals work in a wide variety of roles, ranging from administrative to educational to managerial. Their duties may include coordinating or managing a segment of an agency’s educational program; disseminating information about designated historic or cultural topics to targeted audiences and/or visitors; or evaluating specialized programs for their local communities. These roles require limited judgment and decision-making within clearly defined procedures.

Other positions that focus on educational advising or counseling can be found in the career fields of school counselors and academic advisors, who often work with students to help them manage their educational journey, choose classes, and prepare for post-secondary education or employment opportunities. Bilingual educators provide academic instruction in two languages, either as part of a foreign language program or to support students with limited English proficiency.

Administrative support professionals work in a wide range of settings, from schools and community centers to government offices and transportation facilities. They assist with a wide variety of operational functions and use their knowledge of general office practices, organizational policies, and compliance regulations.

Schools are about so much more than teaching students to memorize facts. They also teach children how to think critically and develop strong relationships with teachers.

Some parentsand studentscomplain that learning history, literature and foreign languages won’t prepare them for the real world. But without schools to expose people to views different from their own, societal change is impossible.

Education

The education received by school students extends far beyond what happens in the classroom. Educators attempt to create environments and relationships that enable people to explore their experiences of situations, ideas, and feelings. These explorations may be formal or informal, but they are always designed to emancipate and enlarge experience.

School funding primarily comes from local property and income taxes collected by school districts. As such, school district funding can vary greatly across a state. In wealthy areas, schools have higher funding levels because they collect more property and income taxes. These higher levels are difficult to sustain during economic downturns.

Research shows that school quality has significant health returns, including improved earnings and health insurance coverage. These benefits may work through several mechanisms, including the ability to maximize resource allocation and peer networks. In addition, school quality can help individuals learn how to combine inputs to produce more health, which could improve the efficiency of their production function (Grossman, 1972). In short, better schooling increases health through both increased labor supply and greater knowledge of how to efficiently combine inputs into more valuable outcomes.

Structure

Most schools have a hierarchical structure that consists of administrators, licensed and unlicensed support staff, and teachers. The administrators make and enforce school-level policies, rules and procedures. They also make sure teachers are teaching the required curriculum. Teachers are responsible for educating students and monitoring student progress.

Some schools focus on producing workers, and function essentially as a personnel department for businesses and industry. These schools create a pool of workers with the skills and personal styles needed for jobs available, then sort and select them for employment.

The structure of the school can affect teacher attitudes and working style. Some schools use a traditional or bureaucratic structure, where decision-making is done from the top, and others use a loosely coupled system. The structure of a school can influence the culture it fosters and the way students learn. A well-structured school can also lead to greater job satisfaction for teachers. However, a poorly structured school can have the opposite effect.

Characteristics

A good school is full of joy, curiosity and hope. It is a social system that requires constant interaction and feedback between students, teachers, administrators and parents. It is a dynamic environment that must constantly change and adapt to current trends, challenges and opportunities.

Look for a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate and balances individualized learning with group activities. Ask how teachers use group time in their classrooms and whether they allow students to express themselves in the assignments they create.

Look for a culture that is welcoming, inclusive and respectful of all families. Note how comfortable you feel during your tour of the school and whether it feels like a community that is proud of its school. A great school is willing to change its tools as they evolve and is disruptive of bad cultural practices that include intolerance based on race, wealth or faith, apathy and illiteracy. A good school also sees every resource, advantage and gift it has for its students.

Purpose

Schools are a place to learn about different cultures and to respect cultural diversity. In addition, schools are a space to foster critical thinking and creativity. Students should be encouraged to express themselves creatively in all academic subjects.

Today, many parentsand some studentsthink that history, literature, foreign languages, advanced math, and science will not prepare them for the real worldworkfor beingsay a firefighter or a restaurateur. Teachers must convince students and parents that the effort to master difficult subjects will help them develop a talent for learning as such, not just for a particular trade.

School is a time when young people meet serious responsibilities and stressful situations for the first time. Teachers and administrators must help students cope with these stresses. This can be done through classroom activities, workshops, and lessons. Administrators should also be involved in helping students develop relationships with their peers and adults. These interactions will build their social capital and prepare them to make healthy choices as adults.

Kindergarten is often the first time students are exposed to structured classroom learning. It’s an exciting and important milestone that sets kids up for lifelong success.

Physical development includes growing strong bones and muscles, learning to use the small muscles in their fingers and hands (like drawing or molding clay). Students also focus on identifying and labeling basic body parts like heads, shoulders, knees and toes.

Social and Emotional Development

Besides knowing their ABCs and 123s, kindergarten is a time when children learn to work with others. That’s a huge skill set that research shows is linked to future academic achievement, healthy relationships and career success. But those skills are not something kids pick up on their own — they’re something parents and teachers have to teach them.

At the Child Development Center, where Mi’Yanna is currently enrolled, teachers have specific goals and objectives for social-emotional learning, like pinpointing feelings and teaching children how to resolve conflicts. They also use books with interesting characters and storylines to enhance empathy and help children understand the emotions of others.

These noncognitive skills are now recognized to be as important for personal and public health outcomes as academic achievement. In fact, research has found that early prosocial behaviors in kindergarten predict whether a child will graduate from high school on time, obtain a college degree and be employed full-time in young adulthood.

Language and Literacy Development

Early language and literacy skills unfold naturally for young children as they interact with books, stories and the adults in their lives. Our current understanding of early literacy development emphasizes the importance of reading-rich experiences and discourages formal instruction that pushes young children to achieve adult models of reading and writing.

When children are ready for kindergarten, they typically know the names of all 26 letters of the alphabet and can recognize some 30 high-frequency words—words that appear frequently in text and tend to be spelled with predictable sounds (such as “the” and “in”). They also have an understanding of the conventions of print and are able to make early written marks.

The National Early Literacy Panel’s research identifies key indicators that predict later literacy success. New America is working to elevate the most important research about teaching and learning in kindergarten, identify bright spots, and promote state and local policies that create the conditions under which young children learn best.

Math and Science Development

While the growing national focus on reading is important, math and science also are vital to children’s success in school. Children learn about science and mathematics through a variety of experiences — from the natural world to their own everyday activities. For example, when children build with blocks, they gain valuable experiences involving shape, size and order. They also develop early math skills by counting and sorting them.

Discussion and representation, such as drawing and writing, support children’s inquiry and help them think about their experiences in new ways. In addition, when children connect mathematical ideas (for example, relating number to geometry, using arrays to understand number combinations and comparing objects), they strengthen concepts in both areas and learn that mathematics is a coherent system of ideas.

It is also important that children have opportunities to work in small groups to discuss and represent their ideas. This encourages collaboration and teamwork, and it helps children refine their thinking and language skills.

Independent and Self-Assurance

The confidence and self-esteem children build during their early years impact the way they navigate their world. A child who is confident and feels good about themselves will be able to take on challenges with resilience and perseverance. It’s our job to help children feel this way, right from birth.

Encouraging independence during daily routines and activities helps children feel capable. Giving kids opportunities to practice and master personal tasks like feeding themselves, brushing their teeth, putting on their shoes, and washing their hands enables them to develop the necessary skills for future growth.

It’s important to give kids short periods of time to struggle, and then praise them for their hard work. It will encourage them to continue attempting and completing tasks independently, and it will rewire their brains for future success. It will also set a foundation of self-reliance and confidence in their abilities that they can carry into elementary school and beyond.

Reading intervention is intensive, personalized instruction to help students who need extra support with their reading. It is one part of a school’s RTI or Multi-Tiered System of Support process.

The research on reading intervention shows positive effects for students in upper elementary grades on standardized foundational and comprehension reading outcomes. However, few studies examined multicomponent interventions or group sizes that vary by student needs.

Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction is teacher-led, interactive instruction in which teachers explain content or skills using clear and unambiguous language followed by teacher modeling and scheduled opportunities for practice. This is a teaching approach that has been shown to be effective for students with LDs.

Comprehension is an orchestrated product of linguistic and cognitive processes that interact with a text, its context, and the reader’s prior knowledge, skills, and beliefs. It is important for students to have sufficient background knowledge and reading proficiency to understand grade-level text.

Explicit instruction can be used to teach students the reading strategies that are most relevant to their needs, including questioning, visualizing, monitoring/clarifying, inferring and summarizing. Explicit instruction also can be used to build phonological awareness, phonics, and literacy vocabulary. This includes naming and recognizing upper and lowercase letters, sorting consonant sounds, blending sounds to form words, and decoding multi-syllable words. It can also be used to build morphological awareness by teaching the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, and base words.

Repeated Reading

Repeated reading is a simple but highly effective strategy for improving students’ fluency (the speed at which they read with accuracy and expression) and comprehension. Students with poor fluency have trouble comprehending what they read and are prone to miscues. Originally, repeated reading was geared towards students with disabilities that impact fluency but recent research indicates that most students can benefit from this strategy.

In timed repeated reading, a student reads a passage a set number of times to improve their reading rate which leads to improved fluency and comprehension. It can be done alone or in a group, and it is often done with a stop watch to allow for the student to see their growth over time.

Another way to use this reading strategy is through assisted repeated reading in which a teacher or peer models the re-reading of a text. Students then practice reading chorally with each other over the course of several re-readings.

Guided Oral Reading

Students practice reading aloud passages that are at their instructional level. They are listened to and guided by the teacher or a peer as they read to improve their reading fluency. This strategy can also be called guided repeated oral reading, neurological impress, paired reading, shared reading and collaborative or assisted oral reading (NRP, 2012).

The goal is for students to move to a point in the text where they are making very few errors per page so that they no longer need to focus on decoding. When this happens, the teacher can shift the focus of the lesson to comprehension skills.

Guided reading is an evidence-based approach developed in New Zealand and later expanded upon by Lesley University’s own Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas. It is an effective supplemental intervention and can be found in many reading programs across the country. A recent study comparing a GR approach to explicit instruction and typical school reading instruction, found that students in the GR group performed significantly better than those in the EX group on untimed word identification.

Oral Language Development

Developing students’ spoken language is an essential component of reading instruction. Oral language development activities that target specific lexical items can help to develop the child’s vocabulary and grammatical skills, enabling them to understand more about the story they read.

Effective phonics instruction for struggling readers should go beyond decoding single-syllable words to include strategies for recognizing word parts, such as roots and affixes. It should also incorporate strategies for encoding multisyllabic words, such as blending syllables and using consonant clusters, to improve decoding accuracy.

Studies of vocabulary and oral language interventions for struggling readers show that these approaches have large impacts on reading outcomes, with an average impact of six months’ additional progress. However, the impact on comprehension remains small. This may be due to the small number of studies that address these areas and use unstandardized measures such as skill inventories or informal diagnostic measures closely aligned with the intervention. Additionally, the effects of these interventions are influenced by the length and intensity of the program.

Children’s education helps them develop self-discipline and become more independent. Educators use different activities to teach them how to manage their behaviour in new environments.

They learn to listen and respect others’ opinions, take turns in conversations, and interact positively with each other. This experience also teaches them to live in a diverse society and understand that everyone has different skills and talents.

Learning through play

Play, in all its forms — solitary, dramatic, parallel, social, cooperative, onlooker, object, fantasy, or physical – is an effective teaching strategy (Parker and Thomsen 2020). Learning through play offers a unique opportunity for children to practice skills that are not readily available when they complete worksheets.

During their play, children learn to think creatively and solve problems. They also learn to take risks and manage emotions. They develop communication skills through verbal and non-verbal dialogue with their peers, and they can build their vocabulary as they learn about new topics.

Teachers are well versed in creating playful and joyful experiences to support social goals, but they may need additional guidance to incorporate learning through play as a pedagogy to meet more content-focused educational objectives. Research supports that discovery-based guided play results in greater learning than direct instruction for all learners. This includes spatial learning (Fisher et al. 2013), reading and writing (Moedt & Holmes 2020), and mathematics (Zosh et al. 2018).

Social and emotional development

Children need healthy social and emotional development to learn and grow. It’s how they understand who they are and their relationships with others. It’s how they experience and regulate their emotions, develop close relationships with adults, actively explore their environment and learn. It’s what they need to be successful at school and throughout their lives.

Parents and caregivers play the biggest role in social-emotional learning, offering consistent experiences with young children through predictable interactions. Educators can support social-emotional development by incorporating activities that encourage interaction, taking turns and discussing emotions with young children. They can also help children understand their emotions by describing their own feelings and modeling how to calm down. They can provide challenges that require perseverance, such as encouraging children to keep trying at something they are having trouble with. And they can use screening tools like ASQ:SE-2 to reveal social-emotional strengths and identify any needs. This helps children feel confident and motivated to learn.

Physical development

Physical development allows children to explore their environment fully, and it contributes to cognitive development. For example, infants and toddlers who are physically healthy and active are more likely to interact with their environment and other people, and they are able to express their emotions in ways that allow them to communicate clearly.

They may show a range of movements such as balancing, jumping and stepping as well as imitating animals and playing with large ball games. They can also learn to ride on larger equipment such as bicycles or push prams.

One theory of child development is the nature vs nurture perspective, which recognises that both genes and experiences play a role in children’s physical development. For example, some children have stronger muscles than others, because their central and large muscle groups develop quicker. This is because they are exposed to more stimulation and activities, which build up myelinisation (the process of strengthening nerve fibre connections). This is why it is important to expose children to a wide variety of activities and environments.

Cognitive development

Cognitive development involves children’s reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, and understanding skills. It is one of four significant developmental domains that include physical, social-emotional, and language development.

The understanding that young children construct information based on their lay theories can help teachers and parents design more effective educational materials for them. For example, research indicates that a child’s implicit theory about weight and volume can significantly influence their ability to perform a simple arithmetic task or participate in a classroom science experiment.

Piaget proposed that children progress through a series of discrete stages: the sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2), the preoperational thinking stage (2 to 6 or 7 years), the concrete operational thinking stage (6 or 7 to 11 or 12 years) and finally the formal operational reasoning stage (12 or 13 years and throughout life). Each of these stages is characterized by a transformation of the thought processes of the previous one. For instance, at the concrete operational stage, a child can think logically about tangible objects and events but cannot reason hypothetically.

Education support services are designed to help students overcome obstacles that may interfere with their learning. These challenges can include financial difficulties, mental health issues, and social problems.

Education support services should adopt a learner-centered approach and be personalized, customizable, and accessible for all learners. They should also be integrated with new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

1. Personalization and customization

Personalization and customization improve user engagement and make them feel that a business cares about their specific needs and interests. This increases loyalty and encourages them to engage with the brand again in the future. However, it is important to note that these tactics should be used thoughtfully and should not be seen as a fix for poor website design or content.

Education support services include tutoring, counseling, mentoring, coaching, training, scholarships and awards, career guidance, learning centers, and many other programs and initiatives. They may be provided by students, teachers, parents, volunteers, community organizations, or other stakeholders.

ESPs are the backbone of the public school district system and play a critical role in classroom learning, student health and wellness, and maintaining quality schools. It is vital that ESPs are recognized and rewarded for their contributions to education. This can be done by recognizing their work, achievements, and accomplishments in the communities that they serve and supporting them through professional development opportunities and recognition programs.

2. Enhance coordination and collaboration

Education support professionals are critical to the student learning experience. From paraeducators, to secretaries, to custodians, cafeteria workers, security and technology staff, ESPs play many roles to help students succeed and provide valuable educational services.

Coordination and collaboration between education support services and other stakeholders in a school can help improve student outcomes. A collaborative approach can ensure a holistic learning experience and promote student-centered pedagogy.

Teachers should also collaborate to enhance their teaching effectiveness, satisfaction, and quality. This can be done by providing them with professional development opportunities and coaching, as well as supporting their career growth and advancement through mentoring programs, performance-based compensation, and recognition.

Furthermore, educators should foster a culture of shared learning by sharing resources, such as lesson plans, study guides, and other references. They should also be open to new ideas and perspectives and willing to adapt their strategies to meet students’ unique needs. This will enable them to develop a diversified and accommodating learning environment that caters to each student’s individual strengths, weaknesses, and preferences.

3. Increase resources and funding

Education support services can improve student achievement by providing guidance and resources to students, teachers, parents, volunteers, communities, organizations, and governments. These can include tutoring, mentoring, coaching, counseling, and other services.

The availability of these services is critical, but they need adequate and sustainable funding. This could involve increasing the allocation and distribution of public funds for education support services, as well as seeking alternative or additional sources of funding, such as grants, donations, or partnerships.

Education funding is a national responsibility, and the federal government should take on a greater role in it. This could involve increasing the amount of ongoing funding available to school districts and ensuring that this funding is available when needed, as well as providing more support during economic downturns, by making school spending one of the country’s countercyclical “automatic stabilizers,” boosting aggregate demand in times of economic contraction. This would disproportionately benefit low-income communities, which suffer the most during downturns.

4. Enhance transparency and accountability

A central challenge in coordinating and evaluating education support services is the need to enhance transparency and accountability. In this respect, parents play important roles as grassroots advocates and vigilant overseers of accountability. They are often able to raise awareness of concerns about educational plans and policies, thereby contributing to their improved quality.

However, it is critical to note that some issues cannot be publicly disclosed and remain confidential by law, such as student privacy and medical issues. In this regard, it is essential to provide space for structured democratic voice that can help prevent mistrust and polarization in the discourse about transparency and accountability in education.

For instance, a 2022 study found that state-level political orientation correlated with the policies adopted by the states, with politically liberal states more likely to emphasize SQSS measures and less likely to use standardized testing to punish or reward schools (Portz and Beauchamp, 2020). Moreover, transparency reforms must be aligned with points of decisionmaking and responsibility.

Schools are organized spaces that teach students. They may include classrooms, cafeterias, and libraries. They can also include specialized rooms, such as science or industrial arts classrooms.

Students are surrounded by hundreds of people their age. This teaches them how to act in society and communicate.

School means instruction, and it implies that students should be able to master the subject. But that is not always the case.

They teach

School teachers must learn how to run a classroom. The school should be a place of studious calm, hospital quiet. A teacher should be able to keep the students’ attention without resorting to discipline or punishment. Students should be able to focus on learning, and a school should encourage them to develop their own interests.

The teaching skills required to do this are complex and include knowledge of the subject matter, an understanding of student needs, and the ability to build relationships with students. Some schools also employ community educators, social workers, and mental health professionals to help students overcome challenges and barriers to learning. Others partner with local nonprofits and university programs to offer services like health and financial counseling, as well as summer programs that allow students to explore topics they are interested in, such as art and film.

Sadly, good teachers are hard to find. There is a shortage nationwide, and even in places with plentiful schools, it can be challenging to find people who are both willing and able.

They care

In addition to teaching students how to read and write, schools also give them the skills they need to succeed in life. They teach them to problem-solve and think critically, which are valuable in the workplace. They also give them a sense of responsibility and a willingness to work with others.

Besides learning, school provides opportunities for students to develop a passion and interest in subjects that appeal to them. For example, students may pursue their interests in art, science, and history. They can also make valuable connections with peers and mentors, which may help them later in their careers.

Research shows that students’ feelings of belonging and relationships with teachers are central to their motivation, engagement, and academic success. These feelings are shaped by the school’s culture and climate. A good school prioritizes relationship-building and community by making its policies, curriculum, and technology less visible than its students, joy, and hope. This is how a school can truly care about its students.

They challenge

A good school challenges its students, allowing them to learn more and think creatively. Providing them with opportunities to collaborate and work with others also helps them develop empathy, which can have a positive impact on their lives beyond the classroom.

Some schools still sort students by ability and prevent them from accessing top-level courses. This can lead to a lack of challenge in the classroom, and many high school students feel that their classwork is too easy.

Schools that support the whole child have a powerful impact on their communities. They can implement comprehensive multi-tiered systems of supports that include social emotional learning curriculum and intervention programs to reduce mental health concerns. They can also establish school-based health centers (SBHCs), which provide students with access to medical care and support services. These strategies can help improve student attendance and graduation rates. They can also increase the quality of student interactions and build community spirit.

They prepare

Teachers need to help their students prepare for standardized tests by teaching them basic test-taking strategies. They should also encourage their students to practice at home. This is a great way to combat the high-stakes stress that many students experience around testing.

The character of schools has varied over time. The traditional schools of the past were one-room schoolhouses with a teacher for each class. Some had a cafeteria and other general facilities. These were often in rural areas and were considered inefficient. Now, we have huge buildings where hordes of kids jostle each other during class-change time. Armed security guards patrol the halls, and teachers fear physical attack.

A good school is a place where students get along and support each other. It also uses every resource, advantage, gift and opportunity to grow its students. It understands that students come from different backgrounds and ages, and it connects them with other schools. It also sees itself as a part of an ecologies of ideas, cultures and communities.