• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

SEL Center

Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety

  • Peer Collaboratives
    • Transforming Kindergarten
    • Data for Truth and Action
    • Comprehensive School Safety
    • Alignment, Coherence, and Strategic Communication
  • State Profiles
  • Resources
  • News
  • Events
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us

Transforming Kindergarten

Supporting transitions to kindergarten and developmentally appropriate practices that focus on social and emotional development and well-being for our youngest learners.

A transformative Kindergarten experience can be a powerful lever for equity. Social and emotional development and well-being in early education experiences are essential to creating the conditions in which young children become successful lifelong learners.

The Transforming Kindergarten Multi-State Collaborative was a year-long experience for state education leaders designed to support their work to ensure young children experience equitable and developmentally appropriate conditions for learning.

The resources below represent key resources that the Collaborative drew upon to learn about and address key issues of developmentally appropriate practices in kindergarten, equitable transitions to kindergarten, and standards and policy guidance for states working to improve their support for kindergarten students, teachers, families, and administrators.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement

Elements of High Quality Kindergarten

Video Series: How Learning Happens

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Kindergarten Observation Guide

Equitable Transitions to Kindergarten

Understanding Cross-Systems Transitions from Head Start to Kindergarten: A Review of the Knowledge Base and a Theory of Change

A Toolkit for Effective and Supportive Transitions for Children, Families, and Educators in Fall 2021 and Beyond

Transitions and Alignment from Preschool to Kindergarten

Kindergarten Tool Kit

Standards and Policy Guidance

State Policies to Enhance Transitions into Kindergarten

Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating P-3 Approaches

Early Learning Standards and Guidelines

Taking Back Kindergarten: Rethinking Rigor for Young Learners

Case Stories

From Alignment to Action: Nevada’s Work to Expand Developmentally Appropriate Kindergarten Practices

Achieving a Shared Statewide Vision for Kindergarten in Hawai‘i

 

Click here to access a full list of resources related to transforming kindergarten and related state examples.

 

< Back to Peer Collaboratives

Footer

Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety
  • Peer Collaboratives
    • Transforming Kindergarten
    • Data for Truth and Action
    • Comprehensive School Safety
    • Alignment, Coherence, and Strategic Communication
  • State Profiles
  • Resources
  • News
  • Events
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us

Learn about new SEL & School Safety Resources

Receive our newsletter with the latest SEL & School Safety news, opportunities, and resources

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SEL Center is a project of WestEd. WestEd is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency that partners with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children and adults. Visit WestEd.org.

This website and the resources it contains are provided for the user’s convenience. The inclusion of these materials is not intended to reflect its importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered. These materials may contain the views and recommendations of various subject matter experts as well as hypertext links, contact addresses and websites to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. The opinions expressed in any of these materials do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any outside information included in these materials.

This site and its contents copyright © 2023 WestEd. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Disclaimer