Crafting Early Learning Standards for a Multi-Ethnic Society: Lessons Learned from Washington and Alaska

Early learning standards or benchmarks are at the core of society’s defining how and what children need to learn, what is expected of them at different developmental stages, and what caregivers and educators are expected to do in helping them learn. This policy brief describes the experiences in Washington and Alaska so that other states can learn from and build upon their pioneering and important efforts to address language and cultural issues in the development of guiding frameworks and expectations for how young children grow and acquire knowledge.