Early Childhood Learning Priority Group
The mission of the Early Childhood Learning group is to provide opportunities and resources for early learners participating in high quality STEM learning experiences inside and outside of school.
About Us
The Early Learning priority group is working together to:
- Create a definition for what a “high quality” early childhood education is.
- Identify baseline data to determine an increase in numbers.
- Identifying evaluative resources to measure “high quality” support for educators and administrators to revise current programming.
- Compile research of early STEM learning nationally.
- Scale best practices in ecosystems.
- Develop online STEM resources for early learning educators.
- Create more early learning STEM resources for families to use at home.
- Change State licensing of early childhood centers to include STEM emphasis.
Never Too young to Start STEM
According to the Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education, quality early STEM experiences provide a critical foundation for learning about these disciplines in ways that facilitate later learning.
Early Childhood Education Stats
Students as young as two use STEM skills on a daily basis, whether it's building towers with blocks to using water tables or observing and interacting with their environments through play.
According to the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) report, 66 percent of fourth graders are not proficient in science and 60 percent were not proficient in math.
Of the roughly 225,000 3- and 4-year-olds in New Jersey, 144,000, or 64 percent, attend some kind of preschool or child care center.
Check Out Our Work
The Early Learning priority group has worked on various initiatives over the last two years to meet their goals. Most recently, the group released the flyers below as part of their Explore STEM series.
