Whole Child Spotlight: The Centrality of Early-Grade Learning

Sean Slade

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Instructional Strategies

Is it true that everything you needed to know about life you learned in kindergarten? Maybe not, but research indicates that a high-quality education in the first few years of school can increase children's success in reading, writing, and math; close achievement gaps; and set the foundation for healthy and engaged citizenship.

In a recent presentation, Andreas Schleicher, the director for Education and Skills at the OECD, highlighted two key areas that were apparent in leading school systems around the world. They are: (1) a strong focus on early childhood education, and (2) a philosophy stemming out of that focus that education is as much social as it is academic.

These areas echo at least the premise of the notion that everything we need to learn we learned in kindergarten. That may seem like a simplistic take, but it does highlight the fact that a strong foundation that is grounded in relationships is a key driver of student success. As Schleicher noted in an OECD 2019 report on "Helping Our Youngest to Learn and Grow":

Children learn at a faster rate during the first five years of their life than at any other time, developing cognitive and social and emotional skills that are fundamental to their future achievements and well-being throughout childhood and as adults.

This focus on the importance of rich and supportive learning in the early grades is integral to ASCD's Whole Child approach to education, which sees every child as unique and full of potential and emphasizes not only the academic but also the well-being and social-emotional development of students.

—Sean Slade, ASCD Sr. Director, Global Outreach

Key Whole Child Indicators Related to Early-Grade Learning

Our school culture supports and reinforces the health and well-being of each student (Healthy, No. 1)
Our school integrates health and well-being into the school's ongoing activities, professional development, curriculum, and assessments practices (Healthy, No. 7).
Our physical, emotional, academic, and social school climate is safe, friendly, and student-centered (Safe, No. 3).
Our school teaches, models, and provides opportunities to practice social-emotional skills, including effective listening, conflict resolution, problem solving, personal reflection and responsibility, and ethical decision making (Safe, No. 7).
Our students feel valued, respected, and cared for and are motivated to learn (Safe, No. 4).
Our teachers use active learning strategies, such as cooperative learning and project-based learning (Engaged, No.1).
Our school ensures that adult-student relationships support and encourage each student's academic and personal growth (Supported, No. 3).
Each student in our school has access to challenging, comprehensive curriculum in all content areas (Challenged, No. 1).

To learn more about the Whole Child school indicators, visit www.ascd.org/whole-child. To join the Whole Child Network, go to www.ascd.org/wholechildnetwork.

Sean Slade is an education leader, speaker, and author, with nearly three decades of experience in education in the U.S. and globally. He serves as Head of BTS Spark, North America, the social impact arm of BTS focusing on educational leadership development. Prior to BTS Spark, Sean was senior director of global outreach at ASCD, where he launched and grew the ASCD Whole Child Network across 56 countries and led the development of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model (WSCC) with the CDC. His latest book is The Power of the Whole: What is Lost by Focusing on Individual Things.