The Rhode Island Board of Education adopted the Rhode Island Early Childhood Learning and Development Standards on May 23, 2013. The Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant provided funds for the revision and expansion of the state’s early learning and development standards.

Charting the Course for Success: Rhode Island’s Early Childhood Learning and Development Standards were made possible by many dedicated individuals giving countless hours to the project. We are grateful for the multitude of early childhood stakeholders: The RI Early Learning Council (ELC), ELC Early Learning and Development Standards Subcommittee, family child care providers, child care administrators and teachers, Head Start, providers participating in BrightStars, RIDE Pre K, public school, and special education programs and parents who provided input and made recommendations that enriched the level of content and quality of the standards. Rhonda Farrell of the Rhode Island Head Start Association, and Colleen Dorian of Family Child Care Homes of Rhode Island deserve special recognition for arranging the many public feedback sessions. Special thanks to Leslie Gell from Ready to Learn Providence and Simmy Carter and Bryna Hebert of the Providence Center for ensuring the voice of the Spanish speaking early childhood community was incorporated into these standards.

We must also recognize those who were instrumental in drafting multiple versions of the early learning and development standards:

The Core Team:

Kristen Greene
Rhode Island Department of Education

Michele Palermo
Rhode Island Department of Education

Susan Dickstein, PhD
Bradley Hospital Early Childhood Center/Brown Medical School
Rhode Island Association for Infant Mental Health

Ruth Gallucci
Rhode Island Department of Education

Brenda Duhamel
Rhode Island, Office of Health and Human Services

Sara Mickelson
Rhode Island Department of Education

Judi Stevenson-Garcia
Rhode Island Department of Education

Consultants and National Experts:

Clancy Blair
Professor of Applied Psychology, New York University

Douglas H. Clements
Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and Professor, University of Denver

Linda Espinosa
Professor of Early Childhood Education (Ret.) University of Missouri, Colombia

Kathleen Hebbeler
Manager of the Community Services and Strategies Program, SRI International

Linda Kimura
Director, Babies Can’t Wait

Jeffrey Capizzano
Policy Equity Group

Catherine Scott-Little
Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina

Dorothy Strickland
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor of Education Emerita, Rutgers, The State University of NJ

Karen Anderson
Education Development Center, Inc

Jackie Bourassa
Education Development Center, Inc