The Early Years are Learning Years
Children who participate in high quality early childhood education develop better language skills, score higher in school-readiness tests and have better social skills and fewer behavior problems once they enter school.
The Tennessee Early Childhood Education Early Learning Developmental Standards, or TN-ELDS, were first developed in 2004 to provide documentation of the continuum of developmental milestones from birth through age five based on the research about the processes, sequences, and long term consequences of early learning and development. The standards for 4 year-olds were revised and adopted by the State Board of Education in August 2012. These revised standards provide a direct alignment with the content areas found in Tennessee’s state English language arts and mathematics standards as well as the Tennessee state standards for kindergarten. The birth-48 months standards were revised in 2013 and adopted by the State Board of Education in January 2014. These revised standards continue to be a resource for educators, child care providers, and families who work with children in this age range.