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A high-quality preschool education can foster critical development and learning that promotes joyful, affirming, and enriching learning opportunities that prepare children for success in school and life. While preschool programs generally provide emotionally supportive environments, their curricula often fall short in advancing learning in math, early literacy, and science, and lack the necessary support for multilingual learners emerging bilingualism. Additionally, access to high-quality, effective early learning experiences may be limited and inadequate based on factors such as a childs race, location, gender, language, identified disability, and socioeconomic status.

A New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum examines preschool curriculum quality for children from ages three to five, with special attention to the needs of Black and Latine children, multilingual learners, children with disabilities and children experiencing poverty in the United States. The report articulates a vision for high-quality preschool curricula for all children, grounded in an equity and justice-oriented principles from inception to implementation and evaluation.

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Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

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A New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum

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Read online, download a free PDF, or order a copy in print.

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Ohio believes that all students deserve to be engaged with high-quality, standards-aligned instruction which includes access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM).

High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) support educators with:

Standards-aligned instructional content.

A coherent scope and sequence for grade-level lessons and unit plans.

Evidence-based instructional strategies and embedded formative assessments that support data-driven instruction.

Educative materials that provide implementation support for educators to ensure all students' learning needs are met.

The time a child spends in school is precious and should ensure all aspects of a child's well-being are addressed, including the physical, social, emotional and intellectual aspects. As part of a focus on increasing student learning, the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce believes in providing support for building leaders and teachers to locally review, select and implement high-quality instructional materials. The Office of Learning and Instructional Strategies is committed to leading this work.

Teachers are among one of the most powerful advocates for our children. The instructional materials teachers choose to expose their students to matters. Now more than ever, teachers deserve great instructional materials, so they can focus on doing what they do best: getting students excited to learn. There is mounting evidence that shows when teachers have high-quality instructional materials, they can focus their time and energy on addressing the individual needs of each student.

District Spotlight

Materials Matter in Mt. Healthy City Schools

"The Curriculum Support Guide has forever changed how Mt. Healthy will do curriculum and adopt and implement materials." - Jana Wolfe, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Mt. Healthy City Schools.

Ohio Curriculum Support Guide

The Department partnered with Instruction Partners to develop the Ohio Curriculum Support Guide. Research shows that providing teachers with high-quality instructional materials is an effective strategy for increasing student learning. However, teachers need much more than a box of new materials to ensure great teaching and learning take place. They need support from a team of leaders who know how to select, prepare for and support the use of great materials.

Through this partnership, a five-part webinar series was created to support district leaders and members of school-based teams with curriculum adoption and implementation using the Ohio Curriculum Support Guide.

Additional Resources

As a local control state, districts and schools in Ohio make important decisions regarding instructional materials. There are growing efforts to support this decision-making process.

Ohio Materials Matter:

Provides expert curriculum reviews through EdReports, which consists of K-12 English Language Arts, Math and Science instructional materials.

Assists with determining whether instructional materials are aligned to Ohio's Learning Standards in English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science.

Developed in partnership with INFOhio and EdReports.

The Ohio Improvement Process (OIP) is a system framework of collaborative team protocols to analyze data, research aligned improvement strategies, implement and monitor strategies, provide feedback to teams and determine effectiveness based on performance and implementation data. Educators will find resources within the Continuous Improvement Toolkit.

The Learning Management System provides free courses and professional development on important state education initiatives for educators who have active or pending, Ohio, prekindergarten-12, Department-issued licenses or permits and who have fully set-up their OH|ID account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read the Frequently Asked Questions about High-Quality Instructional Materials for more information. Please contact OHMaterialsMatter@education.Ohio.gov with additional questions or comments.

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Ohio believes that all students deserve to be engaged with high-quality, standards-aligned instruction which includes access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) support educators with:  Standards-aligned instructional content.  A coherent scope and sequence for grade-level lessons and unit plans.   Evidence-based instructional strategies and embedded formative assessments that support data-driven instruction.  Educative materials that provide implementation support for educators to ensure all students' learning needs are met.

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Ohio's Ready School Guide for Language and Literacy and Implementing Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement: A Guide for Early Care and Education Leaders is available to support the implementation of evidence-based practices in Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement for children birth - kindergarten entry. Administrators in early care and education have a crucial role to play in enhancing language and literacy outcomes in their programs. Meaningful change must address four key areas: High-Quality Instruction, Key Beliefs and Dispositions, Family Partnerships and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. Additional resources are available below as part of the Birth-Kindergarten entry Toolkit.
For questions about Ohio's Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant, please contact ComprehensiveLiteracy@education.ohio.gov.
High-Quality Instruction

IES Practice Guide: Preparing Young Children for School: details seven evidence-based practices designed to be used by teachers; center and program directors; district or state personnel involved in adopting curricula for preschool programs; and parents and caregivers.

This Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy was developed to support preschool teachers through collaborative learning experiences in a professional learning community (PLC). This suite of materials was prepared in collaboration with the REL Southeast School Readiness Partnership and includes four modules: Print Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Oral Language.

Ohio's Early Learning and Development Standards in all domains of school readiness to reflect the comprehensive development of children beginning at birth to the end of preschool.

Cox Campus' coursework allows educators the opportunity to expand their professional knowledge of the emergent and early language and literacy development for children birth through kindergarten entry. Always no cost and now Ohio Approved through OCCRRA, early childhood educators can earn a credential from the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy based on the level of coursework completed.

Key Beliefs and Dispositions

Family Partnerships

Reframing Family, School, and Community Engagement: A communications toolkit. is designed to collectively build the understanding and support needed to change the narrative around family, school, and community engagement.

Center for Early Literacy Learning: Parent and Practitioner Practice Guides include educator and family-friendly language and literacy practice guides for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Day by Day Ohio provides a perpetual calendar featuring songs, language and literacy activities, book suggestions, and videos.

Introduction to Building School-Family Partnerships: A Guide for School Leaders contains the basics of high-quality family engagement practices. It is written with school leaders in mind, with examples of how to support system-wide improvements in schools.

The Understanding Evidence-Based Literacy Practices PreK-3: Family Edition toolkit is available from the National Center on Improving Literacy

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

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Emergent Literacy: Supporting Learners Birth through Kindergarten Entry

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Ohio's Ready School Guide for Language and Literacy and Implementing Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement: A Guide for Early Care and Education Leaders is available to support the implementation of evidence-based practices in Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement for children birth - kindergarten entry.

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ODE Emergent Literacy Series (Birth - Age 5)

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Welcome to the Ohio of Department of Education Emergent Literacy Series, a flexible, facilitated professional learning for educators serving children from birth through age five!