Research On Systemic Building Of American Early Childhood Education And Its Inspiration

In recent years, aiming to ensure early education equity and to improve early education quality, a systemic approach has been implemented in the building of American early childhood education under the support of federal and state governments.With the utilization of methods of literature research and case study, this paper dwelled on the process, the contents and forms of systemic building of American early childhood education; and its inspiration on the quality improvement in China’s preschool education.The results indicated that many elements were incorporated in the systemic building of American early childhood education, namely early learning stands, early childhood assessment, early childhood professional development, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, management function based on the concept of "governance", and early education data system and so on. Early learning standards incorporated goals and expectations of learning and development in every domain for children of different age periods. Early childhood assessment identified individual needs and formed effective teaching strategies based on the scientific assessment on children’s performance in every domain. Early childhood professional development was strongly operable with the assisstance of professional standards, career pathways, accessibility, financing, data and advisory structure. Consisted of quality standards, accountability measurement, program and labor support, funding and methods of disseminating information to the public, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems quantified early education quality and disseminated quality information to the public. Management function based on the concept of "governance" affectively improved the management quality in American early childhood education with the forms of administrative integration, decentralization and privatization and functions of authority and accountability. Early education data system collected, used and shared data from such aspects as children, programs, labor and articulation with K-12education system, aiming to address the problems existing in these aspects and improve ongoing early education quality.The systemic building of American early childhood education was functioned in three ways. First, many elements existed and well functioned in the system. Second, the system selected qualified elements and rendered elements work well with others. Third, policy and financing support from federal and state governments were required to guarantee the ongoing operation of systemic building.Based on the aforementioned findings, the author of this paper dwelled on the necessity of systemic improvement of China’s preschool education quality first. With no doubt, systemic improvement of China’s preschool education quality was an inevitable way to correspond to China’s social revolution and development in post-industrial era, to ensure and improve the equity and quality of China’s preschool education, and to prevent and respond to critical incidents occurring in preschool education. Second, the author analyzed the current difficulties of systemic building of China’s preschool education quality improvement, which were lack of complete elements, the integration and coordination between elements, and equitable, regulatory and reasonable financing in China’s preschool education. At last, the author raised such suggestions as to make the systemic improvement of China’s preschool education quality as a development strategy; to optimize the systemic elements of preschool education quality improvement and to enhance integration and coordination between elements; to formulate and revise preschool education policies based on researches and evidences.