Overview

The Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards, Revised 2023 are the framework that provides guidance to early childhood educators regarding the developmental milestones that children should achieve by the end of their pre-kindergarten year. The pre-K standards have many uses and impact Nevada's youngest children. From supporting teachers writing Individualized Education Plans to guiding leaders responsible for planning and delivering early childhood education programs, the standards provide indicators, examples of what a child may do, and supportive practices a practitioner may implement in the learning environment. Statewide early childhood educators rely on the pre-K standards to ensure they are providing quality instruction.

The Standards support play-based classroom environments, early childhood curriculum, and instruction in all early childhood classrooms and programs serving pre-kindergarten children across the state, including childcare centers, family childcare homes, Head Start, preschools, school district pre-kindergarten programs, and more.

The Executive Summary of the Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards, Revised 2023 provides a description of the following:

• Purpose of the Pre-Kindergarten Standards
• Pre-Kindergarten Standards Domains and Indicators
• Historic Timeline of the Nevada Pre-Kindergarten Standards & K-12 Alignment
• 2023 Revision Process
• Comparison of 2023 Revision to 2010 Revision (What’s changed?)
• Pre-Kindergarten Standards Roll-Out, Dissemination, Professional Development, and Training

We are collecting input and feedback regarding the dissemination and roll-out plan for the revised standards. Please visit https://bit.ly/NevadaPKStandards2023Voice to share your ideas with us.

The Standards are vertically aligned with Nevada’s K-12 Academic Content Standards (Nevada Department of Education, n.d.) for kindergarten as well as with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (Office of Head Start, n.d.). In anticipation of future updates and revisions to these standards, and with a commitment to consistently provide Nevada’s early educators with the most up-to-date information, the alignment charts you may be familiar with have been moved out of this document. The Nevada Department of Education is in the process of creating the early learning standards alignment chart.

The Standards are organized in eight* domains and include indicators of children’s early learning and development, examples of how children might demonstrate each indicator, and supportive practices for teachers and practitioners.

1. Approaches to Learning
2. Social Studies
3. Health, Safety, and Physical Development
4. Language and Early Literacy
5. Science
6. Technology
7. Creative Expression
8. Mathematics

*Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards are currently being developed by a statewide stakeholder workgroup facilitated by the Nevada Department of Education to align this domain from the early years through grade 12 and are therefore not included in this release. SEL is, however, a critical domain of early learning to be considered and implemented in all early childhood settings.

The Standards incorporate two new domains: Approaches to Learning and Technology. These domains have been added to lay foundations for critical skills as young children develop their own approaches to learning, and in acknowledgement of the central role that technology plays in modern life, information-gathering, problem-solving, and communication skills.