4 | Maryland Early Learning Standards Birth - 8 Years
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Early learning standards define the key aspects of development and learning that are the foundation for a child’s school
and life-long success. By outlining the expectations for what children should know and be able to do at different ages
of early childhood, these standards represent the developmental and learning goals that early childhood administrators
and educators strive to meet for the children they serve. While the progress of children toward the standards will vary
depending on a variety of factors, the standards act as a guide for the pedagogical and programmatic decisions of early
childhood programs and providers. Decisions related to curriculum, assessment, professional development and family
engagement, among others, should be made with child progress toward the standards in mind.
For early childhood programs in Maryland, expectations are defined by a set of early learning standards that came from
two sources: These are Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age
and the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards for Pre-K - 12.
Healthy Beginnings was developed by the Maryland Department of Education and provides early learning standards for
children birth through three-years-old. The document is intended for use by families or early childhood practitioners
living or working with infants or very young children (i.e., end of age four). The Maryland College and Career-Ready
Standards were developed by the Maryland Department of Education to align to the K-12 Common Core standards that
were adopted in 2010. The Maryland Early Learning Standards document includes the prekindergarten to grade 2 portion
of the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards.
In 2003, to help providers navigate the different standards, the Maryland Department of Education created a standards
alignment document. The document was developed to illustrate that there was in fact strong commonality among the
standards, and created a common frame of reference so providers could work collaboratively with families to meet
expectations regardless of the funding stream or program setting. Since the creation of that document, however, new
versions of two of the standards documents have been published. Healthy Beginnings replaced the Maryland Guidelines
for Healthy Child Development and Care for Young Children, and the Maryland College and Career- Ready Standards
replaced the Common Core Frameworks and the State Curriculum.
The full document provides an updated alignment based on the most recent versions of these early learning standards. The
goal of this Executive Summary document is to provide examples from the standards in each of the content areas.
The areas include: Language and Literacy, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Health, Physical Education, Fine Arts and
Social Foundations.