Running head: THE STATE OF EDUCATION 1

Developmentally Appropriate Education

Brett Jones

Ohio Christian University

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 2

Developmentally Appropriate Education

Introduction:

The state of education today is in a flux position. Education has been constantly changing

over the last several years that is moving the needle on education in sometimes-positive

directions and sometimes-negative directions. Over the last several years, education seems to be

moving in the right direction. This is the product of over many different things, but the main

thing is that research is allowing teachers to improve on things. Technology is also a huge deal in

education as it gives teachers more tools to affect their teaching.

What is important to understand in education is there are many factors that affect these

students. The website Seattle Pi has been quoted saying, “many outside factors can influence

how well a child is able to learn” (Ipatenco, 2018). They bring up four factors for every student

that parents need to consider of what is affecting their learning. The four factor that they bring up

are completely out of the student’s control, it is the parent, and teachers’ job to make sure that

they help the child in the best way possible. According to Ipatenco, these four factors are

learning disabilities, family factors, school factors and physical factors (Ipactenco, 2018). These

are bigger scope problems that the parents and teachers need to work together to improve.

There are also smaller factors that happen every day at school where teachers have to find

a way to make the best out of every situation. Some factors, teachers have a hard time controlling

but there are other factors that teachers can control if they have an understanding on what is

going on with them. Factors that teachers would have a hard time controlling is their home life

and poverty situations. Factors that they can help affect is things that many people would say

they cannot affect. One of those factors is how they interact socially. They can also affect

discipline in terms of teaching them how to be focused and mentally tough.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 3

The factors that teachers would have a hard time controlling are some of the biggest. The

home life of all these students effects their schoolwork. The value that parents hold on education

effects the value that students will have on their own education. This small factor at home can be

fixed in a way if you have great communication with the parents. However, what teachers do not

know about is whether parents are yelling at each other at home, or whether they are going to

bed at a reasonable time. They also cannot control the poverty situation of the students. If a

student’s parents do not have a whole lot of money, there is nothing a teacher can do to help that.

This can affect a student because kids will not be able to do things outside of school to make

friends with. It might affect whether they can go on school field trips or not.

Now the factors that teachers can control are equally as important as the ones that are

hard to control. Teachers have more control than what most people believe in terms of students

interacting socially with each other. Teachers can include everyone in terms of just making sure

that you try to make every student feel important. Teachers can also affect the discipline that

students have. Expectations and values are extremely important as students look at adults for

guidance on certain things. If you value the art of organization, some students will follow that.

The expectation for students to follow the rules and have respect will teach kids the art of

listening. These small things take discipline for kids to follow.

All these factors play an important role in education. The hard part about the way

education has been taught in the past is that it is hard to figure out what is going on in every

individual’s life. In the past, teachers have taught in a lot of whole class setting where only

certain groups of students are being reached. These whole class lessons don’t let you see which

kids are having problems, and it really doesn’t give you an opportunity to find out what the

problem is, as you are too focused on the whole class instead of the individual.
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 4

For this section, I did two interviews to discuss the state of education in their opinions.

Both people are teachers that I revere of who they are as people. Many teachers say that the

reason they go into teaching is so that they can make an impact on someone’s life. If I were to

look back at years in school these are the two teachers that had the biggest impact on my life.

They both had very similar views on the state of education. The first person I interviewed

is Josh Kirkpatrick who is currently in his first year as the vice principal at Vinton County High

School. He has been a teacher for the previous eighteen years at Vinton County where he has

taught 2nd grade for five years, 3rd grade for six years, 4th grade for one year, 6th grade for two

years and 7th grade for four years. The second person that I interviewed is Jon Lindner and is

currently in his twenty fourth year as a high school math teacher at Vinton County High School.

In these interviews, I asked both the same questions. The first question that I asked is

whether if they feel that teachers and educators are letting too many kids slip through the cracks.

I wanted to know that answer because of the research from the organization, National Center for

Education Statistics. This research says that the graduation rate with a normal diploma in the

United States was 84% during the 2015/2016 school year (NCES, 2018). Therefore, I wanted to

know as teachers that are inside the schools whether they feel that too many kids are slipping

through and what they can do to help reach those kids.

To answer that question, the first teacher I interviewed, Josh, stated “It’s important to

understand that the U.S as a country is much more heterogeneous and there are a lot of different

cultures in the U.S. These cultures have different values and different expectations in terms of

how they view education. If educators are truly going to be able to fix those numbers than as a

country, we are going to have to have set values that everyone can agree with to get everybody

on the same page” (Kirkpatrick, 2018). When asking Jon, the same question, he to pointed to a
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 5

structure problem. Jon said that he believed kids falling through cracks is a combination of over

testing. He believes these kids are so pressured when it comes to test taking that either they give

up by the time they are in high school, or they are just burnt out that education is not fun for

them anymore; or that teachers are not willing to meet them where they are at (Lindner, 2018).

In this question both teachers really pointed towards a structural problem at the national

level of education of why these kids are falling through the cracks. You can really see the

difference of tone between the two, as one of them has been a middle childhood teacher his

whole career, and the other one has been a high school teacher the whole time. The tone I really

got out of the middle school teacher is that the kids might want to learn but there is just not any

value on education. The tone I got out of the high school teachers is that kids are burnt out of

education by the time they get to the high school level.

When speaking of the graduation rates it’s important to know that the 2015/2016 school

year was actually a high since 2011 (Balingit, 2017). In saying that though, according to an

article written by Moriah Balingit, who worked for the Washington Post at the time, had this to

say, “The Obama administration considered the rise in graduation rates among its most important

achievements in education, but experts have cautioned those rates can be a poor measure of how

prepared young people are for work and higher education. Even as they are graduation at higher

rates, students’ performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test of

reading and math achievement, is unchanged or slipping.” (Balingit, 2017). With progress, we

might be finding out that were not really progressing that much.

Even though both teachers pointed towards a structural problem they both stated a more

local and individual way to improve the gap in education. They both said that establishing

genuine relationships with kids is the biggest factor in reaching kids. It goes way beyond your
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 6

ability to teach the classroom, but it goes to your personal skills these kids want to know that

your there for them. Josh Kirkpatrick made a great quote as he said, “middle school students will

bend over backwards for you if you show them you care (Kirkpatrick, 2018). According to

Kirkpatrick, relationships eliminate behavior problems and boosts class moral (Kirkpatrick,

2018).

As teachers who have been in the system, for over fifteen years I also asked them if they

thought there was progress in education in terms of teachers coming out of college more

prepared to teach. They both made the statement that they feel younger teachers certainly seem

to be improving the education system in their schools. When asked why this was, Josh said,

“teachers ten years younger than me are more open minded than teachers ten years older than

me” (Kirkpatrick, 2018). This made me ask a follow up question, as a new administrator what

your response would be if a teacher made the statement, “this method has worked for me in the

past, so I’m going to stick to it?” He responded by saying, “That is an interesting question, I

would ask them to show me proof that it works now, not in the past, now. Then I would show

him my proof, because there is scientific research that proves students learn certain ways. But,

it’s important that teachers have freedom in how they are teaching as one thing does not

necessarily work for another.”(Kirkpatrick, 2018).

After both interviews, teachers can come away that education is trending in the right

direction with open minded teachers. In saying that, both teachers seem to believe that the

structure of education, and values that we have as a country on education needs to improve, so

that we stop fewer kids from slipping through the cracks. Both teachers also agreed that where

teachers can make the most improvement is through genuine relationships with kids. This is the
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 7

biggest point, as when teachers talk about factors that affect students in education, it’s harder to

figure out what is going on an individual’s life without having a relationship with those students.

If we are truly going to fix the problem’s that we have in education, is it time to change

the main way that teachers have been teaching their kids in the past. These whole group lessons,

where it only targets the middle of the pack students really don’t give you a great chance to help

each individual student. What type of teaching that does help you create relationships with

students and to help each individual student is what is developmentally appropriate education

(DAE)? This type of education allows the teacher to focus more on the individuals in the

classroom than the whole class together.

The case has been made of why educations needs to find a way to improve teaching in

the classroom. Our graduation rate is not where we want it to be, as to many kids are slipping

through the cracks. Factors that affect these students are not getting fixed at school, where they

spend most of their time. Some teachers are not adapting to the changes of education as there are

more resources.

One of the biggest ways to fix this is start having teachers teach developmentally

appropriate education. Have the teachers focus on the individual and not the whole class. Make

sure that every individual feels special and that no one is getting left out of anything. This type of

teaching allows teachers to create relationships with students that let the students know not only

where they are at academically, but where they are at mentally and physically.
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 8

Definition:

According to NAEYC, “Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP),” also known as

developmentally appropriate education, “is an approach to teaching grounded in the research on

how young children develop and learn and in what is known about effective early education.

DAP involves teachers meeting young children where they are, both as individuals and as part of

a group; and helping each child meet challenging and achievable learning goals” (NAEYC,

2018). This definition might look like it doesn’t say a whole of what DAE is supposed to be, but

in all honesty is says exactly what is supposed to be the focus of DAE. The focus should be on

meeting young children where they are at as an individual.

That is an official definition, when I asked the question, “When you hear DAE or DAP

what is one characteristic in the classroom that the teacher is implementing?” to the first teacher I

interviewed Josh he gave a very simple but similar version of this definition. He said, “the

teacher recognizes what level each individual student is at, and the teacher meets them at that

level, instead of expecting the student to meet the teacher at their level” (Kirkpatrick, 2018). In

all honesty, this is basis of developmentally appropriate education. Teachers can accomplish this

though in a variety of ways, but what its important is for them to be open minded and be willing

to change.

Every year in education is completely different, just like every student is completely

different. One of the main problems in education in the past is that teachers have taught their

class based on where they need the class to get to. There are two problems with this approach.

Sometimes students are not where they need to be at the beginning of the school year, and all

students learn at different rates. If teachers are moving at their own pace, and only focusing on
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 9

the whole class, instead of the individuals in that class there is a good chance that some students

are not keeping up.

There are three core ideas that NAEYC likes the educators to consider when they are

teaching developmentally appropriate lessons. These three-core considerations are knowing

about child development and learning, knowing what is individually appropriate and knowing

what is culturally important (NAEYC, 2018). Notice none of these three considerations speak

about the ability to teach the content. They are all focused on factors outside of understanding the

different content areas in each subject.

The first core consideration is knowing about child development. Children at different

ages learn in different ways. It is important as educators to understand the research of which

ways students at that age will learn the best. If educators are understanding how each child is

developing, they will also be able to reach each student as they will have a better understanding

of what they are going through.

The second core consideration is knowing what is individually appropriate. Teachers

have the tendency to sometimes focus on the whole class instead of every single individual in

that class. This causes the students that are a little ahead of the curve to have to slow down and

probably not reach their full potential by the end of the school year. But it also causes the

students that are a little behind the curve to not catch up as usually teachers are hitting the people

right in the middle. If teachers get to know every individual, they would be able to see where

each student is at and be able to focus lessons on more for everyone. With this way, every

individual has the chance to improve throughout the year.

The last core consideration is knowing what is culturally important for these students.

The culture that these kids are raised in can vary and it’s important to know how they feel about
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 10

certain situations. If educators don’t understand what is culturally important to their students,

they can very easily say something that offends them. It won’t matter if the teacher doesn’t mean

what the student is taking it as, young students will very easily shut down on people.

These three considerations are very important in today’s education. If teachers consider

these three things, they will be able to get past some of the negative factors that effects the state

of education today. Knowing what is going on in everyone’s life won’t just help them in each

teacher’s classroom but will help each individual with the rest of their life in school. These three

core considerations talk about what teachers need to consider before instruction, but teachers also

need to consider the characteristics that take place during instruction that would be considered

developmentally appropriate.

These characteristics include really three different types of teaching. Many of the teachers

like to use the phrase ‘we do, they do, and I do,’ these phrases are known as guided practice,

group work, and individual work. The class is spread out into whole class, and then more

individualized, so that every individual is working towards one common goal or standard, but

they can do it in different ways, at different paces, and they are allowed to think differently.

These characteristics will make a developmentally appropriate lesson successful, but the

truth is that with DAE, there are multiple ways to attack a lesson. Not one way works for every

single teacher, but it’s important for each teacher to find what works best for them and apply it in

developmentally appropriate way. The most important part of any developmentally appropriate

lesson is differentiation.

Again, kids learn at different paces and in different ways. Lessons need to be designed to

fit every student’s needs. If not, then only certain kids are getting the benefits out of the lessons

and the other kids start falling through the cracks. To have a successful developmentally
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 11

appropriate lesson, then the lesson needs to fit every individual’s development process and not

just one group.

Review of Literature:

In the textbook Foundations of Education, written by Allan C. Ornstein, Daniel U.

Levine, Gerald L. Gutek and David E. Vocke, the writers lay out different types of instruction

that is used in the classroom. One of the types of instruction is differentiation, which is one of the

core values of DAE. All four of these authors have been professors at different college

universities. Allan C. Ornstein was a professor at St. John’s University; Daniel U. Levine was a

professor at Emeritus, University of Missouri and University of Nebraska; Gerald L. Gutek was a

professor at Emeritus and Loyola University Chicago; David E. Vocke was a professor at

Towson University. One paragraph in the textbook gives you a great example of what

differentiation can accomplish in a classroom.

“Proponents suggest that differentiated instruction is a particularly appropriate strategy

for classrooms in the twenty-first century. As NCLB requires that all students achieve

success in school, classrooms are likely to become more heterogeneously grouped.

Under-performing students who may have been sorted into lower tracked classes in the

past are likely to be mixed into more advanced classes in order to be prepared to attain

higher academic standards. Additionally, classrooms are likely to be more diverse as

schools continue to incorporate the inclusion of students with special needs. Based on the

varying needs of learners as they strive to master the curriculum, it is the instruction that

is to be differentiated, not the content. The goal through such instruction is that all
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 12

students should reach a similar level of mastery of the intended outcomes.” (Ornstein,

Levine, Gutek and Vocke, 2011).

Another scholar author that supports DAE is Laura Robb. In one of her published

works, Teaching Reading in Middle School, she lays out ways to teach developmentally

appropriate lessons. Her whole book is to instruct teachers the proper way to teach

reading at the middle school level. In her introductions, she writes a letter to the readers

that shows how strong she feels about DAE.

“By meeting middle school students where they are, offering them mental models

of what good readers do, and giving them the tools for making meaning, you and I

can prepare today’s students for the reading, thinking, and problem-solving

demands of their-changing global world.” (Robb, 2010).

She also shows supports later in the book, when discussing collaboration, which is

a big part of differentiation in the classroom.

“Collaboration, working and talking together to solve problems, to plan and

present projects to explore themes in texts, is the learning model of the twenty-

first century (Pink, 2005). Future generations will become the world’s problem

solvers, figuring out ways to avoid pandemics, safely use nuclear energy, and

maintain a stable global economy. Those students who can collaborate and engage

in meaningful talk, who can listen to and process group talk as well as work

independently, will have an advantage over students who learn in isolation

(Gardner, 2007; Pink, 2005; Vygotsky, 1978).” (Robb, 2010).

Another published scholar that supports DAE is Dr. Ellen Nancy McKenzie, who

is a professor at the University of New Orleans University. She writes this article that gets
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 13

published to inform teachers of the importance of focusing on the development of

children in the classroom. She does research that supports what she says, and in the

section that she talks about what is developmentally appropriate practice, the reader

really gets an idea on how she feels DAE helps a child. She goes on to state:

“Research supports the use of developmentally appropriate practices and connects

DAP to the developing brain of the young child (Rushton & Larkin, 2001). In

early childhood classrooms where learning is child initiated, children appear to be

more creative and to use more divergent thinking than students in more didactic,

academic-centered classrooms (Hyson, Hirsh-Pasek, & Rescorla, 1990).

Additionally, students in classrooms that incorporate DAP score higher on tests of

basic skills (Marcon, 2002) and display fewer stress behaviors, such as nail biting,

fidgeting, and aggressive behaviors than children in inappropriate environments

(Hart, Yang, Charlesworth, & Burts, 2003; Jackson, 2009). Further, students in

classrooms that incorporate DAP have stronger verbal skills (Dunn, Beach, &

Kontos, 1994, 2000) and demonstrate greater mastery of basic skills, including

receptive, expressive, and written communication skills; daily living skills;

interpersonal relationship and social skills; and gross and fine motor skills

(Marcon, 2002) than students taught in developmentally inappropriate settings.

Additionally, students in classes and child care facilities where DAP is used have

a higher view of their own self-competence (Jambunathan, Burts, & Pierce,

1999).” (Mckenzie, 2018).

Barbara Bowman, who teaches at the Erikson Institute in Chicago also has a

positive view on DAE. She describes how there are different methods to teaching
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 14

developmentally appropriate lesson, and that one size does not fit all. She also talks about

how this type of education does require teachers to work though. When talking about

DAE, Barbara states:

“Developmentally appropriate does not say exactly what and how to teach.

It provides a set of developmental principles and guidelines, and a number of

different activities may be used to respond to those principles. The teacher must

decide what is appropriate for a particular child or group of children at a particular

time and place. Developmentally appropriate has to be decided in the context of a

program with particular goals for particular children.” (Bowman, 2002).

A different paper I read that brought up some of the negatives of DAE is Katy

Gregg. Katy works in the department of child and family development office at Georgia

Southern University and is also an assistant professor. Even though she is not in

education directly she has a huge impact on the development of children, so she wrote a

document analysis on NAEYC’s DAP position statement. In this article, she stated this

negative towards DAP.

“Although DAP is not a curriculum that is specifically followed, it guides many

high-quality centers in how to support children to develop and learn. Some have

argued that DAP may be taken further than it is intended in many classrooms –

‘transformed into a prescription for pedagogic practice’ (Grant, 2000, cited in

Grieshaber, 2008, p. 509). This means that while DAP is not meant to provide

direction for classroom activities, teachers may take the text too literally and not

use it as only a foundation to build their curriculum, but as an actual set of

programmatic instructions. Grieshaber (2008) suggests that teachers may even be

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 15

reluctant to engage in direct instruction or ‘teaching’ with young children because

of the importance DAP places on child-led activities. A lack A Document Analysis

of the NAEYC’s DAP Position Statement 177 of direct and intentional teaching in

the ECE classroom could be detrimental to all children, but particularly to

children with disabilities.”(Gregg, 2011).

The next published scholar that has an opinion on DAE is David Elkind. He is a

professor of child study at Tufts University and is a past president of the National Association for

the Education of Young Children. In his work, he spends a lot of time talking about the benefits

of DAE, but he makes the case of the current climate of education it cannot work. He goes on to

state.

“Although some testing can be useful, it is currently so overused that many

children and parents are more concerned about grades and test scores than about what a

child has learned. The documentation of a child's work tends to avoid that danger. I have

tried to demonstrate that, while the idea of developmentally appropriate practice has been

well received among educators, it really has little chance of being widely implemented.

Without a change in underlying philosophy, changes in educational practice will be

superficial at best. No classroom or school can truly be developmentally appropriate if its

underlying philosophy is psychometric.” (Elkind, 2010).

At the end of this quote he uses the word psychometric. He goes on to explain that

psychometric is measuring kids based on commercial or tests (Elkind, 2010). This part is very

interesting as in my interviews with the two teachers, they both brought up a structure problem in

education. They were also for developmentally appropriate education, so the theme is really

starting to get around. Teachers are preferring DAE, but they system is making it hard for them
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 16

to accomplish this. This system is the one that wants to improve the graduation rates in the whole

country.

Personal Observations from Content-Related Field Experiences:

I have been in five different classrooms for my observations, and I actually thought all of

them did a great job of implementing developmentally appropriate lessons. All of my

observations were at schools around this area. I have been in the Circleville Middle School three

times, Westfall Middle School once and Logan Elm Middle School once. I have also done these

observations in all the subjects.

A topic that I do want to bring up that has not been mentioned yet is that all my

observations has been block schedules, but one. The reason that I bring this up because I’ve

noticed that teaching developmentally appropriate lessons doesn’t run as smooth with just one

single period. Again, this is a structure thing, that school systems need to consider as there are a

lot of benefits with developmentally appropriate education in block schedules. With a single

period, the students really didn’t have a whole lot of time to think as they had to move with a fast

pace to get the assignment finished. This doesn’t help every student as students learn at different

paces.

Even though the single period schedule had good lessons, I could see a major problem

developing if I would have stayed in that class the rest of the year. The students seemed to be

getting mentally drained as it was full go the whole time in the class, without any breathing room

to get done what was expected. I was already hearing comments how they weren’t studying at

home and wasn’t going to do any homework because they never had any time for themselves.

Those comments made me think about the block schedules and how every teacher never gave out
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 17

any homework, because they accomplished everything, they wanted to get done during the

school day.

In the single period schedule, I was in a seventh-grade science classroom in Logan Elm.

The best way I found to have a good developmentally appropriate lesson was to space the lesson

out through multiple days, that way the students didn’t have to rush through their activity. So, I

worked with my cooperating teacher to develop a lesson he way okay with spending multiple

days on. At that time the teacher just introduced the topic of biomes and living conditions in

them.

For the lesson I taught I created a graphic organizer that looked basically like a table. On

the left side it had the topics that I wanted them to research about. These topics were based off an

individual animal that was randomly selected to each student. The topics were organisms,

population, community, ecosystem, and biome. For each of the topic, I created a list of questions

that way they had a building block to work for, but I also encouraged them to go outside of those

questions. The information they found they put in the right-hand column of the table. It had to be

information relating the animal to the topic.

This lesson was very developmentally appropriate because there was no limit in what

information they could put down. There was also a building block to work upon if students were

struggling. This lesson lasted a total of four complete days, with the last day the students had to

present what they found on each animal. The teacher also gave them bonus points if they went

beyond to create a power point. The lesson went so well the teacher asked me if he could steal

the lesson for future years. What made this work in this environment was that I had the time to

complete this lesson.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 18

Timing is a factor in the developmentally appropriate lessons. Even the block schedules,

you had to manage the time very well in those classes. The difficult thing about blocks is that

you must keep kids engaged without giving them down time. This is actually in my opinion very

easy to structure as lessons, but to manage the time is very difficult. There are lessons that the

time gets away from you and don’t get everything accomplished, but there is also lessons that

just run so smooth that the kids accomplish what the teachers wants before the class period is

over.

The best class that I have been a part of that has mastered this was my math methods

observations at Circleville Middle School for 8th grade. The teacher did a very good job of

developing developmentally appropriate lessons, inside a consistent structure inside the class.

Every day the students came in and grabbed a skills sheet that had just some basic multiplication,

division, addition and subtraction problems that they had to complete and turn in for a weekly

grade. They also had a weekly review sheet where they had to answer two problems each day,

and they were tough problems that they had already worked on during the school year. These two

things took the first twenty minutes of class up, where it was just review.

The teacher then introduced a new topic to the whole class and designed many different

projects using either technology or some different artistic ideas that she had. These projects were

tailor made for each individual student to work at their own pace, as if a student was a little

ahead of the curve, she had extra ideas for the project at the end that they could accomplish. She

pretty much did day to day projects that ended up being a combined weekly project, and every

student had to at least reach a certain standard, but the advanced kids had incentives to do better

and advanced work.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 19

This allowed for different level kids to achieve but also allowed the more advanced kids

to flourish under these circumstances. She never had any down time, as if they ever got

completely done, she would either go over the activity together or they had a website that they

could to on their chrome books that allowed to receive points for something in the whole school.

Part of her success in the classroom was because of her cooperation with the rest of the teachers

and the whole school as there was rewards for doing these things on their chrome books.

One of the lessons that I failed miserably with being developmentally appropriate in this

class, was a review lesson. The day after my lesson they were having a test over the material they

had been discussing, so I decided to create a crossword puzzle for them. The lesson started out

bad when I was creating the lesson as I didn’t know how to create one, so I hand drawled one

that did not look very neat. The reason this lesson was not very developmentally appropriate is

that it did not challenge the higher-level students as they quickly got done. This lesson taught

me, that there had to be a next step in activities so that it can be made as challenging as the kids

decide to make it.

Another great example of developmentally appropriate education was in my reading and

language art methods. Her thought process for reading is the main way for them to become better

readers is to read. So, throughout the school year, reading was a huge emphasis in the classroom.

It was so important that every other Monday, we went to library to either renew their books or

find a new one.

Every day when the students came into the classroom, they had to start on their

independent reading book. Now it’s important to know that the student couldn’t just pick out any

book it had to fit in the level that they were at from a test that they took at the beginning of the

school year. They would read this book anywhere from ten to twenty minutes depending on what
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 20

all they had to get accomplished that day. She made the comment to me that they she liked to

change what they were doing every twenty minutes, because middle school students had a hard

time focusing on one thing longer than that.

After this they got into some small tools of reading, like skills. She would focus on like

one or two of them today, most of the time depending on what they were going to read in their

whole class book. As she taught for like I said no longer than twenty minutes she would

constantly make references to books that they have been reading throughout the school year.

When they would get that activity done, they would usually go into either whole class reading, or

group reading on the book that all the kids had to read. She had the class read about two chapter

each day, and she changed the way they read the book. Sometimes it was group reading, whole

class reading where each individual student read a paragraph, whole class reading where she read

to the class and sometimes individual reading but also had the tape to listen too for the kids that

learned better hearing the information. After their reading, they would have some sort of activity

for that book, sometimes-huge projects that lasted the whole time during that book. This would

usually take the rest of the class period and when the student would be done, they would go back

to their individual reading book or their journal that they had to keep for their IR book.

I liked this class for developmentally appropriate education, because of the focus on

individual instruction. She had it broke up where the individuals could thrive as they could do

things at their own pace and she encouraged their inferences and observations about book that

there was no thought process that was wrong. She allowed the students to develop different

senses when it came to their reading, whether it was through guided reading, group reading, or

individual reading. Most of her activity were through groups because of the good behavior,
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 21

which allowed the students to think through the books together. This is huge for differentiation,

as a part of learning is learning how others think through activities.

A good developmentally appropriate lesson I taught was a lesson about theme. For this

class my teacher asked me to create a lesson that only lasted about twenty minutes. So my ideas

were very limited but I also understood that they already read a book as a class. Throughout my

time in this class, I asked the teacher if I could borrow the books, they were reading so that I

could keep up with the reading when I was not there. During the book Number the Stars, they

were just getting past the climax of the book. My lesson entailed them get in groups of three, and

they had to communicate about a theme in the book that they could all agree upon. Then they had

to go back in the book and find five examples that supported that theme, during this they had to

write down the page number. This was a very good lesson, because every student got to bounce

ideas off each other, but at the end they had to prove that they could go back inside the book to

find examples that helped support their theme. At the end of the lesson, I had each group share

what they had, which allowed other groups to see the book from a different angle.

The best parts about all these classes that incorporated developmentally appropriate

lessons, was their ability to use differentiation in their lessons. For these lessons to work they had

to be able to differentiate lessons to fit kids at all levels. The one thing that I have learned

through my observations is that there are many ways to do this. With the technology out there,

the resources are there to expand different tools to reach every individual. The teachers that I

have had has done a great job of implementing these.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 22

Implications and Conclusions:

The world is changing and expanding to a point of where education must learn to adapt

with it, or people are getting left behind. One of the main points in education is that kids do not

get left behind, that was why the No Child Left Behind Act came into education. For teachers to

truly reach all their students they must teach through developmentally appropriate education. The

outcomes for DAE is more beneficial than the outcomes through other arenas of education.

Through all the scholars that approved of DAE, you can see how the benefits of this type

of education will impact not only each individual but whole schools. This type of education will

teach kids how to work together, how to communicate, which kids are starting to forget how to

do because of cell phones. If teachers are implementing DAE, the social problems with some

kids will diminish as they will feel that they are completely more involved. Those scholars had

passion in there writing when they were making cases for DAE, they truly believed that this was

not only the best way to teach students, but the best way to impact students.

One of the scholars I referenced, Laura Robb was very passionate about this, as she

wrote.

“By meeting middle school students where they are, offering them mental models

of what good readers do, and giving them the tools for making meaning, you and I

can prepare today’s students for the reading, thinking, and problem-solving

demands of their-changing global world.” (Robb, 2010).

The lesson that I did in my reading observations represented this with finding a theme.

This lesson allowed them to find a meaning of a story using their book as a reference. I didn’t

ask them to support a theme that I found as some student’s might not understand how I could
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 23

come up with that meaning. But I asked them to find their own meaning behind the story and

support it with examples. This allowed differentiation, as some students took their theme deeper.

Even the scholars who had negatives things to say about DAE, saw the benefits of this

type of education. One of the main problems they saw with this type of education, is that the

system does not help support it. The response to that should be then why are there teachers

producing results with this type of education. I noted a structure problem in one of my

observations as the developmentally appropriate lessons did not run as smooth in the beginning

with the single period. The teacher found a way around it though, as this class was retaining

information. There are multiple ways to implement DAE, each teacher needs to find the right

way to teach that way for them.

The lesson that I taught for my science classroom that only had single periods is an

example of working through the structure problem. I came up with an activity that attacked

multiple content areas and allowed the students freedom of time to come up with some great

ideas for the project. Laura Robb also said, “Those students who can collaborate and engage in

meaningful talk, who can listen to and process group talk as well as work independently, will

have an advantage over students who learn in isolation (Robb, 2010). The word that needs to be

highlighted in that statement is process. Students need time to really comprehend what is being

taught.

You can see how there are multiple ways to implement DAE through my different

observations. Each class I was in implemented developmentally appropriate lesson differently

than the other. Some of those teachers did more big projects, as my math methods did a lot of

smaller projects that sometimes fit into bigger projects. Some of those observations the structure

was different, as my reaching methods changed everything, we did every twenty minutes to keep
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 24

them focused, and my science methods just built up the same thing, but they never really stopped

doing what they were doing completely.

With technology today, there are so many ways to do lessons. One of the things in DAE

that the scholars were hitting on hard was differentiation. My observations teachers also did a lot

with differentiation. Technology allows you better ways to differentiate lessons between some of

your higher-level students and then your lower level students. In the past we might have been in

a box, because the resources were not out there to manage a class extremely well through DAE.

In other arenas of education, when differentiation is not used kids seem to suffer, but also

teachers suffer because of the pressure to get these kids through the standardized tests. If a

system was put into place that allows the teacher to develop not only the skills, but the reasoning

behind the skills, these students will be able to apply there learning to real life situations. Again,

math and reading levels have not been increasing, and students are less ready for the real world.

There are not a whole lot of tests in the real world, it’s about applying what you have learned

through your schooling.

The crossword activity I did with my math classroom was an example of a lesson that

didn’t have any differentiation. The students that were on the higher-level suffered as they did

not get challenged. They also didn’t get to collaborate with anyone, so ideas did not get passed

around. If I would have done a review jeopardy game, I could have split up points with some

easy questions and hard questions. But that lesson would have also included collaboration where

ideas would have been passed around.

It’s the educator’s job to get everyone ready for life outside of school, not just a box that

education tries to fit you in. It’s educations job to fit in the box that the student’s put you in.

When teachers are dealing with students, they are dealing with kids that are developing mentally.
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 25

So, when a teacher tries to have all the students meet them, then students start to drop off, as

some students are still developing maturity wise. I have a hard time comprehending how as

adult’s teachers expect the students to adapt, but they don’t expect themselves to adapt.

Developmentally appropriate education is the area of education, where the teacher must

adapt to every student and not the other way around. Other arenas of education don’t really allow

the teacher to adapt to every student. The question could be asked then why teachers haven’t

gone completely to DAE. It comes back to structure and how the value systems and beliefs of

education is throughout our country.

The outcomes are showing between students who are experiencing DAE versus those

who are not receiving DAE. Test scores are not going up, and kids are not as ready any more

when they are coming out of high school when they are not receiving DAE, because they are

only learning facts. Kids who are experiencing DAE, are showing improvement every year until

they stop experiencing DAE.

Kids who are experiencing DAE are also improving socially and are better at working

collaboratively with others. Students who are not receiving DAE, struggle to work together with

groups as they are all bringing the same perspective to the group. Different perspective matter in

education, and DAE allows the kids to think on their own while trying to reach a common goal.

Students who are not receiving DAE are told how everything is and only certain kids can adapt

to it, so some groups have students that don’t bring anything to the group.

The scholar Dr. Ellen Nancy MaKenzie supports how DAE is affecting student in other

way than retaining information. She said, “students in classrooms that incorporate DAP have

stronger verbal skills (Dunn, Beach, & Kontos, 1994, 2000) and demonstrate greater mastery of

basic skills, including receptive, expressive, and written communication skills; daily living skills;
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 26

interpersonal relationship and social skills; and gross and fine motor skills (Marcon, 2002) than

students taught in developmentally inappropriate settings. Additionally, students in classes and

child care facilities where DAP is used have a higher view of their own self-competence

(Jambunathan, Burts, & Pierce, 1999).” (Mckenzie, 2018). If our jobs as educators is to prepare

our students for the real world, they have to have these skills outside of just retaining

information.

In conclusion, developmentally appropriate education is the best way for students to

achieve academically and socially. DAE allows teachers to focus on every individual and to meet

them where they are at in their development, instead of having the students meet the teacher.

Factors that are affecting education can be fixed with DAE as it allows the teacher to create

genuine relationships with every student. Developmentally appropriate education also allows

teachers to have their own style of teaching, as there are multiple ways to instruct a lesson. This

type of education benefits students not only in the process of school, but also outside of school.
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 27

References

Balingit, M. (2017, December 4th). “U.S. Graduation Rates Rise to New High.”

The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/12/04/u-s-high-school-

graduation-rates-rise-to-new-high/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2e287d13356c

Bowman, B. (2002, November 3rd).

“Developmentally Appropriate Practice: continuing the dialogue.” Contemporary Issues

in Early Childhood. Volume 3, pp. 439-457.

“Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Introduction.” (2018).

NAEYC. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/dap

Dunn L., Beach S., Kontos S.

Quality of the literacy environment in day care and children's development. Journal of

Research in Childhood Education. 1994;9(1):24–34. (Cited by Ellen Nancy McKenzie).

Dunn L., Beach S., Kontos S.

Supporting literacy in early childhood programs: A challenge for the future. In: Roskos

K. A., Christie J. F., editors. Play and literacy in early childhood: Research from multiple

perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2000. pp. 91–105. (Cited by Ellen Nancy

McKenzie).

Elkind, D. (2010, February 2nd).

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 28

“Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Philisophical and Practical Implications.” The

Phi Delta Kappan, Vol 71, No. 2 (Oct. 1989), pp113-117.

Gregg, K. (2011).

A Document Analysis of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s

Developmentally Appropriate Practice Position Statement: what does it tell us about

supporting children with disabilities?. Vol. 12, 175-186.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2304/ciec.2011.12.2.175

Grieshaber, S. (2008)

Interrupting Stereotypes: Teaching and the education of young children, Early Education

and Development, 19(3), 505-518 Google Scholar, Crossref, ISI. Cited by Katy Gregg.

Hart C., Yang C., Charlesworth R., Burts D.

Kindergarten teaching practices: Associations with later child academic and social and

emotional adjustment to school. 2003, April. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of

the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL. (Cited by Ellen Nancy

McKenzie).

Hyson M., Hirsh-Pasek K., Rescorla L.

The classroom practices inventory: An observation instrument based on NAEYC's

guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices for 4- and 5- year old

children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 1990;5(4):475–494. (Cited by Ellen

Nancy McKenzie).
THE STATE OF EDUCATION 29

Ipatenco, S. (2018). “The Factors Affecting a Pupil’s Progress in School.”

Seattle Pi. https://education.seattlepi.com/factors-affecting-pupils-progress-school-

3745.html

Jambunathan S., Burts D., Pierce S.

Developmentally appropriate practices as predictors of self competence among

preschoolers. Journal of Research in Childhood Education. 1999;13:167–177. (Cited by

Ellen Nancy McKenzie).

Kirkpatrick, J. (2018, October 24th). Personal Interview.

Lindner, J. (2018, October 24th). Phone Interview.

Marcon R.

Moving up the grades: Relationship between preschool model and later school

success. Early Childhood Research and Practice. 2002;4(1) Retrieved

from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/marcon.html. (Cited by Ellen Nancy McKenzie).

McKenzie, N. E. (2013, March 23rd).

“National Board Certification and Developmentally Appropriate Practices: Perceptions of

Impact.” Journal of Research in Childhood Education.
Ornstein, C. A; Levine, U. D; Gutek. L. G. (2011). Foundations of Education. 11th Ed.

“Public High School Graduation Rates.” (2018, May).

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coi.asp

Robb, L. (2010). Teaching Reading in Middle School. 2nd Ed.

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 30

Rushton S., Larkin E. Connecting developmentally appropriate practices to brain research.

Early Childhood Education Journal. 2001;29(1):25–33.

(Cited by Ellen Nancy McKenzie).

THE STATE OF EDUCATION 31