Early Childhood Curriculum Initiative

Fairfax County, VA

Program Summary

  • Goal: To strengthen and support early childhood programs across Fairfax County through the implementation of a research-based early childhood curriculum that effectively equips educators with rich content and resources. The curriculum implementation supports developmentally appropriate activities for young children. The Early Childhood Curriculum Initiative is being implemented by the Fairfax County-based Fairfax Futures non-profit organization, in partnership with Fairfax County’s Institute for Early Learning (IFEL).
  • Background: In 2021, the state of Virginia launched Ready Regions, a “regional network capable of supporting increased access to quality early childhood opportunities across the Commonwealth.” VQB5 (Virginia Quality Birth to Five) is the unified measurement and improvement system administered by Virginia Department of Education and coordinated locally by Ready Regions with support from Virginia Early Childhood Foundation. VDOE believes that quality teaching and learning is supported by promoting curriculum use in all settings. Using approved and effective curricula helps teachers support learning and development of critical learning skills in all early childhood programs and settings. This initiative will be supportive of the county and state-wide work to advance the quality of early childhood programs that are participating in Ready Regions. Family childcare educators will be the primary audience that we support as we pilot-test the program.
  • Theory of Change: A high-quality curriculum defines specific, sequenced learning goals to meet all children’s individual needs, including children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs, and provides developmentally appropriate structure and sequence to classroom activities that promote children’s engagement. We believe if we deliver a quality curriculum to programs within Opportunity Neighborhoods that do not have the capacity to implement with current resources, we can help teachers improve their interactions, providing ways to create nurturing and responsive practices and environments that foster trust and emotional security and thus ultimately improve children’s outcomes and preparation for kindergarten.
  • Framework: We will employ The Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos, a comprehensive, research-based early childhood curriculum created by Teaching Strategies, LLC. The Creative Curriculum equips early childhood educators with the tools to support early learners with building self-confidence, creativity, and enhancing critical thinking skills through hands-on, project-based investigations. The Creative Curriculum aligns with the Virginia Early Learning Standards and promotes the following benefits: Builds on Early Learner’s Social-Emotional Development | Improves Kindergarten Readiness | Nurtures the Whole Child | Builds early language and literacy skills | Individualizes instruction | Develops math skills | Includes technology tools to streamline teaching
Children crafting in a circle at daycare.
Woman and two babies playing with toys.
Early childhood curriculum initiative information flyer.

Measures of Performance

For more information, please see Data Analysis section at the bottom of the page.

Data Analysis

  1. Goal: To strengthen and support early childhood programs across Fairfax County through the implementation of a research-based early childhood curriculum that effectively equips educators with rich content and resources. The curriculum implementation supports developmentally appropriate activities for young children. The Early Childhood Curriculum Initiative is being implemented by the Fairfax County-based Fairfax Futures non-profit organization, in partnership with Fairfax County’s Institute for Early Learning (IFEL).
  2. Background: In 2021, the state of Virginia launched Ready Regions, a “regional network capable of supporting increased access to quality early childhood opportunities across the Commonwealth.” VQB5 (Virginia Quality Birth to Five) is the unified measurement and improvement system administered by Virginia Department of Education and coordinated locally by Ready Regions with support from Virginia Early Childhood Foundation. VDOE believes that quality teaching and learning is supported by promoting curriculum use in all settings. Using approved and effective curricula helps teachers support learning and development of critical learning skills in all early childhood programs and settings. This initiative will be supportive of the county and state-wide work to advance the quality of early childhood programs that are participating in Ready Regions. Family childcare educators will be the primary audience that we support as we pilot-test the program.
  3. Theory of Change: A high-quality curriculum defines specific, sequenced learning goals to meet all children’s individual needs, including children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs, and provides developmentally appropriate structure and sequence to classroom activities that promote children’s engagement. We believe if we deliver a quality curriculum to programs within Opportunity Neighborhoods that do not have the capacity to implement with current resources, we can help teachers improve their interactions, providing ways to create nurturing and responsive practices and environments that foster trust and emotional security and thus ultimately improve children’s outcomes and preparation for kindergarten.
  4. Framework: We will employ The Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos, a comprehensive, research-based early childhood curriculum created by Teaching Strategies, LLC. The Creative Curriculum equips early childhood educators with the tools to support early learners with building self-confidence, creativity, and enhancing critical thinking skills through hands-on, project-based investigations. The Creative Curriculum aligns with the Virginia Early Learning Standards and promotes the following benefits: Builds on Early Learner’s Social-Emotional Development | Improves Kindergarten Readiness | Nurtures the Whole Child | Builds early language and literacy skills | Individualizes instruction | Develops math skills | Includes technology tools to streamline teaching
  5. Measures of Performance: We will begin this project with a focus on process and output measurements, which will include a phased approach to training and implementation, growing the number of participating programs.
  6. Initial output and outcome measures:
    1. Number of family childcare educators from Opportunity Neighborhood zip codes. Our goal is to have the majority of our educator sites come from Opportunity Neighborhoods. As of Q2/25, we scored a “yellow” as our current cohorts combined account for 30% of our total population.
    2. Number/percentage of family childcare educators who both participate and then complete the course requirements and implement a curriculum. Our goal, closing out year-1, was to have 10 educators in the program and 10 completing the program (along with beginning to implement the curriculum in their classrooms) and we ended cohort 2 with 20 total for each, earning “green” health scores.
    3. Number of children reached in family childcare programs of educators who complete the course requirements and implement a curriculum. Our goal, closing out year-1, was to have at least 85 children directly impacted by this curriculum implementation. We ended year-1 with 126 children, earning a “green.”
    4. Using different assessment tools, we seek to demonstrate how implementation of The Creative Curriculum improves quality by increasing the competencies and skillsets of early childhood educators in the classroom.
      • Reflect the value of the curriculum training and supports: Our goal is to measure point growth in the participating educators knowledge of the Creative Curriculum. We are still developing our annual targets, but our initial baseline study showed a 5.77 point increase in assessed knowledge.
      • Reflect the value of the curriculum implementation by assessing the educators CLASS scores over time, looking at 2 fields (Emotional/Behavior Support and Engaged Support). We are still developing our annual targets, but our baselines for these participating educators have aggregate scores from the fall of 2024 of:
        1. Emotional/Behavioral Support: 6.16
        2. Engaged Support: 4.31