OCDEL Releases Announcement on Curricula and Developmental Assessment Tools in Keystone STARS

The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning’s (OCDEL) Bureau of Policy and Professional Development has released an announcement to provide information on approved curricula and developmental assessments for use by Keystone STARS 3 and 4 programs.

The release of Announcement ELRC #25-02, OCDEL Approved Curricula and Developmental Assessment Tools in Keystone STARS makes obsolete the previous announcement, ELRC Announcement 22 #07, immediately.

The announcement is aimed at all Keystone STARS providers, Early Learning Resource Centers (ELRC), and OCDEL’s early learning resource center program representatives. 

Background

OCDEL has an established internal process for the approval of curricula and developmental assessment tools for use by Keystone STARS providers seeking to earn points toward their STAR 3 or 4 designation. A component of this approval process requires the completion of a crosswalk aligning the curriculum and developmental assessment tool with the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards (PA ELS).

In December 2022, OCDEL released the ELRC Announcement 22 #07, which outlined that only currently OCDEL-approved curricula and developmental assessments would be valid for meeting the requirements of STARS EC 3.4.1 and EC 3.4.2 for STAR 3 and 4 designations.

Historically, OCDEL released and maintained an annual listing of approved curricula and developmental assessment tools. The annual listing provided details of newly approved tools and those that were set to be discontinued at the end of the fiscal year.

Since the release of ELRC Announcement 22 #7, OCDEL has evaluated the curricula and developmental assessment tool approval process to determine its impact on early childhood providers. Internal discussions, ongoing reviews of updated tools, and feedback from stakeholders concluded that discontinuing a tool simply due to the release of an updated version by the vendor seemed unnecessary and posed a potential financial burden for providers.

In many cases, updates to previously approved curricula and developmental assessment tools that preserved the essential content and structure had no impact on the integrity of the material and alignment to the PA ELS. As a result, curricula and developmental assessment tools that were previously approved based on their alignment with the PA ELS will remain available for use by providers.

Next Steps

Moving forward, OCDEL will only discontinue approved curricula and developmental assessment tools under the following conditions:

  • The vendor fails to respond to OCDEL’s annual request to confirm the tool’s information on file

  • The PA ELS are updated, causing the curricula and developmental assessment tools to no longer align with the standards

  • The curriculum or developmental assessment tool is updated and the tool no longer aligns with the PA ELS

Keystone STARS providers should review the announcement with staff. Providers should subscribe to the PA EEN to receive updates to the approved listings of curricula and developmental assessment tools, and should refer to the listings on the PDE Early Learning Standards website to ensure the tools they are using continue to be approved as part of their annual Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) plan update and activities. Any questions should be directed to the local ELRC.

ELRCs should review and share the announcement with staff and refer to the listings on the PDE Early Learning Standards website to become familiar with the current approved tools.

Providers, NewsNathan DukeELRC, PDE Early Learning Standards, OCDEL, Keystone STARS