The Office of Child Development (OCD), a program of the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh, works in partnership with faculty, service professionals and agencies, and the community as a whole to enhance the welfare of children, youth, and families. The Early Literacy Task Force focuses on this particular area.

Among the accomplishments of the Early Literacy Task Force is establishing a set of standards for non-school programs serving children from birth to eight years of age. These standards provide a comprehensive evaluation for the way programs structure their environments and activities to prepare children for success in reading and writing.

The standards look at four key areas

• Environment
  
  
• Practice
  
  
• Communication / Coordination
  
  
• Assessment

In each area, the task force has identified a number of indicators and applied a “good,” “better,” or “best” rating system. Each indicator is then assessed in terms of how evident it is in the program.

The OCD standards enable providers and families to benchmark early literacy programs and determine ways to continually improve.

Click here for a complete copy of the Early Literacy Standards.