This report offers four guiding principles and six actionable recommendations. The guiding principles are overarching conceptual commitments about young children and STEM education. At the same time, they are specifically intended to correct larger misconceptions about STEM disciplines that currently abound in early childhood. These principles generally reflect best practices for early childhood education that are often overlooked or forgotten in STEM education. The six recommendations for action, while embedding the guiding principles, target key steps for policy, practice, and research that will promote dramatic improvement in early STEM education. They are intended for school leaders and district decision-makers, policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels, researchers, and funders. Our aim is to help guide discussion and change at a critical point in public discourse about the need for high-quality early childhood STEM education. (author abstract)