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Tools for parents: what to look for in a preschool program (features Deborah Stipek)

October 20, 2013
EdSource
Deborah Stipek visits a nearby preschool to describe specific teaching and environments that help pre-kindergartern kids thrive.
By 
Lillian Mongeau

A growing body of research indicates that a high-quality preschool education can position children for academic success for years to come, but how does a parent know what to look for when it comes to selecting a school for their child?

Effective preschool programs share common elements that should be easily identifiable on even a brief introductory visit, said Stanford University education professor and early childhood education expert Deborah Stipek. Stipek met EdSource Today recently for a tour of the Children’s Center of the Stanford Community, a private, nonprofit preschool for children ages 3 months to 5 years open to the children of Stanford students, faculty and other employees. During the tour she pointed out best practices parents can look for during a visit to a preschool they’re considering for their child.

Preschool is not a mandatory grade, but it has long been popular with parents seeking more than just child care in the years before public school begins. While the Stanford center is a private program with substantial tuition costs, Stipek stressed that the techniques employed there can be seen at quality programs across the economic spectrum, from federally funded Head Start or state-run programs, to private preschools operating throughout the state. Most of the practices Stipek identified aren’t costly to implement, but seeing them in practice can give a parent important gauges of teacher effectiveness and student engagement. A slideshow accompanying this story illustrates the practices identified by Stipek in use at the Stanford center as well as at other centers.

The following are some key signs of strong programs that parents can look for:

Quality of teaching

At first glance, a well-run preschool can look a lot like children playing, but even play offers lessons for preschoolers. The educational value of building towers out of blocks or making pretty colors with the water in an ice cube tray isn’t always clear to an outsider, but a good teacher will be able to explain it, Stipek said.

Deborah Stipek

[Stipek] Deborah Stipek is a professor and the former dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. She has done significant research on children’s motivation to achieve and on early childhood education. She writes articles, books and editorials about subjects as diverse as the value of early math and how parents can motivate their children to learn. She also served for five years on the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read her complete biography and find a list of her publications on Stanford’s website.

“Good teaching is purposeful,” Stipek said. “If you ask the teacher, they should be able to articulate why (students are doing) this activity and what the learning goal is.”

For example, the children building a structure out of wooden blocks in one corner of the room are learning about spatial reasoning, basic physics and, since they’re working in a group, cooperation. The children mixing different colored waters in ice cube trays are learning about the basics of color theory: yellow and blue make green. Both activities are an example of children learning by exploring their environment, Stipek said.

“This is what cognitive development people refer to as ‘spontaneous development,’” Stipek said. “They get this kind of intuitive understanding of something – then later they’ll learn the science of it.”

Many of the teachers at the Stanford center have bachelor’s degrees in early childhood development, said center director Karen Myers, yet California does not require that preschool teachers hold bachelor’s degrees. While many child education experts say a bachelor’s degree or higher is preferred, the state requires only that preschool teachers hold a Child Development Associate Permit, which calls for less than a year’s worth of formal training and a few months’ worth of in-classroom experience. High-quality programs provide ongoing training for their teachers and some offer teachers help in pursuing additional certifications or higher education.

Read the full story.

 

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