North Carolina High Quality Pre-K Standards Classroom Recognition Program (cont.)
What is the Classroom Recognition Program?
The idea for the Classroom Recognition Program was born out of a shared vision of a first-rate system of voluntary, high-quality pre-kindergarten education ensuring school readiness for North Carolina’s preschool children. Out of that vision, a proposed set of state-defined pre-kindergarten standards was developed. These proposed standards reflect the best research-supported evidence on how young children learn and the conditions necessary to best promote that learning. They complement and support the implementation of Foundations: Early Learning Standards for North Carolina Preschoolers and Strategies for Guiding Their Success.
The NC Office of School Readiness (OSR) and the Division of Child Development (DCD) are working together to design and implement this Classroom Recognition Program. The intent of the program is to recognize licensed early childhood education classrooms serving four-year-old children that choose to meet the state-defined pre-kindergarten high-quality standards. Classrooms in programs licensed by the Division of Child Development will be eligible to apply.
More about the pilot:
OSR and DCD have begun a pilot in order to get information about how the Classroom Recognition Program can best be implemented. Counties chosen to participate in the pilot were those with the highest percentage of four and five star programs in the state, as well as considerations such as representative numbers of programs in the county and demographics.
The following counties are serving in the pilot:
Program eligibility criteria included:
- Four or five star license
- Transitioned to two component license
- Non-More at Four program
The pilot will inform issues such as:
- Appropriateness of Standards
- What classrooms need in order to achieve Standards
- What monitoring and technical assistance process needs to be
- Recognition strategies
- Program name
The pilot is on going and expected to conclude in August 2008.
For more information please contact Malinda Rathbone at (919) 981-5294 or malinda.rathbone@ncmail.net.
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