Preschoolcurriculumanalysisataleoftwocities 1

Running head: PRESCHOOL CURRIC ANALYSIS: A TALE OF TWO CITIES 1
Preschool Curriculum Analysis: A Tale of Two Cities

Vanessa Graves Foster
Montclair State University
PRESCHOOL CURRIC ANALYSIS: A TALE OF TWO CITIES 2

Preschool Curriculum Analysis: A Tale of Two Cities
What is preschool? Is it a convenient way of dealing with an increasing societal need for
childcare that has emerged as a result of industrialization and shifting family dynamics? Is it a
trickle down aftereffect of rising global competition and our national preoccupation with keeping
up with the intellectual and technological attainment of the rest of the world (after all,
maintaining our footing as a global super power requires the sustainable production of a highly
skilled labor force our most valuable natural resource)? What kinds of formalized preschool
options are available for children in our communities, and why? What informs and shapes the
curricular mandates and decisions, both hidden and explicit, that ultimately dictate what we do
with our preschool classrooms? This paper explores our national and cultural approaches to
preschool education by examining the experiences of two distinct preschool environments: The
Ben Samuels Childrens Center (BSCC) in Montclair, NJ and the Early Childhood Learning
Center South (ECLCS) in Newark, NJ . The questions raised by my investigation into these
two settings necessitated a broad based analysis of the role of preschool in our society that could
not be completed using the narrow scope of only these two lenses, and so I look beyond the
BSCC and the ECLCS to situate these two environments in the broader history of preschool
education in the United States, as well as current policy initiatives.
Why do we do what we do? And, is it working? We must investigate and understand the
factors that are influencing us from beyond before we can effectively evaluate what is happening
within.

The Discovery of Infancy, and What to Do About It
The physical differences between young children and adults are difficult to miss: size,
strength, intelligibility, endurance and energy levels are a few that easily come to mind and
would be argued against by very few. However, the existence of intellectual and developmental
differences, and therefore a differing set of needs and corresponding treatment, is harder to see
and was in fact first discovered by Western civilization in the seventeenth century (Beatty,
1995, p. 1). It only became a mainstream concept during the eighteenth century ("Childhood,"
2005, para. 2). Before this time, young children were often treated like little adults.

Figure 1. Portrait of a Child with Coral, 1636. Unknown Artist. ("Childhood," 2005, figure 2)
While the age of the child in the above picture is unknown, the coral piece that is
mounted in silver is fashioned like a pacifier of the time period and has bells attached to it, like a
rattle. The coral draped around the neck was thought to offer protection against childhood
diseases, and the child, most likely Dutch, is dressed in reasonably fine infant clothes. The
restrictive nature of the clothing, the adult-like stance, and the stoic expression give the
impression that expectations surrounding the behavior of children of that period were hardly
removed from those regulating the behavior of adults.
This began to change with the influence of J ohann Amos Comenius, J ohn Locke, J ean-
J acques Rousseau, and J ohann Heinrich Pestalozzi. The following is a brief outline of the beliefs
and work of each:
J ohann Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was a Protestant minister who wrote Great
Didactic, the first outline of a modern system of universal education, as well as The School of
Infancy, which detailed how mothers should educate their children at home. His philosophy of
education was deeply tied to his religious beliefs, and he thought that all children should be
educated together and universally because God had made all persons in His image (Beatty,
1995, p. 2). While opposed to formal schooling for those under six, he believed that mothers
should educate their children in a naturalistic manner, in which nature provided guidelines for
what was taught. He divided his curriculum into three areas, further explicated in the following
chart:

Table 1
Comenius's School of Infancy (Beatty, 1995)
Things young children
should know
should be able to do
should be able to say
Natural things Dialectics (be able to reply
distinctly to a question
proposed, not talking about
onions when the question is
garlic)
Express themselves
understandably, if not
correctly
Optics Arithmetic (be able to count
to twenty, or even all the way
to 60, understand what is an
even and odd number)
Use natural rhetoric
Astronomy Geometry (know what is Repeat common figures of
small, large, short or long,
narrow or broad, thin or
thick)
speech
Geography Music (to sing from memory
some Psalms)
Memorize and recite a few
verses of poetry
Chronology Manual activities (to cut, to
split, to carve, to arrange, to
untie, to roll up, and to
unroll)

History
Household affairs
Politics

Comenius called for individualized instruction for children, and noted that young children
achieved different developmental milestones at different times. With his work, we see the
emergence of the concepts of typical child development and developmentally appropriate
practice, as well as an early description of inclusive education.
J ohn Locke (1632 1704), one of the most influential English Enlightenment thinkers,
wrote a philosophical treatise on education called Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Locke
was a physician, and this work included recommendations for promoting health in children as
well as suggestions for good breeding. Like Comenius, Locke believed that formalized
education would have an ill effect on young children, and thought that schools were incubators
of roughness and ill breeding. The primary goal of education was the transmission of virtue,
and that to a particular class of people: the sons of gentlemen. Locke did not think that children
from different classes were the same, and saw no reason to educate them all in the same way or
together. He placed a heavy emphasis on character development, eating simple foods, wearing
unrestrictive clothing, and having time to play alone. In line with his position that children were
best treated in an unpretentious manner, he advocated for frequent exposure to an unmediated
natural environment (this would help the child develop a strong personal constitution, without
growing accustomed to accommodations like hats and thick shoes from well-meaning adults),
daily exercise, and strong parental authority. He also advocated for beginning formal instruction
as soon as a child was able to talk, but believed that this learning should be much more like play
than work. By the late nineteenth century, there were over 35 editions of his book; Some
Thoughts on Education had a much heavier impact on the development of American preschool
educational philosophy than Comeniuss little-known The School of Infancy.

Sampled excerpts fromSome Thoughts on
Education (Locke, 2001, para. 7, 34, 35)

J ean-J acques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a philosopher who wrote a highly influential
book on education and child rearing, Emile. This book spawned an educational reform
movement called New Education (Beatty, 1995). In stark contrast to traditional educational
practices, children were to be treated very differently from adults, and childhood was to be
protected and prolonged for as long as possible. Rousseau believed in natural development
rather than didactic teaching and schooling. He believed, like Comenius and Locke, that school
was a dangerous place for young children. However, he also did not trust the home environment
to be free enough from corrupting adult influences, particularly erratic mothers, to be a proper
location for the development of young minds. He advocated that children be entrusted to the
care and tutelage of male instructors who could offer education in a safe environment,
completely removed from society. Eschewing traditional educational goals, Rousseau did not
believe that young children should be taught to read. Instead of traditional pedagogy, he
prescribed informal learning experiences in which children explored their physical
environment, observed objects in nature, and played games designed to enhance their sensory
abilities. His ideas were to be widely influential in the emergence of a new pedagogical focus
on rearing natural children (Beatty, 1995).
J ohan Heinrich Pestalozzi (1747-1827) was among the first to implement Rousseauian
educational techniques with real children. Particularly interested in educating the poor (the
poor must be educated for poverty), his desire was not an increase in social status, but rather an
increase in independence (Beatty, 1995). His novel Leonard and Gertrude idealized the role and
image of the peasant mother as simple, earnest and best suited to guide her children in the
investigation and appreciation for their shared bucolic world. To Pestalozzi, natural education
was best undertaken in domestic environments, for there was no more natural setting for a young
child than that of the home. Pestalozzi wanted to raise every mother whose heart beats for her
children, step by step, till at last she can follow my elementary exercises herself, and be able to
use them with her children, and thus was an advocate for parent education. His pedagogical
approach included the use of object teaching, which had a heavy influence on sensory
experiences. Affection played a major role in his approach to children and he encouraged his
students and staff to call him Papa Pestalozzi. Pestalozzis home-like model schools gained
popularity, and he envisioned them as a way to counteract some of the damage that he thought
industrialization had done to the fabric of peasant life. It is ironic, given his emphasis on the
poor, that his practices became highly popular among the wealthy (Beatty, 1995).
This is but a brief overview of the thinkers who helped bring about recognition of the
primacy of developmental stages and needs in the years of birth through six. While their
approaches and beliefs differed widely, these are the people who created the backbone of our
modern approaches to preschool education. Manipulatives, parent education, special educational
initiatives for the poor, inclusive education, developmentally appropriate practice, character
development and child-driven investigations of topics are all concepts that remain wildly
influential in our current incarnations of preschool.
The Emergence of Compensatory Preschool Education
Support for preschool education spread in America during the nineteenth century, though
two competing models emerged: extrafamilial infant schools and family schools, which would
be analogous with the modern home schooling movement. The notion of family schools was
closely linked with an idealized vision of womanhood, a byproduct of industrialization and the
newly emerging concept of separate spheres for men and women. In the previously agrarian
society, men and women were both involved in work directly supporting and surrounding the
home, even with a division of labor. Now, with industrialization, men were increasingly pushed
into the outside workforce, becoming providers of consumable needs for the family. Women
were expected to manage all domestic needs for the home and become shrewd consumers of
what their husbands provided. These separate spheres of influence meant that women were to
meet with pride the role of educating their young, with all the sense of duty and responsibility
that their husbands brought to the workforce. The central theme of the new American child-
rearing literature was that mothers should learn more about and spend more time educating their
young children at home. The books published by Locke, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Comenius, and
others became manuals for women as they took on the new task of training their children using
methods that they believed to be specifically developmentally appropriate.
For the children of the poor, however, the message was very different: entrust the
education of your children to infant schools so that they may be trained to be different than you.
Preschool education was soon seen as a method of infusing middle class Protestant ideals into
impoverished, and presumably morally deficient, homes. Educators of the time believed that the
moral training that they offered had the potential to impact the whole family, and in fact
explicitly instructed their young charges to teach their parents new behaviors and mores. The
conditions in which they lived were thought to point to their moral lack, and children needed to
be saved from the harmful effect of their families. The following is an exchange from journals
of the Infant School Society of the City of Boston (ISSCB), sometime after 1828:
On Saturday, I talked to the children about keeping the Sabbath. One little girl said, I
am going to ride tomorrow with my mother! I gave them such instruction as I thought
the occasion required. On Monday the little girl came to be and said, I did not go to ride
yesterday! I asked her why? My mother did not go! And why did your mother not
go? Because I told her it was wicked to ride Sunday. The same child came to me
about three months since and told me her father said he would not drink any more rum. I
asked her why? She replied, I told him the Bible said, drunkards cannot go to heaven!
She has told me since that he has not drunk any (Beatty, 1995, Chapter 2).
Different iterations of public compensatory preschool education for the poor can be traced to the
mid-1800s in New York, Boston, Hartford, Providence, and elsewhere in the eastern US.
Further attempts at compensatory preschool emerged as a result of the Great Depression
and the resulting increased demand for childcare for impoverished families whose mothers were
forced to work, and later during WWII when women were once again called into the workforce
in larger numbers. During these times of national crisis, some of the social stigma was removed
from compensatory education. The aims at moral reform of lower class social ills became less
pervasive. However, as formerly middle class families were able to regain their social standing
after the crisis imposed by these national events had passed, real or perceived attempts to
remediate the poor by teaching their young how to appreciate middle class ideals once again
emerged. In one analysis of the origins of the ubiquitous Head Start program, which continues
operate in 57,000 classrooms nationally, and which was first established in 1965, the writer notes
that it was difficult to maintain the image of Head Start as a preschool educational program
rather than social engineering. (Morgan, 2011, Chapter 6)

Preschool in 2013
Given the complex history of preschool education in the US, it is no wonder that the
current environment represents a variety of educational and developmental philosophies,
curricular approaches, instructional strategies, and school environments. Despite efforts to
centralize the K-12 educational expectations of different states, and despite the agreement from
45 different states to adhere to the Common Core State Standards championed by the National
Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO),
preschool education falls exclusively under the purveyance of individual states. There are no P3
Common Core State Standards. New J ersey has made efforts to write its Preschool Teaching and
Learning Standards in the language of the Common Core State Standards, and as such it is
possible to trace how its expectations for Preschool education correspond with its stated K-12
Core Curriculum Content Standards. The following are the content areas and standards that New
J ersey has posited:
Table 2
New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning: Content Areas and Standards

Social/Emotional
Development

Standard 0.1: Children
demonstrate self-
confidence.
demonstrate self-direction.
identify and express
feelings.
exhibit positive
interactions with other
children and adults.
exhibit pro-social
behaviors.

Language Arts Literacy

listen and respond to
environmental sounds,
directions, and
conversations.
converse effectively with
different audiences in
their home language,
English, or sign language
for a variety of purposes
related to their
experiences.
demonstrate emergent
reading skills.
demonstrate emergent
writing skills.

Social Studies, Family, and
Life Skills

identify unique
characteristics of
themselves, their families,
and others.
become contributing
members of the classroom
community.
demonstrate knowledge of
neighborhood and
community.
demonstrate awareness of
the cultures within their
classroom and community.
Visual and Performing
Arts
express themselves
through and develop an
Mathematics
demonstrate an
understanding of numbers
and numerical operations.
World Languages
know that people use
different languages
(including sign language) to
communicate, and will
appreciation of creative
movement and dance.
express themselves
appreciation of music.
express themselves
appreciation of dramatic
play and storytelling.
express themselves
appreciation of the visual
arts (e.g., painting,
sculpting, and drawing).
develop knowledge of
spatial concepts (e.g.,
shapes and measurement).
understand patterns,
relationships, and
classification.
use mathematical
knowledge to represent,
communicate, and solve
problems in their
environment.
express simple greetings,
words, and phrases in a
language other than their
own.
Health, Safety, and
Physical Education

develop self-help and
personal hygiene skills.
begin to develop the
knowledge and skills
necessary to make
nutritious food choices.
begin to develop an
awareness of potential
hazards in their
environment.
develop competence and
confidence in activities
that require gross- and
fine-motor skills.
Science

develop inquiry skills.
observe and investigate
matter and energy.
living things.
the Earth.
gain experience in using
technology.
Technology

Standard 8.1: Navigate
simple on screen menus.
Standard 8.2: Use
electronic devices
independently.
Standard 8.3: Begin to use
electronic devices to
communicate.
Standard 8.4: Use common
technology vocabulary.
Standard 8.5: Begin to use
electronic devices to gain
information.
(New J ersey State Department of Education, 2009)
These content areas are the same as those that have been developed for K-12 education,
with the addition of Social/Emotional Development, which is a content area that is unique to the
preschool realm.
In addition to content areas and standards, New J ersey provides guidance on the practical
implementation of preschool programs. This guidance is summarized below:
Table 3
Adapted from Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards-
Summary of Implementation Guidelines
Subject Key points:
Special Education Careful planning is necessary to ensure
successful inclusion
Preschool standards provide the focus
for the development of IEPs
Preschoolers with disabilities
demonstrate a broad range of learning,
cognitive, communication, physical,
sensory, and social/emotional
differences that may necessitate
adaptations to the early childhood
education program
The models used to develop adaptations
can range from inclusive to self-
contained classrooms; specific
adaptations are determined by
individual students needs

Diversity and multiculturalism Sensitivity to and support for diversity
in culture, ethnicity, and learning must
be woven into the daily activities of the
early childhood education program
P3 education programs must provide
activities, materials, and experiences
that encourage young children to be
aware of/appreciate the differences and
similarities of the members of their
community
Administrators and staff must
understand their personal attitudes and
biases, be culturally sensitive, and be
willing to learn about and accept the
range of differences represented in the
program
Professional development Professional development must be a
priority and supported by the allocation
of necessary resources by district
boards of education, private providers,
and local Head Start agencies
Teachers, staff and administrators must
all be active participants in developing,
implementing, and reflecting on
activities
Families should be introduced to
developmentally appropriate practices
and have access to resources that
promote their childrens learning and
development
Family support Trust and respect are essential to
building collaborative relationships
between school staff and families. An
integral component of the partnership is
recognition of families as the experts
about their children
Program policies actively encourage
and support family involvement (e.g.,
family members are welcomed as
volunteers in the classroom and other
areas of the program, family members
are encouraged to observe in
classrooms, family members see and
interact with program administrators
formally and informally). Involvement
is also encouraged in governance
activities, such as advisory council
meetings
Community resources and partnerships Large corporations, small businesses,
and other organizations should be
invited to collaborate in supporting
children and families (e.g., through the
creation of a community resource
board)
Collaborations with community
agencies help to ensure delivery of
services to families who may benefit
from them (e.g., a program can offer a
meeting space for families to interact
with community agencies)
Communication The preschool program design should
provide a two-way system of
communication that is open and easily
accessible, including to people who
speak a different language
Learning environment The environment must nurture
childrens capacity to engage deeply in
individual and group activities and
projects, provide interactions with
indoor and outdoor environments that
offer opportunities for children to set
goals and persist in following through
with their plans while acquiring new
knowledge and skills through
purposeful play
Carefully planned instruction,
materials, furnishings, and daily
routines must be complemented by an
extensive range of interpersonal
relationships
Documentation and Assessment Should:
Build on multiple forms of evidence of
the childs learning
Take place over a period of time
Reflect the understanding of groups, as
well as of individual children
Show sensitivity to each individual
childs special needs, home language,
learning style, and developmental stage
The information collected in the
documentation/assessment process should:
Connect to developmentally
appropriate learning goals
Add to understanding of the childs
growth and development
Provide information that can be applied
directly to instructional planning
Be communicated to the childs family
and, to the extent appropriate, to the
child
(New J ersey State Department of Education, 2009)

What Do the Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards Do?
Unlike the K12 educational system, preschool is not a publicly funded experience,
available by right of legislation for all children. Local school districts are required to provide a
full day of instruction for grades 1-12 and a minimum of a half day for Kindergarten, but no
similar requirement exists for younger children. If there is no public requirement for preschool
education, why does the New J ersey Department of Education seem to regulate what the
preschool experience should include?
Preschool is public in certain instances
Continuing the historical trend of providing compensatory early learning experiences for
children who are thought to need them, New J ersey provides publicly funded preschool for:
Children with demonstrated special needs
Children who are below the poverty line
Children who live in the 31 poorest urban school districts
When a child or a community has been found to be in need of extra developmental
support either by virtue of the identification of a special need or unique learning, physical, or
mental challenge that inhibits their educational achievement, or because of the identification of
individual or community level poverty or lack they are eligible for publicly funded preschool
education in the State of New J ersey. The Ben Samuels Childrens Center and Newark Public
Schools both offer different iterations of compensatory preschool programs.
The Ben Samuels Childrens Center
First opened in 2005, the Ben Samuels Childrens Center is the result of an effort to
centralize and build on the strengths of three separate developmental childcare programs serving
the Essex County and Montclair State University (MSU) communities: the Demonstration
Program, the J effrey Dworkin Early Intervention, and the on-campus childcare facility. Begun in
the late 1960s and originally housed in the Communications Department of MSU, the
Demonstration Program had a longstanding mission of serving children with severe
communication and regulation disorders. Many of these children were on the autistic spectrum,
and practitioners developed a theoretically transdisciplinary approach that was influenced by the
work of psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan, psychologist Serena Weider, occupational therapist and
psychologist Georgia DeGangi, and others. Recognizing the need to offer similarly
developmentally appropriate special education to children under 3, the J effrey Dworkin Early
Intervention Program was created to infuse the level and quality of therapeutic services
pioneered by the Demonstration Program into the home environments of younger children and
their families. The third program from which the Ben Samuels Childrens Center sprang was the
on-campus childcare facility that had been serving the staff and students of Montclair State
University since 1989.
Ben Samuels focuses on inclusive educational experiences for special needs children,
with an eye toward increasing their exposure to typically developing peers and a belief that
diversity in the classroom brings about unique learning opportunities for all. The BSCC must
work closely with the sending school districts of students who have IEPs, and as such it must
demonstrate compliance with the standards set forth by the New J ersey Department of
Education. If not for this relationship, the program would be free to develop in any way it saw
fit (provided it met childcare provider licensing requirements from the Department of Human
Services and Department of Children and Families). Because of its unique standing as one of
five public-college-operated schools for students with disabilities, and as the only such program
employing an inclusion model, the BSCCs strict adherence and alignment with New J ersey
State Standards is critical. In addition to NJ DOE licensing, the Ben Samuels Childrens Center
is a National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) approved program, and
must meet additional requirements to maintain these standards.

Philosophical Underpinnings
Rather than depend on a prefabricated curricular approach to service their students, the
Ben Samuels Childrens Center has taken on the lofty aim of crafting their own research-driven,
theoretically-sound approach to preschool inclusive education. This is partially because of the
rarity of deliberately inclusive preschool curricular design (unless one would like to use the
instructional techniques originally posited by Comenius in the 1600s). In pursuit of this goal, the
Ben Samuels Childrens Center has benefited tremendously from its positioning within an
institution of higher education: there is no lack of knowledge at the Center. At Ben Samuels,
theory is seamlessly woven into every level of engagement and activity, from the curricular
design to lesson planning.
The specific theories and practices by which the Ben Samuels Childrens Center has been
most profoundly influenced are excerpted below in the following table, adapted from their
Mission, Philosophy and Curriculum statement:
Table 4
Ben Samuels Childrens Center - Philosophical Underpinnings (Ben Samuels Childrens Center
[BSCC], n.d.)
Philosophy Key Components
Deweyan Democratic Education The essence of democracy is inclusivenesss.
The goal of education is to help develop
personally fulfilled but socially responsible
citizens.
Constructivism Learners gain knowledge through active
involvement, rather than passed down
information.
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
(DAP)
NAEYC framework of principles and
guidelines for practice that promotes young
childrens optimal learning and development,
characterized by:
Meeting the learning where they are
Using teaching practices appropriate to
age and development
Ensure that goals and experiences are
challenging enough to promote
progress and interest
Early Childhood Inclusion Every infant and child, regardless of ability,
should be given the opportunity to participate
in a broad range of activities and contexts are
full members of society, families, and
communities. The defining features of
inclusion are access, participation, and
supports.
Developmental Individual-Differences
Relationship Approach (DIR Floortime)
Uses a framework that helps clinicians, parents
and educators conduct, fully assess, and
develop a program tailored to the unique
challenges and strengths of children with
Autism Spectrum Disorder and other
developmental challenges. The objectives are
to build healthy foundations for social,
emotional, and intellectual abilities rather than
focusing on specific skills and isolated
behaviors. Developed by Stanley Greenspan
and Serena Weider, this approach focuses on
the central role of emotional development and
how it affects and is affected by all other
aspects of development.
The Reggio Emilia Approach This is named after a town in Italy that has
developed a reputation for excellence in early
childhood education using a socio-
constructivist model. Influenced by the work
of Vygostsky, who posits that children and
acults co-construct their theories and
knowledge through the relationships that they
develop with other people and their experience
of the surrounding environment. The
expressive arts are central to this approach, as
is a process rather than product oriented
mindset.
Multiple Intelligences Developed by Howard Gardner, this theory
says that there are many kinds of intelligences,
some of which include:
Verbal/linguistic
Logical/mathematical
Visual/spatial
Interpersonal
Musical
Intelligences are independent but interrelated
and complimentary in an individuals approach
to problem solving.

Examining the philosophical underpinnings, one would expect the BSCC to be a
relationally-oriented, developmentally focused institution, and that is exactly what I observed
during my time there. I would argue that the close and consistent application of theory to
practice exhibited by most who work at the center is demonstrative of a level of privilege that is
shared amongst staff. Every individual at the BSCC has experiences with university level
education. Every teaching assistant has a Bachelors degree; many currently have or are in
pursuit of their Masters degree. The student workers who provide support to classrooms
throughout the day are all university students who have a professed interest in education and who
stand to benefit personally from a heightened level of engagement with the center, as well as a
deep understanding of its operations. This is no ordinary group of people, for better or for worse.
This allows conversations, expectations, roles and responsibilities to be pushed to a higher level
than may be possible at a traditional preschool without the availability of an inordinate amount
of dedicated professional development.
Physical Organization and Structure
There are five preschool classrooms at the Ben Samuels Childrens Center. All consist of
one lead teacher and one teaching assistant. There are as many as 18 children in each classroom,
and up to 25 percent of the population has special needs. In keeping with their focus on
diversity, each class is of mixed ages (3-5). Special Education Teaching Assistants (SETAs) are
placed with individual students who have been granted a 1:1 aide in their IEP, and professional
support staff (Special Educators, Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist)
frequently push into the classroom to work with special needs students in both individual and
group settings. Classrooms are organized between North and South Wings, and there are Infant,
Toddler, and Preschool classrooms located in both wings. Administrative offices are located in
the easternmost front of the building, while workrooms, meeting spaces, and music and
multipurpose rooms are located in the West wing. Given that the center was built from the
ground up for explicit use as a childcare and educational facility, it has distinct physical
advantage over many built preschool environments. The grouping of classrooms, workrooms
and offices into wings forms a sort of courtyard in the center of the building. It is in this space
that many informal meetings between colleagues occur, increasing face time and allowing for
more focused and collaborative attention to individual student needs. During my time at the
center, I witnessed all manner of meetings take place in the entryway and hallways: general
greetings and chit chat; debriefs surrounding the efficacy of a particular lesson or activity;
brainstorming sessions surrounding an emerging student need; a spirited conversation about the
best way to make long lasting bubble solution for use in speech and physical therapy sessions.
This hallway is an invaluable
resource for the center, and
indeed many of the professionals
with which I interacted noted the
importance of access to
unscheduled meeting time to
support the collaborative work
that they do with students. There
is one gym in each of the North
and South wings, as well as three
playgrounds located outside (a
separate one designed for
exclusive use of infants, toddlers,
and preschool children). These
facilities are well-maintained and used frequently for both individual therapies and group play.
My time at the center was facilitated and guided by Kathy, a Special Educator who has
explicit responsibility for managing the IEPs for 9 students. The first thing that struck me upon
entering her office was the shorthand versions of the IEP goals for her 9 students that were
pasted above her computer. It was obvious to me that every ounce of her interaction with these
students was intentionally crafted in support of their development.
(Ben Samuels Childrens Center [BSCC],
n.d.)
Kathy had no classroom, yet she had many learning laboratories at her disposal. She had
free reign of almost any nook of the center to support the development of her students. If she
needed to create an obstacle course for students in the middle of the hallway, this was allowed.
If she needed to reconfigure the music room to make it more conducive to the specific needs of
the lesson she envisioned, this was allowed. If she decided to have a student ride bicycles in the
hallway every morning from 8:30 to 8:45 as part of a heavy work plan, this was allowed. The
center is as a whole an exceptionally malleable environment, one that will bend at a whim to
further support the developmental goals of its charges. The following map illustrates the
malleable
nature of
Kathys work.
She created a
new
classroom
environment
with every new
lesson
objective, by
reconfiguring the music room to suite her changing needs.
Different Classrooms
I was afforded a birds eye view of every preschool classroom at the center, and I can say
with confidence that no two classroom environments were alike. Some were meticulously
organized, with color coding systems managing the class library and teaching assistants and
SETAs working in an organized fashion to increase classroom efficiency at every turn. Some
were more chaotic, with loose ends left untied but with more of a focus on ensuring student
independence in accomplishing the tasks of classroom maintenance. Many of the differences can
be accounted for by personality quirks, and it is not my belief that one environment or another is
necessarily more conducive to student growth and development. In allowing a great deal of
teacher autonomy in individual classrooms, the center communicates that teachers are to be
trusted to meet the stated curricular goals, even given their unique characteristics, and that they
are constantly within reach of additional support and guidance for whatever their particular
struggles may be. In light of the espoused belief in multiple intelligences, it stands to reason that
the center values a variety of different strengths among its staff.
One unifying component of instructional approaches is the centering of lesson planning
around investigations of student-
led topics. Teachers spend time
reflecting on what interests have
emerged in their classrooms, and
select one of the topics that they have
begun to notice a buzz about.
They then build upon student
interests to scaffold educational
experiences that will allow the children to explore the topic in a variety of ways. Investigations
can be as short as a week and as long as a month or two, depending on the level of complexity
and student engagement. The planning sessions that produce these investigations can similarly
look very different: some teachers will come to the table with a list of predetermined activities
that she will disseminate to the rest of the classroom staff, perhaps seeking input from other
professionals on how these activities can be modified to include their area of expertise. Others
will come with an idea and the expectation of entirely co-created lessons and objectives.
The pedagogical approaches and best practices that I routinely observed during my time
at the center are as follows:
Interdisciplinary planning: Building on the strengths of every professional in the
building, lesson planning is intentionally a team activity. Each professional is
expected to be prepared to bring their areas of expertise to the table to ensure the
best possible learning experience for all students
Transdisciplinary practice: Rather than being masters of solely their own domain,
professionals are expected to take a team approach to practice. Using the co-
constructed lesson plan, practitioners work seamlessly to provide services to
students. A speech goal may be implemented by an occupational therapist, and
this is not seen as a confusion of roles but rather as a hallmark of supportive
practice
Play: the importance of play in child development cannot be overstated, and as
such it must be a key component of every students educational experience.
Adults may be needed to help scaffold and build upon play skills, to help expand
the repertoire of activities with which a child may be comfortable, and to provide
connections from abstract to concrete concepts
Universal design: multiple means of representation, expression and engagement
for every activity
Sensory integration: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell are all important for our
engagement in our learning environment, and opportunities for sensory
experiences abound. This is particularly critical given that many children at the
center have some form of sensory regulation disorder and will need significant
levels of support for sensory integration.
Storytelling: stories are powerful tools for helping children to break down
experiences and process information. Dramatic storytelling is particularly useful
in engaging students on a wide developmental spectrum
Curriculum mapping: every part must relate in some way to the whole, and that
relationship must be able to be clearly defined and represented. This helps to
ensure high quality program delivery and consistent adherence to stated objectives

The Role of Assessment
In compliance with NJ DOE regulations, all special needs children are evaluated four
times throughout the school year to measure their progress and attainment of the goals laid out in
their IEP. Recognizing the need to develop an assessment framework that reflected the
interdisciplinary nature of their curricular model, the BSCCS developed its own
Transdisciplinary Developmental Checklist. This checklist organizes the different types of
developmental milestones that are found in each of their underpinning theories, and lists
examples of behaviors that would indicate mastery of that milestone. This checklist is used to
assess a students developmental stages, and to create specific goals that are just one step above
their current level of mastery. Once created, these goals are used to create an individual schedule
that a student follows daily, and notes are taken by SETAs on how or if a student is progressing
with his or her stated goals. Notes are methodically gathered for each student and reviewed
biweekly. Goals are updated quarterly to correspond with a students level of progress. All of
this information is communicated to sending districts as well as parents.
For general education students, assessment takes on a different form. There are no strict
rules regarding what assessments must be done in classrooms, but there is an expectation that it
is done consistently and methodically throughout the year. As Tara stated in a group session, the
BSCC believes that children can learn on their own, but part of our role as adults it to scaffold
their experiences. Assessment serves several purposes. First, it keeps children moving along
with the goals we have set with families. Second, it allows us to see if teachers are meeting
milestones. Third, it allows practitioners to identify any red flags in a childs development. The
primary means of assessing student growth, development and understanding was anecdotal note
taking. This was a procedure that was mentioned by all teachers. With this process, the educator
pays direct attention to an individual student, and makes a notation when they display a behavior
that indicates what they know or how much they have grasped about a particular concept. Take,
for instance, one lesson that I observed on the moon. The teacher took half of the class and did a
read aloud from a book on the moon, which detailed that the surface of the moon is bumpy
because it has been hit by asteroids. She then asked certain students to tell her what they knew
about the moon and its surface. As each child answered a question, she made a notation of their
answer in a binder. Once the class had collectively recalled that the surface of the moon has
been made bumpy because of the impact of asteroids, she had all students pick a different
spherical object (a rock, a tennis ball, a ping pong ball, a crumpled sheet of paper, etc.) and
predict what sort of imprint the object would make if dropped into flour (bumpy or smooth?
Large or small?). Special needs students were asked related but differentiated questions that
engaged them on their level of understanding (what color is the moon? What color is this ball?).
She made a notation of each students response, and at the end of the lesson made explicit the
connection that different objects make different impressions, and that we can predict what sort of
impression an object will make by observing its characteristics. This is a practice that was a
common thread throughout all classrooms. Anecdotal assessment was done by special education
staff as well. In one instance, Kathy sat down and initiated a conversation with a boy during
lunch so that she could investigate his grasp of conversational language. This information was
then presented to parents during a home visit, and reflected on in the honing and shaping of his
goals.
The assessment protocols that are undertaken for the special education population must
meet the specific requirements of the NJ DOE and cooperative boards of education. Assessment
practices do not have the same rigid requirements for the general education population and
therefore do not take on the more standardized format that we have become accustomed to in K-
12 education.

Curricular Domains
As previously mentioned, the Ben Samuels Childrens Center employs curricular
domains, standards and goals that must demonstrate strict compliance with those outlined by the
NJ DOE. The similarities in the way in which the domains are organized is not accidental, and
helps to facilitate alignment between standards and goals at every level. I have created the
following table that highlights the overlap between the domains of the NJ DOE and BSCC.
Table 5
Ben Samuels Children's Center's Curricular Domains and Standards (BSCC, n.d.)
Juxtaposed with NJDOE Domains (Domain number)
1. Social Emotional
Development
2. Approaches to
Learning
3. Physical
Development and
Health
4. Language and
Literacy
1a. Developing a sense of
self/self-concept
1b. Forming Social
relationships
1c. Self regulation and self
control

NJ DOE: Social/Emotional
Development (0)

2a. Learns through
exploration and play
2b. Demonstrates problem
solving skills and reasoning

NJ DOE: Social Studies,
Family, and Life Skills (6)

Science (5)
3a. Develops Competence in
fine motor skills
3b. Develops competence in
gross motor activities
3c. Demonstrates health,
nutrition, and self help
behaviors

NJ DOE: Health, Safety
and Physical Education (2)
4a. Listens and demonstrates
understanding of language
4b. Communicates through
language
4c. Demonstrates emerging
reading and writing skills

NJ DOE: Language Arts
Literacy (3)
5. Mathematics 6. Science 7. Social Studies 8. Creative Arts
5a. Develops an
understanding of numbers
and operations
5b. Develops spatial sense
and knowledge of geometry,
measurement, and time
5c. Develops an awareness
and understanding of patterns
and relationships,
classification and algebraic
relationships
5d. Develops an awareness of
statistics and probability

NJ DOE: Mathematics (4)
6a. Develops scientific skills
and methods
6b. Develops scientific
knowledge

NJ DOE: Science (5)
7a. Develops a broader
perspective of the world
7b. Develops an
understanding of self within a
community

NJ DOE: Social Studies,
Family, and Life Skills (6)

World Languages (7)
8a. Develops an appreciation
and understanding of music
and movement
8b. Develops an appreciation
and understanding of art
8c. Develops an appreciation
and understanding of
dramatic play and storytelling

NJ DOE: Visual and
Performing Arts (1)

While not all domains demonstrate a direct overlap, there is a distinct correlation. One
exception is the NJ DOEs inclusion of a Technology domain. The BSCC does not have this as
an explicit domain, and I did not actually see any technology in use with children during my
times of observation. I am very aware of the limited scope of my view, and I learned in
conversations with my colleagues that iPads were sometimes used in both large group and small
group settings to help meet lesson goals and objectives. World Languages is also not listed as an
explicit domain of the BSCC curriculum, but I saw evidence of this curricular goal in action
while at the center, particularly with the emphasis on diversity that is a persistent theme
throughout the center. One class had the word hello represented in Mandarin, Hebrew,
Spanish, Russian, French and German, and when I questioned the teacher on this she said that
these were the languages spoken by families in her class. She also learned greetings and short
phrases in these languages so that families and children would feel comfortable, and with the
hopes that other children would learn about other languages as well.
One domain that is included in the BSCC curriculum that is not explicitly mentioned by
the NJ DOE is Approaches to Learning. I can speculate that the NJ DOE expected for this goal to
be met by pedagogical approaches of other domains, such as the use of inquiry methods in
science lessons, but the inclusion of a specific domain surrounding this concept points to the
Centers deep commitment to and understanding of child development. I have included lesson
plans in my Appendix that further explicate how the BSCC goes about mapping their actions to
the goals set forth by both the State and their own curriculum. While every teacher has their own
method for lesson plans, this sample is a useful example of intentional design.
Daily Schedule
The centers function as both a childcare and preschool environment means that the daily
schedule is somewhat different than what may be expected in a typical preschool. A sample
schedule is below.
Table 6
Sample Daily Schedule - BSCC
8:00 9:15 Free Play
9:15 - 9:20 Cleanup toys
9:20 9:45 Snack
9:45 10:00 Cleanup, toileting, books
10:00 10:30 Morning meeting/Circle time
10:30 11:00 Activity
11:00 11:15 Toileting
11:15 12:00 Outside
12:00 12:45 Lunch and toileting
12:45 2:30 Nap/rest time
2:30 3:15 Cleanup
3:15 3:45 Snack
3:45 4:00 Toileting/sunscreen
4:00 5:00 Outside
5:00 6:00 Individual choice activities
6:00 Remaining children to P22/Good Night

In this particular classroom, there was very little time devoted to whole group instruction
or engagement outside of Circle Time, in which literacy, mathematics, social studies and science
goals were embedded daily. The activity listed after Circle Time consisted of small group
activities that the teacher set up for predetermined groups of students. In other classrooms, these
activities were self-selected.
Special Education
The daily schedule for a special needs student at the center will differ from that of a
general educations student in several ways. A decision making hierarchy is employed that helps
professionals decide when and if a child should be removed from the general education
experience:
Can the child participate in the class activity with other classmates?
Can the child participate in the same class activity if the environment is adapted?
Can the child participate in the same class activity if instruction is adapted?
Can the student participate in the same class activity but with adapted materials?
Can the student participate in the same class activity but with adapted
expectations?
Can the student participate in the same class activity but with personal assistance?
Can the student participate in the same class activity but with goals on a different
level of the same content?
Can the student participate in the same class activity but with goals from a
different curriculum content area?
Can the student work in the same room on a logically different activity related to
his/her IEP goals?
Can the student work in the building on a logically different activity related to
his/her IEP goals? (BSCC, n.d.)
During my time at BSCC, I saw each of these different forms of adaptation in action.
Each decision was made based on the unique needs of the child, not on the needs of the teacher.

At 1pm while other students are down for nap, special education students will be taken
out for groups which are organized by different specialists. The students are organized into
small teams, who are all developmentally working on similar goals. Specialists design particular
lessons for these children (an obstacle course; a series of manipulative work stations; a problem
that they need to solve as a group) so that they can get further experience working with others
while receiving explicit instruction that supports their IEP goals. Kathy gave me a great example
Sample individualized lesson plan
of a long term group that she ran to facilitate a number of educational goals for students: she had
the children construct their own bowling alley, from the ground up, and eventually organizing
bowling teams and playing with each other. Objectives of the lesson included increasing social
skills and awareness, developing concepts around money, and fine motor skills involved in
cutting paper. This was a fabulous long range lesson that she was able to accomplish because of
the availability of these group lesson times. This focused attention allows students to get the
individualized support that they need without compromising the ideals and principles of
inclusive education. Special education students end their day after these small groups, thus
solving a budgetary problem for the center: districts will not pay for naptime. Special education
is still considered inclusion if the student is with the general education population for 80% of the
time.
Newark Public Schools
Newark Public Schools is the largest urban districts in New J ersey to have been identified
as in need of compensatory preschool education to combat the negative effects of poverty in the
community. This mandated preschool education emerged as a result of the 1998 New J ersey
Supreme Court ruling in Abbott v Burke, which concluded that public education must include a
high-quality, well-planned preschool program starting at age three in the 31 districts serving
New J erseys poorest children, approximately 25 percent of the states entire student population
(Farrie & Weber, 2010). This was the first such judicial directive in the nation, and was based
on research that demonstrates the potential for high quality preschool education to significantly
close the achievement gap. As an Abbott district, Newark is mandated to provide preschool
education to all of its 3 to 5 population. This ruling emerged in 1998 and completely revamped
the face of urban preschool education: not just calling for the tweaking of an existing program, it
In-district
Newark Public
School Settings
38 facilities
Community
programs
43 facilities
Expanded/
Extended Head
Start programs
40 facilities

ABBOTT MANDATED,
DISTRICT-CONTROLLED
PRESCHOOL EDUCATION
457 TOTAL CLASSROOMS
The Complexity of the Preschool
Environment in Newark Public Schools
Adapted from (Farrie & Weber, 2010)
forced the creation of new programs that would now service thousands, necessitating
corresponding allocations of staffing, physical and monetary resources. Understanding the
implausibility of a district as large as Newark being able to meet the demands of this undertaking
on its own, the Abbott ruling allowed for community partnerships with existing or newly created
preschool programs. The diagram that I have created demonstrates the complex interrelatedness
of public preschool providers in Newark.
As you can see, in both Newark Public Schools and the Ben Samuels Childrens Center,
the provision of early education services is much more complex than simply delivering sound
pedagogical
strategies,
adhering to
theory, and
hoping for the
best. Both
environments
have many layers
of regulation and
standardization
that must be taken
into account when
analyzing the
environment. The
Newark Public
Schools adds another level of complexity to the preschool universe, and further complicates
efforts to effectively standardize the experience of different students.
Newark Public Schools employs the Creative Curriculum to organize its pedagogy.
Several Community Provider and Head Start programs are NAEYC certified, and all are required
to meet the standards set forth by both the Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards and the
Abbott ruling (which include having a certified teacher and assistant for each class; maximum
class size of 15; adequate facilities; transportation, health and related services, as needed;
developmentally appropriate preschool curriculum that meets the NJ DOEs Early Childhood
Education Program Expectation Standards of Quality [2002] and is linked with NJ s Core
Curriculum Content Standards; and adequate State funding for all community providers and in-
district programs (Farrie & Weber, 2010)).
Philosophical Underpinnings
A summary of the various philosophical underpinnings of the Creative Curriculum are
delineated in the following table:
Table 7
Creative Curriculum- Philosophical Underpinnings (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2003)
Name Key Points
Maslow There is a hierarchy of needs that must be met
before a child is ready to learn:
1. Physiological (hunger, thirst, bodily
comfort)
2. Safety (security and freedom from
danger)
3. Belongingness (being comfortable with
and connected to others that results
from receiving acceptance, respect, and
love)
4. Esteem (self-respect and respect from
others)
Erikson The eight stages of man presents a sequence
of issues that must be resolved for healthy
development to occur. The stages that are
achieved before or during preschool are:
1. Trust vs mistrust (believing that the
world around you is a safe and reliable
place that responds to your needs)
2. Autonomy vs shame and doubt (acting
willingly and by free choice)
3. Initiative vs guilt (directing energy
toward tackling tasks and being
unperturbed by failure)
Learning and the Brain Research on the brain has informed the
pedagogical approaches of the Creative
Curriculum. Some of the research is:
Learning is a result of both nature and
nurture, and IQ is therefore not as fixed
as we once thought (teachers can have a
profound influence on student learning)
The human brain grows as a result of
learning and experience (the more
experiences teachers provide, the more
synapse connections a student can
make, thus changing the physical
structure of their brain for the better!)
Learning needs to be reinforced over
and over (children need many
opportunities to practice new skills,
therefore you should explore concepts
over time)
Emotions play a significant role in
learning. Stress significantly inhibits
educational attempts (positive
relationships with parents and other
stakeholders in a childs life help
facilitate and ensure healthy emotional
conditions and are crucial to learning)
Nutrition, health and physical activity
affect learning (children are active
learners and daily time outdoors and
exercising are essential for health and
wellbeing)
There are sensitive times when the
brain is at its peak for learning. During
early years, children are more receptive
to learning emotional control, forming
attachments to others, and acquiring
language and music skills
(development of social competence,
language and music are all important
components of the curriculum)
Piaget Logical thinking develops in sequential stages.
While there are four stages that he identified
development, the two that are most connected
to the Creative Curriculum are:
1. Sensorimotor (from birth through age
2. Babies learn by reacting to what they
experience through their senses)
2. Preoperational (from around age 2
through the completion of preschool.
Children begin to notice properties in
the objects they explore, but their
observations are limited to one attribute
at a time. They are focused on how
things look rather than logic. Children
in this stage also tend to see everything
from their own point of view Piaget
calls this egocentrism)

Vygotsky Children grow cognitively not only by acting
on objects but also by interacting with adults
and more knowledgeable peers. What children
can do with the assistance of others gives
clearer understanding of their abilities than
does what they can do alone. Zone of Proximal
Development describes the range of a childs
learning in a given situation. The lower limit
represents what they can do independently. A
scaffold is a cognitive structure on which
children climb from one ZPD to the next.
Gardner Intelligence extends beyond IQ. Gardner
recognized 8 forms of intelligence, and defined
intelligence as the capacity to solve problems
or to fashion products that are valued in one or
more cultural setting.
1. Linguistic/verbal
2. Logical/mathematical
3. Musical/rhythmic
4. Spatial/visual
5. Bodily/kinesthetic
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalist
Smilansky Children learn through play and this has a
direct impact on their future academic success.
There are four types of play that he
distinguished:
1. Functional (use their senses and
muscles to experiment with materials
and learn how things go together)
2. Constructive (children learn the
different uses of play materials. They
start putting things together based on a
plan, create or organize their materials,
and sustain their attention for longer
than with functional play)
3. Dramatic/pretend (children take on a
role and use real or pretend objects to
play out the role. Often based on rules
they have learned through own
experiences. When engaged in as a
group, it is called sociodramatic play)
4. Games with rules (involve planning.
There are table games and physical or
movement games)
Learning and Resiliency This research has focused on children who
have developed well despite the burden of
hardship. It reverses the assumption that
children growing in the threat of disadvantage
are doomed to a life of problems. It shows that
children can develop the strength and skills
necessary to deal with adversity. Children
develop resilience when they:
Spend time in a safe, supportive and
stimulating environment
Have access to caring, supportive
adults who believe in them
Have opportunities to develop self-
control
Can get a sense of their own
competence
Are exposed to teaching strategies that
help them become successful learners

Similarly to the BSCC, Creative Curriculum begins with an explicit nod to NAEYCs
description of developmentally appropriate practice. It states that its entire theoretical
framework is designed to ensure the provision of developmentally appropriate practice to all
children, including those with special needs and English Language Learners (Dodge et al., 2003).
I would like to note that the exclusion of certain theorists from the BSCCs written philosophical
stance does not mean that their work did not inform practice. For instance, the work that I
observed from Kathy was often influenced by Smilanskys understanding of Games with Rules,
with an eye towards how that experience helped to scaffold a learner into more complex forms of
social interaction. This lends further credence to my assertion that the center as a whole has a
distinct privilege provided by its association with an institution of higher education. Certain
theories are so widely known that they no longer need explicit mention in order to impact
practice. Creative Curriculum is designed for use by a broad range of educational settings and
by practitioners with a diverse set of previous knowledge. Deep knowledge of theory is not a
prerequisite for implementing the techniques that it lays out. This is one advantage to its use in a
large and complex district such as Newark.
Physical Organization and Structure
The specific school environment that I observed, the ECLCS, is an older building that has
had different uses. It previously housed an elementary school for children up to grade 4, but has
been revamped and retooled into a preschool with 14 classrooms. In addition to teaching and
support staff, there are two nurses, one social worker, and a resource teacher who is supposed to
help support the classrooms with suggested strategies and best practices. The building is shaped
like a rectangle. There are two parallel hallways that house all of the classrooms, with Pre K 3s
grouped in one hallway and Pre K 4s in the other. There is another hallway that houses many of
the administrative rooms, the office, and the nurse. Parallel to the administrative wing is the
multipurpose room that is currently used as a kitchen and a gross motor development room. This
multipurpose room houses a
variety of bicycles and other gross
motor equipment that individual
classrooms use throughout the
week. There are 16 cameras
surrounding the building, with
two more soon to be added at the
street level.
The students made daily
use of a community park that is located at the rear of the building. This park is owned by the
City of Newark, and as such is open to the public during non-school hours. There were issues of
cleanliness and student exposure to dangerous materials that emerged during my time at the
ECLCS, and these issues were further complicated by the complicated relationship between the
school maintenance staff and the city cleaning crews. One issue in particular will be a useful
illustration: on Monday, school staff discovered a dead squirrel on the playground surface, and
placed it in an empty, bagless garbage can to move it out of the way. Students soon discovered
the dead rodent as this can has large gaps in it, and began to congregate around the animal during
outdoor play time. Some children laughed. Others attempted to poke the squirrel. Once I
realized the situation, I reported to the Vice Principal, who then told the maintenance staff. The
maintenance worker came and checked with me to see which can the rodent was housed in, and
went to the playground ostensibly to move it. Upon my return to the school, the rodent was still
in the same garbage can, and children continued to treat it as a plaything. Apparently, the city
crews are supposed to be in charge of the cleanliness of the park, but where does that leave a
Gross motor activities in the multipurpose
room
Gross motor activities in the multipurpose
room
school administrator when faced with a cleanliness issue that is a potential health and human
safety danger (as a dead animal surely would be considered)? This experience with the ECLCS
playground cannot be generalized to all preschool environments in Newark. It is included only
to further point to the complexity of the preschool environment in a large decentralized district.
Creative Curriculum lays out a prescribed classroom structure, and every classroom in
the ECLCS included the same components. They are as follows:
1. Blocks
2. Dramatic Play
3. Toys and Games
4. Art
5. Library
6. Discovery
7. Sand and Water
8. Music and Movement
9. Cooking
10. Computers

These stations are thought to
provide a mix of environs that will help
establish logical thinking, sensory
awareness, social skills, pretend play
opportunities, and a variety of
experiences that will engage students
The technology center in Ms. Kellys
classroom
Example classroom schema from the
Creative Curriculum. Centers are
supposed to follow a logical flow, with
noisy areas being as far away from quiet
areas as possible. (Dodge, Colker, &
Heroman, 2003)
with different types of intelligences. Students spend a great deal of time at these stations
throughout the day, and are allowed to self-determine where they will go. Students also need to
engage problem solving and conflict resolution skills in order to navigate this environment, as
only a certain number of children are allowed at a station at a time.
Classroom Environment
My time at the ECLCS was guided by Ms. Kelly, who has been in this school for all five
of her years as a teacher. Prior to this role, she worked as an aide in various special needs
classrooms throughout NPS. Ms. Kelly is recognized a model teacher for NPS, and as such has
responsibilities for training other members of the teaching staff on new pedagogical strategies
and techniques.
While Newark Public Schools states that it has a mixed age standard for its preschool
classes, ECLCS employs a PreK 3 and PreK 4 model. These educational experiences are
tailored differently and have different curricular expectations. Ms. Kellys classroom is PreK 3.
Ms. Kellys classroom is very organized and follows the prescribed Creative Curriculum
template exactly. Her classroom aide, Ms. Rose, takes on many of the organizational
maintenance tasks for the classroom. As delineated in the Abbott ruling, her classroom has 15
students. Students are allowed to enter the building at 8:25 and are expected to be picked up by
family by 2:55.
Some of the key pedagogical strategies and foci that I observed in this classroom are:
Culturally inclusive music featured throughout the day: Ms Kelly used music to
facilitate transitions and to set the desired tone for the room at a given time. One
common theme was an upbeat song with a strong rhythmic component to start the
day, circle time songs that deal with the days of the week and emotions, soft
songs during quiet times, and Spanish or French language songs during meal
times.
Frequent engagement in whole group dynamics development: in contrast to what I
observed at the BSCC, whole group dynamics were consistently in play in Ms.
Kellys classroom. This is perhaps because her community of learners was more
consistent than those at the BSCC, who had a fluctuating enrollment depending
on parental need for childcare. She expressed a strong sense of duty toward
helping her students to get along with each other, noting that many of them would
deal with each other for years to come, and that this classroom is likely the only
outlet for peer-to-peer relation building that many of them have.
Play: similarly to the BSCC and directly influenced by the Creative Curriculum,
Ms. Kellys classroom placed a strong influence on play as a primary means of
learning. She scaffolded many opportunities for academic discovery into the
different environs of the classroom, and used one-on-one interactions to help
guide them toward academic knowledge without the use of explicit instruction.
An example of this would be helping a student construct their name out of
alphabet seashells in the Sand area, or doing an exploration of different bugs
using plastic models in the Discovery center. Dramatic play was of particular
importance in Ms. Kellys classroom, and allowed children to engage with each
other and with their world in many ways, creating new games at the drop of a hat
and going through the process of co-creating norms and rules for these new
imaginary environments.

Daily story time: literacy was a large component of Ms. Kellys focus in the
classroom, and she facilitated much of this learning through the use of story times
scattered throughout the day. Ms. Kelly had two different whole group
intentional read alouds, in addition to small group story engagement.
Strong emphasis on literacy development: in addition to Creative Curriculum,
Ms. Kellys classroom used elements of the Childrens Literacy Initiative to
increase literacy and development of phonemic awareness. She used Message
Time Plus in particular during every Circle Time.
A student writing a list for her party
An example of her Message
Time Plus lesson plans are included in the Appendix.
She also had all students sign their own names for attendance. In
observing a sample of name sign in sheets that progressed from the beginning of
the year until the time of my visit, I was able to trace the development of the
students print awareness and understanding. Ms. Kelly also sent name sheets
home for parents to work on with their children

An example sign in sheet showing the
progression of print awareness
Message Time Plus in action at circle time
Ms. Kellys hidden curriculum seemed to be focused on these two elements:
Transmission of cultural norms and expectations: on multiple occasions, Ms.
Kelly stated that it does not matter how well her kids can count if they do not
know how to pay attention to the teacher. I list below a quote from a lesson that I
observed, when children had begun to chatter:
You guys arent paying attention! I dont think anyones going to go to centers today.
Its circle time. Im here to make you smart, to put lots of stuff up here (points at head).
You need to listen. Its not your time to talk. Now count with me.
The message here is that she is the giver of knowledge, students are to be
receivers, and if they are not engaged in the work that she has dictated for them to follow,
then they will lose the reward of their own self-directed learning time. She set this
expectation as a way to prepare them for the reality of the educational climate that they
will enter when they leave her classroom.
Ms. Kelly was also concerned with developing a community where children
shared similar values and could rally around similar ideas and interests. This was
displayed in the Easter party that she and Ms. Rose planned and implemented for
students. This was an elaborate affair, complete with individualized bunny baskets made
from milk jogs, candy, a dance floor, a strobe light, and a piata. I helped to create a
spring themed background, and students had their pictures taken in front of it. All
students were expected to dress up for the occasion, and when one little boy arrived in
jeans, Ms. Kelly and Ms. Rose expressed displeasure with his mother. The mother
answered by saying that she didnt feel like being bothered to go get her son a dressy
outfit just for one day. Ms. Rose replied that he would be the only child who was left out
of this experience. The mother then agreed to go out and purchase an outfit for her son
because she dont want him to be the only one. Another father arrived at the end of the
day and, when presented with the bunny filled with candy, stated that he did not want to
take it. Ms. Kelly replied that it was for his daughter, and he stated that he did not want it
no matter what. Ms. Rose said that he needed to be more respectful, and he stated that
she needed to be sure of who she was talking to. Ms. Kelly offered the picture that the
student had taken in front of the backdrop, and he began to accept, but upon examining it
stopped short and said No, I dont think I want that either. Ms. Rose began to question
his parenting ability, and said that he should have just kept his daughter home that day
rather than make her miss all of the fun. He stated that he was a good person and
proceeded to leave the classroom with the bunny, candy and picture. When I questioned
Ms. Rose and Ms. Kelly about this, I asked if he was perhaps Muslim, and if this could
explain his hesitancy to wholeheartedly participate in an Easter celebration. Ms. Rose
exclaimed so what? I am too! I never let my child miss out on something they did in
school just because of that, Im not going to ruin it for them!. In my view, this exchange
points to an expectation of assimilation with dominant culture, regardless of personal
stance, in order to shield students from stigmatization or the pain of being different.

Social and emotional development with an eye toward survival in Newark: Both
Ms. Kelly and Ms. Rose grew up in Newark, and both felt a deep sense of
connection and identification with the surrounding community. Both expressed
that the children in this classroom needed to learn how to navigate their world
without crying, and had little tolerance for this activity. They also firmly believed
that all children of this age (3) should be completely potty trained, responsible for
their own belongings, able to open their own food at meal times, and able to clean
up after themselves. Independence was seen to key to survival. There was
likewise little tolerance for talking about outside factors in the childrens lives.
An example of this took place one day during lunch. One child began by saying
My mommy and my daddy fight a lot. Another child followed by saying My
mommy and my daddy fight too!. The conversation continued with different
children offering My daddy pushed my mommy and I dont think they like
each other. The teacher response to this situation was to demand silence for the
rest of the meal. Children were not encouraged to speak about the challenging
The Easter party, complete with backdrop
and milk-jug bunnies
details of their lives, and were expected to display appropriate behaviors at all
times (no acting out for any reason). The appropriate coping mechanism for
processing these events was stifling or silencing them.
Concurrently, Ms. Kelly and Ms. Rose both seemed genuinely interested
in children enjoying themselves while they spent time together. Ms. Kelly in
particular was not averse to dancing along to a silly song, engaging in an
impromptu sing along, or engaging with kids on their own level.
Curricular Domains
The domains and objectives of the Creative Curriculum are highlighted below:

(Dodge
et al., 2003)


In Ms. Kellys classroom, the primary focus is on the Social-Emotional domain, with an
additional emphasis on the Literacy domain that is bolstered by Message Time Plus and the daily
sign-in sheets.
The Role of Assessment
Creative Curriculum makes use of Teaching Strategies GOLD Objectives for
Development and Learning as its assessment system. My understanding of this system is that it
provides an online framework for tracking, analyzing, and reporting student data in light of the
Creative Curriculums specific objectives (Heroman, Burts, Berke, & Bickart, 2010). For each
objective, GOLD lists specific goals that can be used to demonstrate a childs developmental
progress. For instance, Objective 8 of the Literacy Domain is Listens to and understands
increasingly complex language. Mastery of this
objective can be measured by student attainment of
concrete goals. Mastery of showing an interest in
the speech of others (demonstrated by turning head
toward people who are talking, recognizing
familiar voice before the adult enters the room,
looking at favorite toy when adult labels and points
to it, responding to own name) would correspond
with a typical 1 year olds level of development.
Further goals (identifies familiar people, animals,
and objects when prompted; responds
appropriately to specific vocabulary and simply
statements, questions, and stories) and concrete examples of each, correspond to later stages of
development. This is a useful graphic organizer of
student progress in light of a developmentally
appropriate framework, and its use is similar to
BSCCs use of the Transdisciplinary
Developmental Checklist, except it is used with all
students and not only the special needs population.
Reports are generated on a regular basis and given
to parents. Anecdotal notes inform the GOLD assessment, and there is the opportunity to
include individualized examples of behavior in the reports.

Sample GOLD generated assessment
report
Daily Schedule
Table 8
Daily Schedule - Ms. Kelly's Pre-K 3 Class, 2012-2013
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
8:25-8:40 Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
8:40-9:00 AM Centers AM Centers AM Centers AM Centers AM Centers
9:00-9:25 Prep 9:05-
9:55 (Dance)
Group
Meeting
Group
Meeting
Prep 9:05-
9:55 (Dance)
Group
Meeting
9:30-10:20 Indoor Play Indoor play
9:30-9:50
Outdoor Play
9:55-10:20
Outdoor Play
9:30-9:50
Indoor Play
9:55-10:20
Indoor play
9:30-9:50
Outdoor Play
9:55-10:20
Outdoor Play
9:30-9:50
Indoor Play
9:55-10:20
10:30-11:30 Choice Time/
Small Group
Choice Time/
Small Group
Choice Time/
Small Group
Choice Time/
Small Group
Choice Time/
Small Group
11:30-11:40 Prepare for
lunch
Prepare for
lunch
Prepare for
lunch
Prepare for
lunch
Prepare for
lunch
11:40-12:15 Lunch/
Prepare for
rest
Lunch/
Prepare for
rest
Lunch/
Prepare for
rest
Lunch/
Prepare for
rest
Lunch/
Prepare for
rest
1:30-2:30 Choice Time/
Small Group
Choice Time/
Small Group
Choice Time/
Small Group
Prep 2:05-
2:55 (Art)
Choice Time/
Small Group
2:30-2:55 Clean up/
Departure
Clean up/
Departure
Clean up/
Departure
Clean up/
Departure
Clean up/
Departure
*Teacher will take lunch from 12:00-12:30 *Aide will take lunch from 12:30-1:00

Ms. Kellys classroom followed a predetermined, administrator created daily schedule. I
can say that there were few deviations from the flow that is presented in the above table, with the
exception of the use of outdoor and indoor play which depended heavily on weather.
The methodical and predictable flow of the daily schedule contributed a feeling of
consistency to the daily schedule. Ms. Kelly used similar songs to facilitate transitions, and had
concrete expectations of student behavior at each turn. For example, in preparation for naptime,
each student was required to retrieve his or her own cot and place it in the correct location. They
were then expected to get their sheets from their cubby, and place them on their cot until an adult
could help them with the final step of fixing the covers. Even when a substitute teacher was
present for this process, there was still an element of smoothness because the students had an
explicit understanding of their expected roles.
Special Education
There was one student with an IEP in Ms. Kellys classroom. This student never
received any services during my time at the ECLCS, and this was a point of frustration for Ms.
Kelly. I saw no evidence of a future plan to initiate the IEP accommodations in the near future.
Ms. Kelly was aware that this student was not being adequately supported in the present
environment, but she expressed lack of confidence surrounding her ability to change this. She
stated that she had to be sure to meet the curricular demands of the rest of the classroom, and that
without adequate support she could not be expected to slow down to help any one student. I
wonder if additional training on universal lesson design and multiple means of engagement
would be beneficial for teachers in this environment.
Additionally, Ms. Kelly expressed concern surrounding the role of aides in the ECLCS.
She stated that aides could be a true help to the academic and curricular attainment of the class,
but few aides saw this as part of their role. There was no shared responsibility for the learning
environment of the classroom, and in fact, Ms. Rose explicitly stated in conversations with me
that her job was to maintain order and discipline, not to help with lesson objectives. Ms. Kelly
spoke freely of her inability to take consistent anecdotal notes on her students because of a lack
of help from her aide, and expressed frustration that her mention of this issue to the Vice
Principal brought about little change to the situation. This points to a lack of clarity surrounding
the role of aides in the classrooms, as well as a lack of an official protocol for resolving in class
disputes (or at least the lack of an implemented protocol).

Compensatory Education in 2013 A Legacy Continues
When I asked Ms. Kelly what she thought about Newark Public Schools as a whole, she
stated to me that she had been failed by the system, and that she expected the system to continue
to fail in the future. I asked her if it was something about the administration, teachers, or
students that she did not trust, and she replied none of the above. Its the parents. I cant expect
to make a difference when these kids lives are what they are. Im from here, and at least my
mother made a little bit of effort, but some of these mothers dont do anything for their kids. So
thats why I tell my friends they can send their kids here for preschool and maybe kindergarten,
but not after that. After that, its a loss. How can you expect your child to learn when hes the
only one in the class who cares? Its the parents. These parents have to set the expectation and
they dont. So thats why I say Ill only teach in preschool. At least I can make some kind of
difference here. But after that, I really dont know.
I was initially saddened to hear her response, but then I began to wonder why? Why do
the parents not seem to care? Why does nothing ever seem to get better? Why are generation
after generation of Newark children seeming to be failed by the system, despite extensive reform
attempts and movements?
My questioning led me to Philadelphia in 1896, when WEB Dubois began an analysis
entitled The Philadelphia Negro. Published in 1899, Dubois described the lived experiences of
African-Americans who had been trained extensively for different occupations. He described
their inability, years after completing their education, to secure meaningful employment that
made full use of their faculties because of societal barriers to achievement that barred them from
levels of success (DuBois, 1899). While I can absolutely see that many barriers to achievement
are being overcome and even annihilated in 2013, it is hard to erase the collective memory of
rejection and exclusion. When granddad graduated from college only to be denied a job, it is
little wonder that grandson now sees college as a fools pursuit. When groups of people have
historically not benefitted from education, or have historically been hurt by educational attempts
to remediate their very identities, it is little wonder that they are now leery of our agenda and
intentions with their children. We must be mindful that parental aloofness or mistrust may say a
great deal more about layers of generational abuses by the educational system than it does about
our specific work as educators. Similar mistrust may follow us into the realm of special needs
preschool education.
To what end are we educating our children? Are we training them to espouse the ideals
and mannerisms that we think will best suit them for survival in the real world? Are we valuing
the cultures, skills and experiences that they bring with them into the classroom? Is this training
or education? Are we silently ambivalent about educations ability to make an impact on the
lives of children who are destined for failure? It is crucial for all educators who endeavor to
work in compensatory education program models to examine their own beliefs concerning both
poverty and disability. The way that we think about or children will directly inform the work
that we do with them. If we ever consider a particular child or situation to be unchangeable, we
are in danger or losing our efficacy in the classroom.
One quote that rings loudest in my mind when I reflect on my time at Ben Samuels is
when Kathy told me that the most important thing she can ever give her children is herself. She
is not there to extinguish a behavior. She is not there to enforce compliance. She is there to give
a child whatever part of herself he or she needs in order to make sense of the outside world. I
would like to take a similar approach to my classroom. I do not want to see myself as the giver
of knowledge, but rather as a facilitator of discovery.
Compensatory education in 2013 should not be focused on remediation. It should not be
concerned with teaching children how to cloak themselves in the mannerisms of the middle
class, as the infant school proponents of the 1830s suggested. We should likewise not be
educating our students for poverty or lack, as Pestalozzi suggested. Rather, we must allow our
students to be who they are, what they are, and where they are. Period. This is what
developmentally appropriate practice looks like, and without this regard for the student, no
practice is truly appropriate. This is the most important lesson that I learned from my
investigation of these two environments, and I am so glad to have been given the opportunity.
References
Beatty, B. (1995). Preschool education in America: the culture of young children from the
Colonial Era to the present. Binghamton, NY: Yale University Press.
Ben Samuels Childrens Center. (n.d.). Childrens Center Curriculum [Curriculum Guide].
Montclair State University: .
Childhood in portraits and portraiture. (2005). Retrieved from
http://www.museumnetworkuk.org/portraits/theme/childhood/childhood.html
Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J ., & Heroman, C. (2003). The creative curriculum for preschool (4th
ed.). Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies.
DuBois, W. (1899). The Philadelphia Negro. Retrieved from
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1141
Farrie, D., & Weber, J . (2010, August). The Abbott preschool program: a 10 year progress
report. Education Law Center. Retrieved from
http://www.edlawcenter.org/assets/files/pdfs/publications/AbbottPreschoolProgressRepor
t.pdf
Heroman, C., Burts, D. C., Berke, K., & Bickart, T. S. (2010). Objectives for development and
learning: birth through kindergarten. Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies.
Locke, J . (2001). Some thoughts concerning education (Online ed.). Retrieved from
http://www.bartleby.com/37/1/
Morgan, H. (2011). Early childhood education (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
New J ersey State Department of Education. (2009). Preschool teaching and learning standards.
Retrieved from www.nj.gov/education/cccs/preschool.htm

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