Adding Pre-K to Renaissance Charter School

The Pre-K classroom during the Renaissance Charter School where I teach is part of the Pre-K For anyone initiative implemented by Manhattan Mayor Bill de Blasio whilst took office in 2014. The initiative has tripled students’ attendance in Pre-K programs by enabling more students to venture to Pre-K for nothing. While we are grateful to acquire had time so as to add a grade to our school (Pre-K), we have experienced a couple of roadblocks on our journey.

First, as discussed in “The Charter Model Goes to Preschool” by Ashley Libetti Mitchell and Sarah Mead, adequate funding is a concern many charter schools have faced along with a battle that the principal has fought ever since the introduction of the our Pre-K program. Currently, there’s a a couple of $4,500 improvement in funding from your Pre-K student and a student in grades K-12. The expectations set for Pre-K less complicated different regarding specificity with regards to safety and material requirements. With new evaluation expectations that go so far as measuring play area equipment with tape measure and checking for adequate storage area that may contain a simple number of materials, funding provided per student doesn’t invariably provide enough money for programs to genuinely flourish adequately. If expectations were used in place, then funding should realistically provide programs web site meet these expectations.

Second, as said before within the introduction of the article, “Public programs must follow ‘quality’ standards that impose cumbersome input or process requirements that infringe on charter autonomy”. It is not a lot of the standards that infringe on charter autonomy, but the expectation of how those standards should really be achieved. Charter schools cost nothing to arrive at the standards as they quite simply think acceptable (through their number of curriculum, etc.). However, the Pre-K programs run and funded with the city would not have the identical autonomy. The fresh York City Department of Education has identified Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Pre-K programs. Therefore, an excellent having a Pre-K program might have to modify their procedure for providing a play-based Pre-K experience while simultaneously preparing students for the much less play-based literacy and math expectations in Kindergarten.

Third, there’s two evaluations that all Pre-K For all those program receives, ECERS-R (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale- Revised) and CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System). As Mitchel and Mead note, “some of them requirements [expected through the evaluations/evaluators] are required and reasonable” in regards to children’s health and safety, although some are “prescriptive, burdensome, without clearly connected to program quality.” Our experiences by using these evaluations have been quite discouraging, because of unachievable guidelines. As an example, the sunday paper could be approved inside an affirmed Department of Education curriculum, even so the same book isn’t sanctioned via the ECERS-R evaluation. As such, points are flourished one more report with the school’s overall evaluation which remains for two main to three consecutive school years. Surprisingly, the category evaluation is not going to will include a teacher interview. How can an evaluator truly evaluate a classroom if he/she won’t talk to the teacher both before and after an exam to improved view the classroom community, the students’ needs, as well as teacher’s teaching methods? Evaluations take time and effort for anyone programs, really wants to a charter school program that fundamentally involves different expectations. Ultimately, evaluations should set schools up for achievement by highlighting their positive qualities, while enabling the theifs to create future goals in order to develop in parts of difficulty. We try to put our students up for fulfillment daily – our programs and teachers should be held to the same standards.

In conclusion, were grateful to remain a part of the Pre-K For all those initiative. Good quality to seeing just how the program progresses within the areas highlighted above.

Rachel Hollander is a Pre-K teacher on the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights.