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PROGRAM INFORMATION
Educator's Viewpoint

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Program Components

Components High/Scope Curriculum
Unity Whole Language
Organization Collaborative Teaching in "Families"
Description Multi-age Classes
Ending Full Inclusion of Exceptional Education Students
  Developmentally Appropriate Practices
  Art, Music, Movement and Media Specialists
  Authentic Assessment
  Family Resource Center
  Professional Development Center
 
Our early childhood program helps a child develop critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. Frances Starms Early Childhood Center is a place where children learn through exploration and discovery. They make choices, work cooperatively, share thoughts and ideas and are respected by both children and adults as they become independent, responsible learners. This early childhood experience prepares them to move successfully into an elementary school and builds a foundation for life-long learning.		  
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Unifying School, Family and Community

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Description
Ending		 Established in 1991, Frances Starms Early Childhood Center is the only Milwaukee Public School designed specifically for preschool children K3 through K5. The school is named after Frances Brock Starms, an early advocate for early childhood schooling and a former director of the Milwaukee Head Start Program. The school's innovative child-centered program not only considers the intellectual, social-emotional and physical needs of each student, but also works to establish a partnership with parents and the community.  
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School Organization

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Components
Unity

Collaborative Teaching in Families

A team of professionals, comprised of regular and exceptional education teachers, paraprofessional and assistants work together as a "family". Each "family" shares responsibility for a group of children and meets regularly to discuss, plan, and implement ideas to facilitate learning.

  
   
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Multi-Age Classes

Mixed age groupings of children display a wide range of abilities and learning styles. Children learn best from each other in a rish-free setting that provides developmentally appropriate activities.

  
 

Full Inclusion

Unlike most programs that integrate students with special needs for just a part of the day, exceptional education students work side-by-side with typically developing children during all aspects of Starms' program. Likewise, both exceptional and regular education teachers assume ownership of all students.

  
 

Assessment

Student progress is reported twice a year to parents in the form of an anecdotal progress report. Portfolios containing collected student samples, anecdotal components and several assessment tools accurately record the history and growth of each child's development. Assessment tools developed by the Starms'' staff include: Reading. Math and Science, Writing, Music and Movement, and Art.

  
 

Family Connections

- Home Visits - Once a week, a shortened student day allows teachers, educational assistants and other staff to visit students and parents in their home environments. Appointments are set up in advance and valuable information is shared by both family members and school staff.
- Family Resource Center - Special interest programs and "Make-lt-Take-It"" Workshops planned by the Family Resource Center help parents learn more about their developing children and what they are learning at school. A lending library allows parents to borrow educational toys and books for use at home.

  
 

Professional Development Center

Our early childhood program helps a child develop critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. Frances Starms Early Childhood Center is a place where children learn through exploration and discover. They make choices, work cooperatively, share thoughts and ideas and are respected by both children and adults as they become independent, responsible learners. This early childhood experience prepares them to more successfully into an elementary school and builds a foundation for life-long learning.

  
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FRANCES STARMS EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

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 IS WHOLE LANGUAGE: Just as we learn to speak by sharing speech children are taught to read by sharing the written word. Children write daily, at their level, to experience the joy of communication through pictures and print.

IS NOT TEACHER-DIRECTED READING INSTRUCTION: Children do not labor tediously over reading workbooks. alphabet worksheets or handwriting exercises. The teacher does not instruct 1/3 of the class, while the other 2/3 copy work off the board.

IS HANDS-ON MATH: By using familiar materials. Children discover the magic of pattern. number, classification, seriation, the very foundations of our mathematical system.

IS NOT A STANDARDIZED MATH PROGRAM: Children are not taught exclusively through math practice sheets, drilling math facts or sitting at desks while teachers preach math concepts to the whole class.

IS SMALL GROUPS: Several times a week, children have small group time. Here they learn actively: experimenting predicting, observing and evaluating. Adults support children's learning and encourage hands, mouths. and minds to be busy.

IS NOT ABILITY GROUPS: Children are not taught in isolated skill groups. They do not sit passively while teachers direct, limiting what and how they will learn.

IS PLAN-DO-REVIEW: During a designated time each day, children choose their own activities. Adults interact with them, encouraging them as they learn through their play.

IS NOT FREE TIME: Children do not play while teachers catch up on paperwork.

IS CULTURAL DIVERSITY: children are surrounded by a culturally rich environment which promotes the celebration of every child's ethnicity.

IS NOT A TOUR OF FOREIGN LANDS: Teachers do not isolate units that take children on a whirlwind tour of the world.

IS A place where teachers assess children through observation and the development of a portfolio of children's work.

IS NOT A place where children are tested with standardized tests or book tests where they are asked to perform skills out of the context of their work and play.

IS A place where children learn through exploration and discovery. They make choices, work cooperatively. share thoughts and ideas and they are respected by both children and adults as they become independent. responsible learners.

IS NOT A place where teachers make all the choices. control the curriculum based on their own interests or are always "on stage" expecting children to remain silent non-participants.

IS A place where children begin to develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving ability and sound self-esteem. This early childhood experience prepares them to feed successfully into elementary school and build a foundation for life-long learning.
  
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PROGRAM INFORMATION
Educator's Viewpoint

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