What Makes a Quality School?

Since we’re somewhat biased, here are some links that can help parents understand the big differences between high quality and low quality preschools. We do, however, want to quickly point out some of our quality features:

• All of our teachers have a BA degree and are Montessori trained
• Our ratio is 1:10/1:12
• Our max. group size is 24

News Articles & Reports

San Jose Mercury News Article

• “Report: Child care teachers lack training and education”  teachers and training
• For the full report: early childhood workforce

The following reports can be found at: benefits of preschool

• “High Quality Preschool: Why We Need It and What it Looks Like” National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) (November 2002)
• “Raising Teacher Education and Training Standards For Universal Preschool in California: Assessing the Size of the Task,” Center For the Study of Child Care Employment (2004)
• Peisner-Feinberg, E.S., et al., The Children of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study Go to School (Chapel Hill, NC: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, October 1999)
• Reynolds, A.J., et al., “Long-Term Effects of an Early Childhood Intervention on Educational Achievement and Juvenile Arrest,” Journal of the American Medical Association 285: 2339-2346 (2001). This site access requires user name and password.
• High/Scope Perry Preschool Project Through Age 40 (2004)
• “Invest in the Very Young,” James J. Heckman, PhD
• “Low Wages = Low Quality; Solving the Real Preschool Teacher Crisis,” National Institute for Early Education Research
• Lynn A. Karoly and James H. Bigelow, The Economics of Investing in Universal Preschool Education in California (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2005)

Other noteworthy web sites include:

• National Association for the Education of Young Children: naeyc
• American Montessori Society: amshq
• Association Montessori Internationale: montessori-ami
• National Institute for Early Education Research: nieer