According to early childhood professor Judith Levin, "a quality Pre-K program should not be a Pre-K program that is designed to have the children ready to go to school, it should be a Pre-K program that has children ready for life" (Broxson, 2011).
As Kostelnik, Soderman, Whiren, and Rupiper (2015) describe in detail, there are various criteria that indicate a high quality program. These criteria include well-prepared and compensated practitioners, stable staffing, small group sizes, and low adult-child ratio. Consider the following scenario: One of your family members is trying to determine which preschool is best for her 4-year-old, and she is considering the program featured in the following video: Scenes from a Quality Georgia Pre-K Class.
Write a letter to your family member and provide suggestions about what to look for in a high-quality preschool program. How does the program in the video compare to the standards you have emphasized?
In determining the best program for any child, it is important to utilize basic criteria, which may include objective measures like the safety of the environment and teacher/child ratios. It may also include more subjective measures like how warm and nurturing the environment feels, as mentioned in Chapter 2 of the required text.