Charlotte – Mecklenburg schools lead the nation in early childhood education programs

A program at Charlotte Schools is targeting the most littuous students. Recognizing that good students start early, education officials have developed an award-winning preschool program called Bright Beginnings.

bright beginnings

The Bright Beginnings program involves full-day, literacy-based programs for four-year-olds in the Charlotte – Mecklenburg area. More than 3,000 students benefit from the program in five educational centers and fourteen primary schools. Over time, the program has spread beyond the public school system and integrated into preschool classrooms throughout the community by partnering with Smart Start, Child Care Resources, Child Care Centers and more in four programs, which all address the educational needs of preschool students.

Developing pre-k experiences

Teachers and program developers recognize the need to enrich experiences at the preschool level. Students at this age have very limited opportunities to explore the world around them, and the brilliant beginnings program hopes to change that. By exposing children to new and different things, program developers believe they can strengthen students’ vocabulary, a skill they hope will be retained as students learn to read. While many of these new experiences take place in the classroom, Bright Beginnings also encourages students with field trips to local learning centers like Discovery Place and ImaginOn.

Pre-K Alignment with Elementary Education Curriculum and Instruction

Bright beginnings have recently been incorporated under the State of North Carolina’s curriculum and area of ​​instruction. Teachers hope to build connections between what they do in the Bright Starts program and what students will be required to do when they enter Kindergarten. The new partnership seeks to produce students entering Kindergarten who are better prepared to learn and Kindergarten teachers with a clearer picture of how they have been exposed to their students and how they can build on that knowledge as they move through Kindergarten. infants. The program has the potential to increase student achievement at all levels, as the best-prepared students advance from year to year. Bright Beginnings recognizes that as the standards of elementary education also rise, the preschool student’s curriculum must too. As the Program Director explains, “(children) are expected to learn more. Standards have risen, not only in college and high school, but also in kindergarten.”

Professional development for teachers.

As part of Bright Beginnings’ commitment to early childhood education, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools has used federal and state grant money to ensure that teachers working in the program are highly trained and qualified. All teachers must be certified in early child development, which means they have studied children from birth through kindergarten.

National recognition for brilliant beginnings.

Several years ago, Bright Beginnings sold their award-winning resume at Pearson Publishing. Through this partnership, the curriculum has been distributed across the country and continues to grow in neighborhoods far from the Charlotte – Mecklenburg area. The Program Director credits the success of the bright start to the continued dedication of teachers and developers to work to improve learning practices. She comments, “We’ve started some new things and we’re going to continue to build on them. We’ve had excellent grades in our curriculum for years. (Charlotte – Mecklenburg Schools) is a leader in the nation.”