Great Preschools: Individualized Teaching

Another of our Great Preschool Quality Factors is Monitoring of Progress and Adjusting Teaching. This means that each child's individual progress is monitored frequently during the preschool year, and teachers change their teaching approaches as needed - adapting to individual children's interests, learning styles and other differences - to ensure that students meet basic developmental goals and continue making progress. When a child is not making progress, the high quality preschool takes immediate action. When needed, the preschool also conducts more targeted assessments to understand the child's learning barriers.

When touring preschools, you should look for:

• Teachers working with children individually or in small groups for a large portion of the day, so they can informally monitor progress.
• Teachers assessing individual development ongoing or systematically at least every six weeks; assessments need not be pencil and paper, but they need to be done using a set of progressive norms starting below typical and going well above typical for the age.
• The preschool providing the materials and tools to help teachers monitor progress; teachers are not left to figure it out for themselves.
• Teachers who can give you examples of how they make changes for struggling children who stop making progress in a developmental area.
• Teachers who can give you examples of how they've bumped up the challenge for advanced kids who stopped making progress.
• Teachers who can give you examples of children they have recommended for further assessment.

Individualized Teaching and Your Preschool Search