Resource - High/scope In The Elementary Classroom

HIGH/SCOPE 

ReSource 

FALL/WINTER 2008 

A M A G A Z I N E F O R E D U C A T O R S 

High/Scope in 

the Elementary 

Classroom 

Getting Schools Ready 

for Children 

Real Science 

in Preschool

High-Impact 

Benefits 

High-Energy 

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HIGH/SCOPE 

FALL/WINTER 2008 

Re So u r c e 

A M A G A Z I N E F O R E D U C A T O R S 

High/Scope in 

the Elementary 


Getting Schools Ready 

for Children 

Real Science 

in Preschool 

Contents 

Vol. 27, No. 2/Fall/Winter 2008 ISSN 0897-2007 

Features 

Interview: Exploring “The Sandbox Investment” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 

A conversation between High/Scope President Larry Schweinhart 

and author and universal preschool advocate David Kirp. 

High/Scope in the Elementary School Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 

A High/Scope trainer and consultant shares her experiences using the 

High/Scope approach at the early elementary level. by Sarah Fewson 

From Preschool to Ready School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 

Using High/Scope’s Ready School Assessment (RSA) data to support 

the preschool-elementary continuum. by Marijata Daniel-Echols 

Departments 

Letter From the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 

From Dr. Larry Schweinhart, High/Scope President 

What’s New @ High/Scope? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 

News on the foundation’s latest products and projects. 

Teacher’s Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 

An excerpt from High/Scope’s new book, Real Science in Preschool: 

Here, There, and Everywhere, for early childhood teachers. by Polly Neill 

FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 

How many anecdotes are enough? by Karen (Kay) Rush 

Products & Services for Educators 

Training @ High/Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 

High/Scope Professional Development Programs — 2009 . . . . . . . .26 

New Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 

Ordering Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 

The High/Scope Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Back Cover 

HigH/SCoPE RESoURCE 

ReSource is a guide to the activities, products, 

and services of the High/Scope Foundation. 

It is published two times each year 

by High/Scope Press, a division of 

the foundation. High/Scope is a 

registered trademark and service mark 

of the High/Scope Foundation. 

Director of Publications 

Nancy Altman Brickman 

nbrickman@highscope.org 

Editors 

Joanne Tangorra (Magazine Editor), 

Jennifer Burd, Marcella Weiner 

Publications Assistant 

Katie Bruckner 

Director of Marketing 

and Communications 

Kathleen Woodard 

Marketing Specialist 

Kacey Beach 

Design 

Wagner Design 

Graphic Artist 

Kazuko Sacks, Profit Makers LLC 

Order Fulfillment 

Jana Federer, Sherry Barker 

High/Scope Press 

High/Scope Educational Research Foundation 

600 North River Street 

Ypsilanti, MI 48198-2898 

734/485-2000, Fax 734/485-0704 

Web site: www.highscope.org 

© 2008 High/Scope Foundation. 

Permission to reprint ReSource articles 

must be obtained from the publisher. 

To download individual articles, 

go to News & Information on our Web site. 

www.highscope.org ReSource Fall/Winter 2008 3

LETTER FRoM THE PRESiDENT 

Dear Readers: 

This electronic 

issue 

of ReSource 

gives special 

attention to 

the early elementary years. Unlike programs 

for younger children, early elementary 

programs are firmly institutionalized 

in public and private schools. The challenge 

of early elementary programs is 

that they contribute to all aspects of children’s 

development — not only language, 

literacy, and mathematics, but also character 

and social skills, creativity, the arts, 

and physical development. 

High/Scope’s general early elementary 

work today focuses on ready schools. We 

have developed and validated the Ready 

School Assessment (RSA) to serve as 

the basis of a school’s improvement plan 

to become a ready school. The RSA is 

based on the research-based definition 

of a ready school developed in 1998 by 

a group commissioned by the National 

Education goals Panel (NEgP). it looks 

at how ready schools smooth the transition 

and strive for continuity between 

homes, early care and education programs, 

and elementary schools. it also 

looks at how ready schools do what all 

good schools do, such as being commit- 

HigH/SCoPE BoARD oF DiRECToRS 

Sharon Adams-Taylor 

Associate Executive Director, 

American Association of School Administrators, Arlington, VA 

Julie Biddle 

Dayton Satellite Center for Accelerated Schools, 

University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 

Libia Socorro Gil 

Senior Fellow, American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC 

David Gleason 

President, Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, Franklin, TN 

Ed Greene 

EM GREENE Associates, Int’l., Princeton, NJ 

ted to the success of every child and 

teacher, using effective approaches to 

raise achievement, serving children in 

communities, and having strong leadership. 

our field test of the RSA involved 

71 elementary schools in 17 states. 

High/Scope’s Education Through 

Movement program is well developed 

and widely disseminated at the early 

elementary level. The program provides 

a framework of developmentally appropriate 

activities and teaching practices 

for each early childhood age level. The 

four components of the movement-based 

active learning process are key developmental 

indicators (KDis) in movement 

and music, the movement core, the teaching 

model, and active learning support 

strategies. Phyllis Weikart, Karen Sawyers, 

and their colleagues have spread 

High/Scope’s Education Through Movement 

program throughout the United 

States and in other countries. 

High/Scope’s early elementary roots 

are in the federal Follow Through project, 

which operated from 1968 to 1995. 

in this project, High/Scope applied its 

curriculum principles to the early elementary 

grades and helped selected 

school districts serving low-income 

children across the country use the approach. 

our Follow Through research 

showed that the High/Scope active learning 

approach and teaching practices improved 

children’s school achievement 

at the early elementary level. After the 

Follow Through project was completed, 

the Bureau of indian Affairs supported 

High/Scope teaching practices in elementary 

schools on reservations from 

1996 to 2000. Several other enterprising 

elementary schools around the country 

have continued to use the High/Scope 

early elementary approach. High/Scope 

institutes in Mexico, the Netherlands, 

and indonesia support schools in their 

countries that use High/Scope at the 

early elementary levels and beyond, 

even through high school. 

As early childhood programs become 

more widespread and established, they 

become more engaged with elementary 

schools. Their relationship with the 

schools becomes more critical to their 

success and to the success of the schools. 

Both early childhood programs and the 

schools must stretch to embrace their 

common challenge of contributing to 

children’s development to their fullest 

potential. 

Larry Schweinhart, President 

James Hawkins 

Superintendent of Schools, Ypsilanti, MI 

Donal O. Moore 

Vice President, Automotive Sales, 

Polytech Netting Industries, Inc., Icking, Germany 

Richard Pagac 

President, Pagac & Company, P. C., Bloomfield Hills, MI 

Forum for Youth Investment, Washington, DC 

Alberto Rodriguez 

Senior Education Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean, 

World Bank Group, Washington, DC 

Janell Shain 

Elementary School Principal and Coordinator of Preschool–12th Grade 

District Staff Development, Ralston Public Schools, Ralston, NE 

THE HIGH/SCOPE FOUNDATION is an independent, nonprofit organization founded by David Weikart in Ypsilanti, Michigan. High/Scope’s mission is to lift lives 

through education by engaging in curriculum development, research, training, and publishing and communication. 


What’s New News 

NEW! 

Real Science 

in Preschool 

High/Scope 

announces the 

publication of 

Real Science in 

Preschool: Here, 

There, and Everywhere the latest title in 

our Teacher’s Idea Book Series. This book 

offers an overview of early science learning and 

helps teachers to recognize and support the six 

behaviors — evident in children’s play — that 

are part of the preschool scientific method: observing, 

classifying, experimenting, predicting, 

drawing conclusions, and communicating ideas. 

For more on this book, see page 29. 

High/Scope has partnered with the 

Copyright Clearance Center to offer a variety 

of options for reproducing High/Scope publications. 

See Permissions & Reprints on our 

Web site for detailed information 

on how to easily obtain 

permission to reproduce 

High/Scope materials. 

The Copyright Clearance 

Center (CCC) now has 85 

High/Scope titles listed in 

its database. 

Ideas From the Field 

Here’s a new opportunity for High/Scope 

teachers to share their favorite small-group-time 

plan with their colleagues! Through Ideas From 

the Field on High/Scope’s eTools Forums, 

High/Scope highlights innovative small-group 

activities developed by early childhood teachers. 

If you have a great activity for small-group 

times, High/Scope wants to hear about it. You 

can easily submit your idea online; just go to the 

High/Scope Web site 

(www.highscope.org) 

and type in “Share 

Your Activities” in the 

search box to find the 

form to submit. If your 

idea is chosen, you not 

only get the chance to 

see your idea posted on High/Scope’s Web site 

but you’ll also receive a $15.00 gift certificate to 

High/Scope’s online store. 

Be sure to check the eTools Forums page 

for the most recent small-group activity that you 

can use in your classroom. If you have questions 

or need additional information, please contact 

Marcella Weiner at mweiner@highscope.org. 

Parent Newsletters and 

High/Scope Fact Sheets 

Are you looking for an affordable and easy 

way to inform parents about child development 

and the High/Scope approach? High/Scope has 

the solution — You & Your Child newsletters 

and All About High/Scope fact sheets that you 

can download as PDF files and reproduce as 

many times as you 

need for 90 days. 

You & Your Child 

newsletters address 

specific topics of 

interest to parents, 

such as reading, 

writing, mathematics, 

and communication, 

and include 

support strategies 

for parents to use 

at home. Each 

newsletter contains 

photos and content 

that is easy for 

parents to read 

and understand. 

@High/Scope? 

on the foundation’s 

latest projects and products 

Written in easy-to-understand 

language, All About High/Scope 

fact sheets are ideal for informing 

parents about the key aspects of 

the High/Scope approach and for 

on-site teacher training. All About 

High/Scope fact sheets cover 

topics such as High/Scope’s 

educational approach, active learning, adultchild 

interaction, the daily routine, and conflict 

resolution. 

These products are an updated version of 

You & Your Child and All About High/Scope 

printed materials and are available in this more 

convenient and less expensive format so that 

you can choose the specific newsletter or fact 

sheet you need. To order, visit the High/Scope 

online store at www.highscope.org. 

OnlineCOR Up & Running! 

High/Scope’s 

online Child Observation 

Record 

(COR) system has 

officially moved 

to its new site at 

OnlineCOR.net. 

Former High- 

Scope.net users 

will be automatically 

redirected to 

the new site, managed by High/Scope and its 

technical partner, Red-e-Set Grow. High/Scope 

welcomes both existing and new customers to 

OnlineCOR.Net, where they will find many new 

features, including user-defined fields that will 

allow administrators to meet reporting requirements 

specific to their individual programs; 

greater flexibility in setting report periods based 

on individual program start dates; fully integrated 

OSEP (Office of Special Education Program) 

Reports; and more. 


iNTERviEW: DAviD KiRP 

Exploring 

“The Sandbox 

investment” 

AN INTErvIEw wITH DAvID KIrP 

T 

he following interview is excerpted 

from a conversation 

that took place between High/ 

Scope President Larry Schweinhart 

and author David Kirp before an audience 

of educators at High/Scope’s 

International Conference in Ypsilanti, 

Michigan in May 2008. An advocate 

of universal preschool education, Mr. 

Kirp was the keynote speaker at the 

event, where he discussed his latest 

book The Sandbox Investment: The 

Preschool Movement and Kids-First 

Politics. He also has written and edited 

books on topics such as AIDs, race 

and gender, public education, and civil 

liberties, and he has been a guest on 

numerous radio and television shows, 

including National Public Radio’s All 

Things Considered. 

Larry Schweinhart: The first question 

is, how did you get into this business? 

David Kirp: i was walking on a 

beach one day with a friend, a pediatrician-turned-researcher, 

who told me 

about this fabulous research showing the 

long-term effects of preschool. This was, 

of course, Lifetime Effects: High/Scope’s 

Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40 

[2005]. i got on an airplane and flew out 

here. Larry [Schweinhart] and everyone 

at High/Scope were extraordinarily 

generous with their time. i got to sit 

in at the High/Scope Demonstration 

Preschool and go out and meet with 

some of the folks from that fabled Perry 

sample. i came away amazed. 

At about the same time, my then- 

sister-in-law was struggling to find a 

decent preschool for her daughters. She 

had two choices: one was an out-of-thebox-for-profit 

preschool, sort of stripped 

to the walls; the other option was the 

nice-mom-down-the-street who had 

about 20 kids running around. When 

i read the little signs [she had created] 

on her walls and noticed her spelling 

mistakes, i thought, “i don’t know what 

kind of education these kids are going 

to get.” 

There was a gap between what i had 

read about and seen here in Ypsilanti and 

what was really going on elsewhere that 

got me into the questions of my book. 

David Kirp’s hope is 

that preschool will 

become a powerful 

first step in a larger 

phenomenon he calls 

“kids-first politics,” 

and he talks about 

turning that “warmand 

fuzzy” notion into 

a concrete reality. 

LS: David, your book title has three 

parts to it: “The Sandbox investment,” 

“The Preschool Movement,” and “Kids- 

First Politics.” Can you unpack that title 

a bit? 



DK: There’s also a fourth element. 

if you look at the cover, what you’ve got 

is a bunch of kids in caps and gowns at 

a preschool graduation — they’re all 

wearing their little colored sneakers and 

jeans under their gowns. it’s this play 

between this hyper-adult — maybe even 

adult-inflicted — seriousness with the 

kids’ part of the story. The “sandbox 

investment” is meant to say something 

about the fact that, on the one hand — 

“sandbox” stand ing in for little kids — 

we really are talking about all the potential 

they have. i don’t like the images of 

kids as “sponges” or “vessels.” You’ve all 

work ed with kids — they crawl around, 

climb on counters, get into people’s 

business. Where would “vessel” fit on 

your list of images for children? Kids 

are explorers, and sandboxes are one 

kind of small world and place in which 

they can explore. 

“It really is true 

that the brain is 

enormously pliant 

during the early 

childhood years. 

Early experiences 

matter a lot, and 

skill . . . begets skill.” 

And why sandbox “investment”? 

Because so much of the attention surrounding 

preschool, for better and for 

worse i would say, has come because 

you take the long-term studies like Perry 

and they get translated into returns on 

investment. [The economic return to 

society of the Perry Preschool Program 

was $16 per dollar invested.] And that 

becomes a way of getting the attention 

of folks like police chiefs, DAs, legislators, 

Ben Bernanke at the Federal 

Reserve — people who aren’t going 

to get the High/Scope Curriculum but 

are really going to get the concept of 

a return on investment for society. 

And what do i mean by “kids-first 

politics”? Preschool is a great thing. it’s 

an important experience for kids if it’s 

done well, but it’s certainly not the only 

thing John Dewey’s [the influential educational 

reformer] best and wisest parent 

would want for children. Start with all the 

concerns of a mom during her pregnancy, 

and work your way through high-quality 

child care, health care, food, housing, 

and other issues. Perry Preschool was a 

great program, and it got the attention of 

the lawmakers and the business community, 

but it’s not enough. My hope is that 

preschool becomes a powerful first step 

in a larger phenomenon that i call kidsfirst 

politics, and i say a fair amount in 

my book about trying to make that less 

of a warm-and-fuzzy notion and more of 

a concrete reality. 

LS: one of the things that’s sort 

of surprising is that there has been this 

takeoff of the preschool movement, 

particularly in the last five to ten years. 

Why now? The economy isn’t very 

strong. What’s different? What’s making 

things happen? 

DK: in terms of the research, it’s 

all come together. To borrow a tired 

metaphor, there’s “a perfect storm” of 

research. You’ve got the long-term studies, 

like Perry, the Abecedarian Program 

[North Carolina], and the Chicago Child- 

Parent Center [CPC] Program, all show- 

�� 

ing huge benefits for the kids who participated 

— benefits that come from 

high-quality programs that have welltrained 

teachers and involve parents. So 

there’s that research. 

Then, the economists come along 

and translate that research into dollarand-cents 

terms, which gets people’s 

attention. 

And then there’s all that research 

from neuroscience, which is very compelling. 

it really is true that the brain is 

enormously pliant during the early childhood 

years. Early experiences matter a 

lot, and skill — to borrow a phrase from 

Chicago economist [and Nobel Laureate] 

Jim Heckman — really does beget skill. 

So early childhood research — really 

good research — together with economics 

and brain research, are factors in 

this movement. 

Then there’s another factor, which is 

that organizations like the Pew Charitable 

Trusts, based in Pennsylvania, and 

the [David and Lucile] Packard Foundation 

[in California] decide not to behave 

like play-it-safe foundations. They’re 

going to behave like social marketers 

and spread the gospel, and they’ve trained 

a network of really good advocates. 

Politicians begin to get the message, and 

all of a sudden we have someone like 

Tim Kane in virginia — a centrist Democrat 

— and what platform does he run 

on? Roads and preschool. For the governor 

of illinois [Rod R. Blagojevich], it’s 

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all about universal child health care and 

preschool. And these turn out to be winning 

issues. 

My typical day on the road [while 

doing the research for the Sandbox Investment] 

would be talking to someone 

like Jim Heckman or some neuroscientist 

or politician — really interesting 

folks — in the afternoons. i’d spend the 

mornings hanging out with kids, crouching 

in preschools across the country. 

The kids were really much more fun 

than the grownups. But i will say this: 

the work that i saw was unbelievably 

impressive. i saw small miracles being 

worked all the time, and having said that 

i also want to say, it’s not enough. Unless 

you [educators] get good about influencing 

the political process — where the 

money is — and unless you organize effectively 

to do something about all the 

budget cuts, you’re doing only half the 

work for those kids. 

if you ask legislators, they’ll tell you 

that lobbyists for kids have historically 

been among the least effective. Why? 

Because they’ve used “teddy-bear” politics 

rather than a sophisticated sharpedged 

appeal that politicians are going 

to hear — what Jim Hunt [former governor 

of North Carolina] calls the 

“smart politics of the heart.” When you 

talk about early childhood, there’s no 

politician who deserves more honor and 

recognition than Jim Hunt who for 30 

years, and still ticking, has been doing 

important work on behalf of little kids. 

“Smart politics” is very much what that 

story is about. 

What Pew Trusts did was to teach 

and train people to not simply have 

good hearts but to be effective as lobbyists, 

to know how to build coalitions 

and how to get people to talk to each 

other. i spent a lot of time in Texas. 

That group was able to do amazing 

things to get money. The combination 

of research, plus foundation support, 

plus activism, really changed the landscape. 

Research alone would have just 

sat there — the activists alone wouldn’t 

have had anything to work with. it’s that 

combination that works — and i can’t tell 

you how many times Perry Preschool 

and High/Scope show up in those conversations. 

LS: You’re seeing the High/Scope 

Difference banner right up above our 

David Kirp delivered the keynote address at a lunchtime gathering of attendees at High/Scope’s International 

Conference last May. 

heads, and here we are in Ypsilanti, 

Michigan. i want to acknowledge Jim 

Hawkins, the Superintendent of Ypsilanti 

Public Schools, one of the successors of 

the superintendent who gave permission 

for the Perry project to take place in the 

first place. i’d like to try to pull that particular 

piece out. What if High/Scope 

and the Perry Preschool Study never 

existed. How would things have been 

different in early childhood? 

“Unless you [educators] 

get good about 

influencing the political 

process — where 

the money is — and 

unless you organize 

effectively . . . you’re 

doing only half the 

work for those kids.” 

DK: When i first heard the story of 

Perry, i thought there were two really 

amazing things about this piece of 

research. one is that David Weikart 

[High/Scope founder] had the wit and 

wisdom to realize that the effects of 

education weren’t limited to education. 

Most education research measures education 

outcomes. Well, great, and there 

were great education outcomes, and you 

know the data: kids significantly less 

likely to be left back, or to be in special 

ed, more likely to graduate from high 

school, more likely to go to college. 

That’s great. But very few people had 

thought about things like the effect of 

early education on health, income, 

crime, and welfare. What’s the effect 

of early education on the likelihood 

that a kid is going to end up in jail or 

in prison? That was the first amazing 

thing to me about this piece of work. 

The second amazing thing is that it 

has gone on and on and on, following 



the original sample of people. Politicians 

now have no patience for this, so what 

we have are a lot of really short-term, 

really narrowly-focused cognitive studies. 

A long-term study now might only 

go as far as third grade. But, in fact, a 

lot of the interesting effects that came 

out of the Perry study began to emerge 

after that point. So we’re not going to 

see those effects in the short-term studies 

we have now, A) because of the impatience 

of politicians, and B) because 

of the fetishizing of a very narrow range 

of learning skills. 

As many of you know, there were 

a number of other studies going on and 

“We’re not going 

to have Head Start 

round two....But what 

I’m hoping we have is 

an infusion of money 

tied to high-quality 

standards for pre-K 

education.” 

a number of other dreamers out there 

like Dave Weikart who believed in the 

infinite potential of kids, but Perry was 

really the gold standard study. There 

wasn’t going to be another one like it. 

There was also some luck along in 

this process. Down the road at Michigan 

State, there was a young economist 

named Steve Barnett, who — like Dave 

Weikart — thought that the way to get 

this idea out into the world was to look 

at costs and benefits. And economists 

got interested in the study when the high 

school graduation figures came out, because 

high school graduation is one of 

the things that labor economists care 

about. And then when Perry started getting 

return-on-investment figures, and 

High/Scope repeated the study all the 

way to age 40 — that was and is a 

remarkable piece of work. There is 

nothing out there like it. 

LS: Certainly Head Start has always 

reflected the preschool movement and 

its growth over the years, but it’s really 

been in many ways a state-by-state movement. 

Which states would you say have 

been the most noteworthy and really out 

there in front? 

DK: When i looked around, i didn’t 

see the usual candidates — the familiarly 

socially progressive states. Which states 

are the big success stories? oklahoma is 

one — all because of a little tweak in 

the finance formula; instead of school 

beginning at age 5, it begins at age 4. 

[in 1996, oklahoma made kindergarten 

available to 4-year-olds, providing children 

with one year of state-funded preschool.] 

That change set in motion this 

incredible dynamic, and there much of 

the program — there’s no state in which 

all of the preschool dollars go to public 

schools — is pre-K through elementary. 

Pre-K teachers are not treated as child 

care workers, who get paid $8.50 an 

hour and have one of the highest turnover 

rates of any field in the country. 

Preschool teachers in oklahoma get the 

kind of salaries that spell “respect.” 

North Carolina and other states have 

this great program [Smart Start] that 

trains preschool teachers and child care 

workers who come back after training 

and get higher salaries. in the last three 

years, they’ve cut the turnover rate from 

45 percent to 22 percent. Decent salaries 

and decent teacher training makes a 

huge difference in the lives of those kids. 

Where else? Arkansas, under Mike 

Huckabee. West virginia, Tennessee, 

georgia — a bunch of states where there 

was somebody, whether a politician, 

someone in the bureaucracy, or some 

combination of that plus outside support, 

recognizing that they needed to do something, 

that they were going to strengthen 

the civic vitality and the economic 

vitality of that state by providing highquality 

pre-K education. 

it’s really a mistake to think about 

this as a partisan issue. Just think about 

the ohio gubernatorial election last time 

around. There was a right wing African 

American Republican candidate [Ken 

Blackwell] and pretty left center Democrat 

[Ted Strickland] running. Both of 

them were on the bandwagon for preschool, 

because the advocates had convinced 

both of them that this wasn’t 

about being a Republican or a Democrat, 

but about the kids. 

Washington is never going to be the 

big player in the story. We’re not going 

to have Head Start round two; we’re not 

going to have some big ambitious federal 

program. But what i’m hoping we have is 

an infusion of money tied to high-quality 

standards for pre-K education — money 

for quality and for parent information. 

give parents information on what it 

means to have a good preschool and 

they will migrate from that bare box-forprofit 

school, or that well-meaning mom 

down the street that i described earlier, 

to high-quality preschool. Parents have 

to be involved, the teacher has to know 

what he or she is doing, there’s got to be 

a real curriculum like the High/Scope 

Curriculum, and there’s got to be real 

engagement with students. And, as part 

of any federal incentive, there needs to be 

a plan in place with benchmarks, so that 

states can measure what they’re doing. 

So that’s my hope. it will happen in 

some way, shape, or form, but a kickstart 

from Washington would be a really 

great bonus at this point. 

Save these dates! 


International Conference 

May 6–8, 2009 

Preconference 

May 4–5, 2009 


HigH/SCoPE ELEMENTARY 


in the Elementary 

School Classroom 

A 

s a High/Scope trainer and 

consultant, I knew as I ventured 

into elementary education 

that high-quality High/Scope 

programs existed in preschool classrooms 

around the world. I wanted to 

establish that same level of quality in 

an elementary classroom environment 

based on the same essential High/ 

Scope components: active participatory 

learning; a challenging learning 

environment; supportive and authentic 

adult-child relationships; a problemsolving 

approach to conflict; and a 

consistent daily routine, including the 

plan-do-review sequence — unique to 

High/Scope — in which children 

make choices about what they will do, 

carry out their ideas, and reflect on 

their activities with adults and peers. 

The principles of the High/Scope 

educational model — with its emphasis 

on children as active learners — differ 

from those of the traditional K–8 teacher-directed 

instructional approach. With 

The High/Scope elementary learning environment 

offers an abundance of meaningful materials for 

children to explore. 

High/Scope, children learn by doing, 

working with hands-on materials and 

initiating many projects of their own 

choosing. The role of the teacher is to 

use research-based best practices to 

guide and promote children’s learning. 

As i embarked on my career as an 

elementary education teacher, i challenged 

myself to see how i might extend 

those core High/Scope principles to my 

work in an elementary education classroom, 

moving away from traditional 

teacher-directed instruction toward student-initiated 

learning. My experience 

with High/Scope in the elementary set- 

by Sarah Fewson 

ting has confirmed what early research 

has shown (see sidebar, p. 11) — that 

High/Scope makes a significant difference 

in the learning and outcomes of 

school-aged children. 

The Learning Environment 

Some traditional classrooms contain 

learning areas including, but not limited 

to, children’s desks, a library area, and 

a carpet area. High/Scope elementary 

classrooms also contain distinctly different 

activity areas, but these differ in the 

number of areas, as well as in their 

function. in a High/Scope classroom, 

these areas — rather than the teacher’s 

desk as in the traditional elementary setting 

— are the focal point of the classroom. 

The learning areas differ from 

grade to grade, according to the age of 

the children in the class. A kindergarten 

program, for example, would typically 

have a house area, whereas in a gradetwo 

classroom, there might be a building 

area instead. Some other areas in a 



school-age setting might also include a 

math area, science area, writing area, 

computer area, art area, bookmaking 

area, and quiet work area. Each area is 

designed around a particular curriculum 

topic such as reading, science, math, 

computer, and art. These areas are 

settings designated for child-initiated 

learning activities. 

Materials 

in a High/Scope classroom, children 

have access to an abundance of meaningful 

materials throughout the school 

day. This variety and availability allows 

children to direct their own discoveries, 

and it accommodates for a variety of 

learning abilities. 

While a High/Scope elementary 

environment uses many of the same 

materials found in traditional classrooms, 

the use and function of these 

materials differs; for example, paint in 

a traditional classroom may be brought 

out at the teacher’s discretion only during 

specific art classes, whereas in a 

High/Scope classroom paint is accessible 

to children on a daily basis to use in 

self-directed ways during instructional 

activities. An elementary High/Scope 

environment also provides a variety of 

open-ended materials (i.e., materials 

that can be used in many different ways) 

that invite students to engage in personal, 

meaningful, and educational experiences. 

These materials are available to children 

to work with throughout the day, as well 

as during the plan-do-review sequence. 

High/Scope’s Elementary Teaching Practices 

Daily schedule. Each day follows a consistent 

schedule, which is carefully planned to include 

individual, small-group, and large-group 

experiences and a balance of teacher-planned 

and child-planned activity. Each day includes a 

plan-do-review time, lasting one hour or more, 

in which children plan, carry out, and then reflect 

upon an activity of their own choosing. 

Small-group instructional workshops are 

planned by teachers around specific content in 

the major subject areas. 

The classroom. The room is divided into 

five or more distinct “interest” areas, such as 

reading and writing, math, science, art, and 

computers. In each area, a wide range of appealing 

materials are stored in consistent, accessible 

locations so children can get out the 

materials they want and put them away independently. 

Children are free to use any of the interest 

areas during plan-do-review time, and 

typically rotate through specific areas — such 

as reading and writing, art, and computers — 

during teacher-planned workshop times. 

Subject areas. Teachers plan instructional 

activities around content in important curriculum 

areas as defined by state and local standards. 

They draw upon their knowledge of active learning 

principles and their own observations of children’s 

abilities and interests to plan small-group 

workshops focusing on concepts and skills in 

each subject area. The emphasis throughout 

these activities is on hands-on projects in which 

children work with manipulative materials, apply 

skills to solve practical problems, and learn to 

communicate the results of their efforts in a variety 

of formats. Many experiences require cooperative 

work and the use of effective communication 

skills. Teachers also encourage children 

to use important concepts and skills during the 

child-initiated activities that occur during work 

time and other segments of the schedule. 

Teacher-child interaction. High/Scope 

teachers avoid the use of reward and punishment 

to manage children’s behaviors and instead 

focus on creating a positive social environment 

in which expectations and limits are 

clear. Adults help children learn to use a problem-solving 

approach to resolve difficulties and 

conflicts. Adults strive to focus on children’s 

strengths rather than deficits and use teaching 

strategies that build on children’s intrinsic motivation 

to learn. 

Child assessment. High/Scope teachers 

document children’s progress by collecting brief 

anecdotal notes recording observations of children’s 

important behaviors and by compiling 

portfolios of student work samples and other 

kinds of documents that are evidence of children’s 

progress. These assessment methods 

supplement traditional standardized achievement 

tests to provide a complete and balanced picture 

of children’s progress. 

The success of the High/Scope elementary 

approach has been well documented in a number 

of studies. Program effectiveness was initially 

validated in the 1980s by the U.S. Department 

of Education/National Institute of Education 

Joint Dissemination and Review Panel. The 

curriculum has since been revalidated by the 

U.S. Department of Education’s Program Effectiveness 

Panel. Data gathered on the approach 

include improvements in children’s achievement 

test scores and literacy skills and teacher reports 

of improvements in children’s abilities to 

solve problems, make decisions, and express 

themselves creatively. 

High/Scope’s Services and Products for Elementary Educators 

ready School Assessment (rSA). This tool and related training can help schools become more 

ready for children. 

Classroom practices. We provide customized training to help teachers improve classroom practices 

in selected areas. (Note: High/Scope does not offer specific curricula for basic academic subjects 

such as reading, math, and science but instead focuses on how to teach using the existing curriculum.) 

Movement and music. High/Scope’s Education Through Movement teaching model is the basis 

for a range of training services and products. 



In the High/Scope elementary classroom, children learn by doing — working with hands-on materials and 

initiating many projects of their own choosing. 

For example, if a teacher in a High/Scope 

classroom is teaching the concept of 

patterns in math, students would likely 

be encouraged to select a handful of 

materials for making series and patterns 

(e.g., coins, buttons, beads and string) 

from any area of the classroom. Children 

may then choose to select other materials 

(e.g., thread spools, paint brushes, tape 

rolls) during science when they are 

asked to compare objects in terms of 

how fast they roll down a ramp. Again 

during art, when the students are asked 

to use flashlights to capture shadows, 

children may select materials from the 

environment to incorporate as part of 

their learning. 

Activity areas are stocked with 

manipulatives related to curriculum 

topics and children’s interests; these 

materials are well organized and stored 

in consistent locations. Shelves, containers, 

and baskets are clearly labeled and 

placed within children’s reach. The type 

of labels used in a classroom will vary 

according to the developmental stage of 

the children. Kindergarten children are 

often still picture-reading at this stage 

and require labels that incorporate pictures. 

As children’s decoding abilities 

develop, tracing labels (which show the 

outline of an object) and labels with 

words are often sufficient. once the 

areas have been established, and mate- 

High/Scope is for 

Elementary-Age 

Students Too! 

In this new workshop, you’ll discover what plan-do-review looks like in 

a K–3 classroom, learn how to plan meaningful content workshops, as well as 

gain practical ideas to set up a learning environment that meets local, state, 

and regional guidelines and High/Scope principles. 

FW-IN521 $675/participant 

rials labeled, the areas themselves are 

labeled with names. 

Stocking the areas with materials 

traditionally found in teachers’ closets 

and cupboards is a big change for teachers 

switching to a High/Scope approach. 

This change often requires teachers to 

let go of some personal control. As i 

have trained groups on how to set up 

their elementary learning environments 

according to High/Scope principles, 

teachers often worry they will run out of 

materials by the third month of school. 

This point is a valid one, as teachers do 

not receive large budgets to replenish 

their classroom supplies, and so i reassure 

teachers new to High/Scope that 

they do not need to put all their materials 

out at the beginning of the year. For 

example, they can add materials such as 

paper, glue, and other art supplies that 

tend to diminish as the year progresses. 

giving children access to materials 

provides them with an opportunity to 

be responsible for their environment 

and to make purposeful choices about 

materials they select to work with. This 

supports their developing independence 

and sense of initiative. 

Activity areas are 

stocked with manipulatives 

related to 

curriculum topics and 

children’s interests; 

these materials are 

well organized and 

stored in consistent 

locations. 

Seating 

in a traditional classroom, the teacher’s 

desk is typically the focal point of 

the classroom, and children sit in neatly 

arranged rows of desks (with the most 

“difficult” students strategically seated 

near the teacher). High/Scope class- 



rooms, with an emphasis on cooperative 

learning, feature group seating at tables 

in the various interest areas. individual 

work areas are also available for quiet, 

independent work. These individual 

areas may include a space in the reading 

area or at the teacher’s desk, or students 

simply may be encouraged to take clipboards 

to quiet areas. Children’s work 

places in each of the learning areas 

serve a dual function as a place where 

students can accomplish their work and 

as a space where the materials in that 

particular area can be explored by all 

children during plan-do-review. 

Wall Displays 

The walls of traditional classrooms 

typically feature commercially-made 

posters, precut designs, and other readymade 

displays purchased by teachers 

for their instructional and decorative 

value. in a High/Scope setting, teacherprepared 

bulletin boards are limited to 

messages for children, information for 

parents, and weekly schedules. The classroom 

becomes instead a representation 

of children’s learning and discoveries. 

Teachers create a print-rich environment, 

displaying student writing as well 

as labels, important messages, group 

writing samples, and schedules, because 

students learn to read by trying to make 

sense of print they encounter in their 

everyday activities. in addition to featuring 

lots of print, the walls become 

covered with children’s creations — art- 

High/Scope classrooms 

emphasize 

cooperative learning 

by featuring 

group seating at 

tables in the various 

interest areas. 

work, science, and math projects, for 

example — and photographs of the 

children at work time with written descriptions 

of their activities below. The 

students themselves select the pieces of 

their work they would like to display 

rather than the teacher choosing the 

“best” or “neatest.” Allowing children 

the opportunity to display work that 

is meaningful to them leads to their increased 

self-esteem and sense of belonging 

in the classroom. 

In a High/Scope elementary classroom, shelves, containers, and baskets are clearly labeled and placed 

within children’s reach. 

Content Workshops and 

Curriculum 

Setting up the classroom according 

to High/Scope principles better enables 

teachers to meet the curriculum requirements 

of their state or province using a 

model called “content workshops.” These 

are small-group instructional workshops 

planned by teachers around specific 

content in the major subject areas of the 

curriculum. Teachers introduce content 

workshops by giving a brief lesson on a 

particular topic or subject; then children 

move to table groups or other suitable 

places in the classroom, such as the reading 

area or carpet area, and begin to implement 

what they’ve learned by using 

and manipulating related materials. 

What does a content workshop look 

like? Three or four small groups of 

children (assuming a classroom size 

of approximately 20 students with one 

teacher) work at separate stations and are 

engaged simultaneously in curriculumrelated 

activities using various materials. 

The children then rotate among the tables 

in order to experience all activities. The 

teacher’s role during a content workshop 

is similar to a teacher’s role in a pre-K 

small-group time. Specifically, the teacher 

focuses on the children, assesses skill 

and knowledge, challenges, extends, and 

encourages learning through open-ended 

questions and authentic conversation, 

sharing control with students. 

A math content workshop, for example, 

might include estimation of length as 

the curriculum focus. Following a brief 

discussion with the whole group about 

the concept, the teacher would then have 

prepared activities at separate table 

groups. instructions for these activities 

would be given verbally, as well as 

visually or in written form, according to 

the developmental level of the students. 

Table group “A” may have a variety of 

standard measuring tools, including 

yardsticks, rulers, and measuring tapes 

for students to explore the classroom 

environment. The focus for this group 



Children at Rose Avenue Public School in Toronto use materials to explore series and patterns — an activity 

related to the curriculum topic in math. 

may simply be to practice using these 

standard measuring tools. Table group 

“B” may be asked to select and measure 

various items in the classroom using 

nonstandard measuring tools, such as 

shoes, make-believe dollar bills, and 

erasers. This group’s goal may be to begin 

to explore the concept of an approximate 

measure. Table group “C” may be 

asked to move into the carpet area and 

select objects in the classroom, display 

the items on the carpet from smallest to 

largest, and — as an extension — use 

rulers to measure the length of each 

object in inches and then record that information. 

The focus of this group may 

be to explore the concept of ordering 

objects according to their measurement 

and to practice recording information 

related to measurements. 

in comparison to traditional teaching 

methods, which involve an extended 

period of teacher-directed, large-group 

instruction followed by individual practice, 

content workshops are more effective 

for a number of reasons: individual 

needs are better met during small-group 

interactions, communication and learning 

from peers is encouraged, and all 

children have an opportunity to be engaged 

using active learning. 

Conflict Resolution 

Every classroom, High/Scope or 

otherwise, experiences various types 

of conflict between children. Children 

in elementary school may experience 

conflict as they build a sense of self in 

relation to others and begin to see themselves 

as independent from friends and 

family; develop a sense of assertiveness 

and self-confidence; experiment with 

power and control in relation to others; 

and form “preferences” in terms of who 

they want to relate to and how they want 

to relate to others. School-age conflict is 

in fact developmentally appropriate, yet 

children are often not called upon to be 

involved in resolving conflicts. in traditional 

elementary classrooms, conflict is 

still often solved by adults (i.e., teachers 

�� 

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or principals) who impose their own 

solutions on children or even punish 

children for behavior that may have 

contributed to the conflict situation. 

Teachers in traditional classrooms 

often indirectly encourage conflict by 

reinforcing the importance of privilege, 

status, and ownership. When teachers 

point out that they “like the way ______ 

is sitting,” choose line leaders of the day, 

use a prize box or “bonus bucks” to reward 

particular achievements or behaviors, 

they inadvertently create feelings of 

anxiety in children who may feel themselves 

to be second best. Some conflict 

can be beneficial in order for young 

children to learn to resolve it. However, 

conflict can also distract children from 

learning, decrease their self-esteem, 

make them feel lonely and distressed, 

and — when conflict is prolonged and 

consistent — may even cause children 

to begin to dislike school. 

Teachers in a High/Scope elementary 

setting learn to limit conflict in a number 

of ways. Specifically, adults encourage 

empathy in school-aged children; provide 

a range of activities with open-ended materials 

so that all students have the opportunity 

to feel successful in their actions; 

offer opportunities for cooperative work; 

and build authentic relationships with 

students. High/Scope teachers in a school 

setting learn to adapt the six steps to 

conflict resolution (Evans, 2002) to conflicts 

between school-aged children. 

�� 

�� 



When adopting the problem-solving 

approach to conflict, teachers in an elementary 

program need to consider that 

school-aged children can be physically 

strong and able to cause considerable 

Teachers in traditional 

classrooms often 

indirectly encourage 

conflict by reinforcing 

the importance of 

privilege, status, 

and ownership. 

harm to others, unlike pre-K children 

who are still relatively small. Moreover, 

unlike many children in a pre-K program, 

school-aged children may be able 

to identify the problem without the 

Children at the Rose School use words and 

pictures to detail their plans for work time 

and then reflect on what they’ve done. 

teacher needing to define it for them. 

School-aged children may have had 

years of experience in conflict and thus 

may exhibit a greater sense of inflexibility 

to their solution; this may result 

in a longer period of time in finding a 

mutually satisfying solution. 

on the other hand, although schoolaged 

children may have experience with 

conflict, they may be inexperienced in 

having a say in the resolution. Schoolaged 

children seem to have an innate 

sense of fairness and conception of 

reason; therefore, their solutions are 

more likely to be logical than solutions 

proposed by preschool children. Lastly, 

school-aged children are more likely to 

remember previous conflicts and prior 

ways of solving problems. Teachers in 

an elementary program can facilitate the 

problem-solving process by empowering 

students to believe they are problem- 

solvers; giving children opportunities 

to solve non-threatening problems and 

to solve problems as a group; accepting 

children’s solutions; supporting children 

in their efforts to come up with a solution; 

and being consistent in allowing 

children to solve problems. 

Plan-Do-Review 

High/Scope’s plan-do-review in the 

elementary classroom is based on the 

same principles as plan-do-review in 

a preschool setting: it involves active 

learning, is a child-initiated time of the 

day, and uses the same adult-support 

strategies. in the plan-do-review process, 

children learn to take initiative, solve 

problems independently, work with 

others, and build knowledge and skills 

(Epstein, 2007). 

When elementary teachers first hear 

of plan-do-review, they worry that it 

takes time away from the curriculum. 



Each day in the High/Scope elementary setting follows a carefully planned and consistent schedule. 

it is only when they come to learn more 

about the process that teachers understand 

that plan-do-review helps to meet 

curriculum expectations. For example, 

children explore materials that are curriculum-related. 

Moreover, the teacher 

learns how to use plan-do-review to 

scaffold children’s learning and to use 

children’s experiences to support the 

curriculum at other times of the day. 

Furthermore, the method that teachers 

adopt for planning and reviewing is 

connected to specific curriculum expectations 

and children’s developmental 

levels. Plan-do-review is conducted in 

different ways according to the age of 

the children in the classroom. Kindergarten 

students may plan and recall 

orally and with props, whereas students 

in grade two and grade three may use 

journals to independently record their 

plans and reflect on their work-time 

experiences. 

Making a Difference 

Extending High/Scope practices into 

the elementary classroom leads to both 

improved teacher effectiveness as well 

as positive student outcomes. Using the 

High/Scope approach in my third-grade 

classes supported my students’ performance 

on standardized tests, for example. 

When asked to use manipulatives 

and include pictorial explanations for 

their answers to the math sections of 

the test, my students were able to draw 

on their familiarity with using mathrelated 

manipulatives in a meaningful 

way during plan-do-review every day. 

Their previous classroom experience 

with manipulatives gave them greater 

confidence at testing time in demonstrating 

their understanding of math concepts 

through concrete objects. 

The method that 

teachers adopt for 

plan-do-review is 

connected to specific 

curriculum expectations 

and children’s 

developmental levels. 

Students also became more independent 

and self-motivated learners as a 

result of teaching practices that allowed 

children to engage in active, hands-on 

learning and projects of their own 

choosing. For example, some students 

saw themselves as “scientists” when they 

formed a science “club.” others (some 

of whom were typically very active) 

began to consider themselves as artists, 

working in a focused way on paintings 

of nature for forty-five minutes during 

plan-do-review. 

My students were also able to internalize 

the value of cooperation verses 

competition and communicate this important 

difference to others. one child, 

who attended a birthday party outside 

of school, returned to tell me that the host 

parent had organized competitive games; 

she said she explained to the adult that 

she preferred cooperative activities. 

After the first year of my adapting 

the High/Scope approach to teaching 

and learning, i attended the usual endof-year 

meeting during which teachers 

determine where each student will be 

placed the following school year. i felt 

confident advocating on behalf of students 

who had once been considered 

“challenging” but who had learned in 

my High/Scope classroom how to better 

regulate their emotions and to resolve 

difficulties and conflicts through problemsolving. 

These students were no longer 

considered “difficult.” 

Making a difference in the classroom 

sometimes requires that teachers make 

changes in their classroom practices. My 

own journey in extending High/Scope 

into elementary settings has been overwhelmingly 

rewarding, and i’ll continue 

to use this active learning approach in 

my classroom. i am convinced it is the 

way to make a positive and lasting difference 

in my students’ lives. 

References 

Epstein, A. S. (2007). Essentials of active 

learning in preschool: Getting 

to know the High/Scope curriculum. 

Ypsilanti, Mi: High/Scope Press. 

Evans, B. (2002). You can’t come to my 

birthday party! Conflict resolution 

with young children. Ypsilanti, Mi: 

High/Scope Press. 

Sarah Fewson is a High/Scope consultant 

and trainer and elementary 

school teacher in Toronto, Ontario, 

Canada. 

For more information on 

High/Scope’s elementary 

approach, see our Web site. 


HigH/SCoPE’S READY SCHooL ASSESSMENT 

From Preschool to Ready School: 

Using Data to Support a Preschool– 

Early Elementary Continuum 

by Marijata Daniel-Echols 

A 

mong educational researchers, 

policy analysts, and 

policymakers, support for 

developing and implementing a continuum 

of curriculum content and 

pedagogy between preschool and 

early elementary school is at an alltime 

high. Interest has been fueled by 

increases in state-funded preschool 

initiatives that bring early childhood 

education into direct relationship with 

the K–12 system in new ways. The 

push to expand preschool is driven 

by longitudinal research that demonstrates 

a connection between early 

childhood experiences and elementary 

school performance. 

The primary focus 

of the RSA is to help 

elementary schools 

think critically about 

their policies and 

practices. Users are 

challenged to look at 

evidence to see how 

ready they are to 

educate all children. 

A prominent example of work focused 

on an early childhood–elementary 

continuum is the Foundation for Child 

Development’s PreK–3rd initiative. its 

creators describe it as an initiative that 

aims to contribute to the creation of “a 

new first level of American education,” 

extending from age three to age eight 

(Foundation for Child Development, 

2008). its goal is to encourage the alignment 

of preschool standards, curriculum, 

instruction, and assessment with the kindergarten 

through third-grade elementary 

experience and expectations. 

The Kellogg Foundation’s Supporting 

Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids 

(SPARK) is another example of a national 

effort to increase school readiness and 

ensure smooth transitions for children as 

they move from preschool to elementarylevel 

classrooms (W.K. Kellogg Foundation). 

SPARK supports partnerships 

among preschools, elementary schools, 

and community stakeholders, encouraging 

them to work together to better serve 

their children and families. 

While in recent years there has been 

growing interest in preschool to elementary 

articulation, the concept is not new. 

The National Education goals Panel’s 

(NEgP) Ready Schools Resource group 

produced a list of ten characteristics of 

a ready school (Shore et al., 1998). The 

second trait listed was that “a ready 

school strives for continuity between 

early care and education programs and 

elementary schools” (p. 5). 

From Concepts to Constructs 

in a grant related to, but not directly 

a part of, the SPARK project, the High/ 

Scope Foundation received four years 

of funding from the Kellogg Foundation 

to develop the Ready School 

Assessment tool (RSA). The 

theory behind the work is that 

in order to have a strong 

articulation of preschool 

and elementary education 

content and practice there 

must be a way to translate 

general concepts of a 

ready school into specific, 

measurable constructs. The 

RSA measures eight dimensions 

of a ready school: Leaders and 

Leadership; Transitions; 


READY SCHooL ASSESSMENT 

Teacher Supports; Effective Curricula; 

Engaging Environments; Family, 

School, and Community Partnerships; 

Respecting Diversity; and Assessing 

Progress. Each dimension has 11 to 21 

indicators — policies and practices that 

support and promote best practices of 

ready schools. For example, another 

trait on the NEgP’s list of ready school 

characteristics is that “ready schools have 

strong leadership” (Shore, 1998, p. 5). 

in the Leaders and Leadership dimension 

of the RSA, measurable aspects 

of strong leadership are defined (e.g., 

whether or not the school principal has 

academic training or classroom experience 

in early childhood education). 

The primary focus of the RSA is to 

help elementary schools think critically 

about their policies and practices. in particular, 

users of the tool are challenged 

to look at evidence to see how they are 

and are not ready to educate all children. 

The focus is not on whether or not children 

are ready for school, nor is it on the 

degree to which preschools conform to 

the expectations of K–12 systems. The 

goal of the RSA is to help forge a connection 

between preschool and elementary 

school that is grounded in early 

childhood education best practice. 

Data Analysis in Context 

As with any initiative to improve a 

program or school, responsible reform is 

driven by data. More importantly, that 

data must represent valid and reliable information 

about the children, families, 

teachers, and communities from which it 

is drawn. in addition to achieving established 

psychometric properties of validity 

and reliability, the RSA helps ensure the 

use of data that is a full reflection of the 

specific circumstances and characteristics 

of a school. it requires a process of group 

evidence-gathering, analysis, and consensus 

scoring. An RSA team consists 

of representatives from the field of early 

childhood, parents, community partners, 

teachers, and school administrators. By 

bringing together these varied points of 

view, the RSA encourages the full inclusion 

of data needed to comprehensively 

evaluate the strengths and challenges of 

a school’s policies and practices. 

The online Ready School Profiler shows a school’s relative strength in each of the dimensions 

and subdimensions of school readiness as measured by the RSA. Profile graphs show comparison 

bars indicating how a school has scored relative to the average of a sample of schools that have 

completed the RSA. 

An essential part of comprehensive 

measurement is to gather multiple types 

of evidence from multiple sources. A 

common way that policymakers and 

parents evaluate whether or not an elementary 

school is successful is by looking 

at children’s test scores. Using child 

outcomes as one measure of school performance 

is a reasonable expectation. 

The goal of the 

RSA is to help 

forge a connection 

between preschool 

and elementary 

school that is 

grounded in early 

childhood education 

best practice. 

However, expecting children to flourish 

in learning environments that are illequipped 

to support them is not. The 

degree to which there is continuity between 

children’s early childhood and 

elementary experiences can be viewed 

as an important indicator of a successful 

school. This type of understanding of 

school accountability to include a preschool 

to elementary continuum does 

not exclude a role for child assessment 

data — but it does encourage analysis 

of that data in context. Just as best practice 

encourages authentic assessment of 

children’s full range of development, so 

too is it important to understand schools 

not just by sets of scores on tests, but by 

information about the context in which 

those scores were produced. 

Putting a Plan in Place 

Beyond gathering good data, there 

must also be a plan in place for how that 

data will be used to draw conclusions 

about a school and how that analysis 

will translate into school improvement 

goals. A high-quality data-gathering 


READY SCHooL ASSESSMENT 

and analysis process should lead to 

easily understood conclusions and the 

creation of clear, measurable, and 

achievable goals. For example, among 

schools that pilot-tested the RSA (a mix 

of 71 urban, suburban, and rural schools 

from 17 states), many believed that their 

preschool to kindergarten transition 

practices were adequate. The process of 

documenting actual rather than assumed 

practices revealed that most of those 

As schools identify 

the areas in which 

they excel in supporting 

young learners, 

they must also use 

data to reveal where 

improvements are 

needed. 

same schools were not doing all that 

they could in this ready school dimension. 

Schools used this data to put in 

place specific programs geared toward 

better outreach to parents and support 

for children, for example, making home 

visits, providing school supplies, meeting 

with preschool teachers to learn 

about incoming students, and using a 

mix of outreach strategies (e.g., radio 

announcements; distribution of easy- 

to-read, colorful school calendars; com- 

Through a simple link in eTools, research project participants can log on and complete surveys with 

confidence that their information is secure. 

municating with parents in their native 

language). importantly, these schools 

evaluated the success of their new initiatives 

through evidence-gathering both 

pre- and post-program implementation. 

Strong preschool–to–elementary continuums 

of content and practice can help 

ensure positive outcomes for children. 

As schools identify the areas in which 

they excel in supporting young learners, 

they must also use data to reveal where 

improvements are needed. A simultaneous 

focus on preparing children for 

school and preparing schools to educate 

all children is well served by ongoing 

data collection, analysis, and the imple- 

Ready School 

Assessment (RSA) 

RSA is a planning tool designed to 

provide school improvement teams with a 

developmental profile of the strength of readiness features in their school setting. 

The RSA centers on eight dimensions of school readiness critical to the success 

of children as they enter and begin their elementary school careers. 

Visit readyschoolassessment.org on the Web for more information. 

mentation of policies and practices 

based upon the conclusions drawn from 

the data. 

References 

Foundation for Child Development. 

PreK-3rd.: A new beginning for 

American education. Retrieved July 

30, 2008, from http://www.fcd-us. 

org/initiatives/ 

Shore, R. Ready schools: A report of 

the Goal 1 Ready Schools Research 

Group. Washington, DC: National 

Education goals Panel. 

W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Supporting 

Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids 

(SPARK). Retrieved July 30, 2008, 

from http://www.wkkf.org/SPARK 

Marijata Daniel-Echols is High/ 

Scope’s Chair of Research. 

For more on High/Scope’s 

Ready School Assessment, 

go to our Web site. 


HigH/SCoPE 

Teacher’s Corner 

Real Science in Preschool: 

Here, There, and Everywhere 

by Polly Neill 

T 

he following article is an excerpt 

from the new book Real Science 

in Preschool: Here, There, and 

Everywhere, published by High/Scope 

Press. For more information, see p. 29. 

Find the Science 

House areas are generally very busy 

places where a lot of different things go 

on at the same time, with the play often 

spilling over into the block area or other 

interest areas. So much is happening 

that we have to focus our science senses 

in order to spot children exhibiting the 

behaviors that are part of the preschool 

scientific method. Again, as children engage 

in these behaviors, they are laying 

the groundwork for more formal science 

learning later on in school. 

Observing 

The house area often is the 

center of a number of different 

activities, and it can be a bit 

In this preschool classroom, the 

house area becomes a beauty parlor, 

as children engage with concepts of 

hair texture and style. 

overwhelming for a child who is new 

to the program and who is comfortable 

just observing. As we learned earlier, 

children who stand by quietly at first 

are absorbing information. in the house 

area, they are taking in the location of 

the pots and pans, the dishes, and the 

silverware. Additionally, while taking 

stock of how children interact with one 

another as they role-play, the observing 

children are anticipating how they might 

fit into this social structure. The following 

are examples of some of the sciencerelated 

play children might observe in 

the house area: 

Today several of the children are 

cooking a “birthday cake” using the 

pine cones and little yellow sponges 

they found in the canisters. They ask 

two other children to “please set the 

table for the party ’cause the cake 

will be ready soon and 37 people will 

be here any minute!” 

Another part of the house area becomes 

an emergency room for a 

veterinarian who must operate on 

a puppy whose mom says she has 

“monsters in her tummy.” The vet’s 

office is very busy, because the phone 

rings a lot, too. 

As children play, they 

engage in behaviors 

that are part of the 

preschool scientific 

method — laying 

the groundwork for 

more formal science 

learning later. 

Children who are observing may be 

silent or they may show evidence of what 

they are taking in with comments like 

the following. These remarks indicate 

that children are processing information 

as they observe, leading them to classify 

and engage in other scientific behaviors. 

“My mom uses pans like that at 

home.” 

“i could comb her hair and make 

it smooth.” 

“You could go out and run with 

the puppies — that makes them 

sleepy.” 

Classifying 

The house area can be one of 

the best environments for children 

who are classifying, organizing, 

or sorting objects or information. 

Materials such as pots and pans, 

utensils, linens, and plastic fruits 

and vegetables easily lend themselves 

to children’s classifications, 


REAL SCiENCE iN PRESCHooL 

and the types of play scenarios that develop 

in this learning area often involve 

children distinguishing and grouping 

materials, roles, and actions, as exemplified 

by the following (some of these 

scenarios refer to scenarios given in 

“observing,” above). Also note that as 

children elaborate on their play, they may 

bring materials over from other areas. 

The house area can 

be one of the best 

environments for 

children who are 

classifying, organizing, 

or sorting objects 

or information. 

The cake bakers say that their cake 

recipe calls only for “the pine cones 

and the yellow sponges — we don’t 

want any of the packing peanuts.” 

While Tommy and Maria are setting 

the table, they organize not only all 

the plates and bowls but also the 

silverware to make sure there is one 

piece for each place setting. When 

it’s time to clean up, they put the 

knives with the other knives, and 

the forks with the other forks; then 

they put all the plates together and 

all the bowls together. 

over in the veterinarian’s office, 

the vet’s assistant has to find all the 

tools the vet needs for an operation 

on the sick puppy, so she went over 

to the woodworking area and got 

the hand drill, some clamps, and 

a screwdriver. 

The mommies who are caring for 

their babies are sorting through 

the blankets to find the softest ones 

to wrap their babies in, because it 

is naptime. 

Experimenting 

As children continue and elaborate 

on their play scenarios, they try out 

solutions to problems and test their predictions 

(the following scenarios are a 

continuation of those given above): 

The cake bakers consulted their 

cookbooks about whether or not the 

cake needed some kind of liquid and 

then checked with José, the teacher. 

Children and adults can turn the house area into a doctor’s office and pretend to be doctors and patients. 

The Six Components 

of the Preschool 

Scientific Method 

Observing: Paying close attention to 

something to learn more about it 

Classifying: Grouping similar things 

together by identifying the relationships 

between things and the categories they 

belong to 

Experimenting: Testing an idea to see 

if it is true, or trying a solution to see if 

it works 

Predicting: Describing what you expect 

will happen 

Drawing conclusions: Fitting one’s 

observations into one’s existing system 

of knowledge and understanding 

Communicating ideas: Sharing one’s 

questions, observations, predictions, and 

conclusions with others 

Real 

Science 

in Preschool: 

Here, There, and 

Everywhere 

Authentic, hands-on science 

learning takes place every day 

throughout the classroom as well as 

outdoors. You’ll learn to recognize 

and support the six behaviors that 

are part of the preschool scientific 

method and that you’ll see in all types 

of children’s play — behaviors that 

lay the groundwork for children’s 

later science learning in school. 

FW-P1366 $25.95 


REAL SCiENCE iN PRESCHooL 

After observing the play of two of his classmates, this boy approaches the girls and asks how he might 

join their activity. 

He said he wasn’t sure about cakes, 

but he reminded them about the time 

they made apple bread and forgot to 

add the cider. They said, “That loaf 

was yucky — all crumbly! But the 

one that Sheretta’s group made was 

yummy — i bet they remembered 

the cider!” 

The table setters are solving a problem 

with the plates: “Would we have 

enough places if we used the bowls 

and the little plates too? or, we could 

just give everybody a paper plate or a 

piece of paper towel.” 

The vet’s assistant is in the process of 

designing an experiment for carrying 

the sick puppy: “We have to figure 

out a way to carry the puppy that 

won’t cause him to bounce at all 

since he is very sore. i don’t think we 

can carry him ‘cause we could trip 

or somethin’ like that. i know — we 

could try a basket or a box and put 

something soft in it so that he’s all 

cuddled up. That should do it!” 

Predicting 

As children continue to develop their 

play scenarios, their predictions — their 

ideas about what they think might happen 

— go hand in hand with their experiments. 

Let’s check back in with our 

cake bakers, table setters, veterinarians, 

and moms: 

“i think that the cake is going to be 

dry if we don’t add some milk or 

water. Let’s ask José (the teacher) 

what we should put in — maybe 

some juice?” 

“Hey guys, there is no way we’re 

gonna have enough plates for everyone 

at the party — whadda we do 

now? Uh-oh, that means we don’t 

have enough candles either.” 

In developing their 

play scenarios, 

children’s predictions 

— what they think 

might happen — go 

hand in hand with 

their experiments. 

“i think this puppy is going to feel so 

bad after his operation that he won’t 

be able to walk by himself — he’s 

gonna need some help.” 

The moms are worried about finding 

a quiet place for their babies to sleep: 

“There is so much noise in the house, 

they’ll never sleep in there!” 

Drawing Conclusions 

After observing, classifying, experimenting, 

and making predictions, our 

young scientists add the knowledge they 

have gained to that they already have 

and then draw conclusions about how 

things work: 

“i think using all the dishes will be 

enough for everyone and then we 

won’t have to use the paper towels. 

But that still means there aren’t 

enough chairs and a lot of people 

will have to sit on the ground and 

they might not like that.” 

“i think putting the puppy in the big 

basket is a better idea, ’cause then he 

won’t try to move around and get 

out. The vet said he should be quiet.” 

Communicating Ideas 

once children have formed some 

conclusions about the problem or idea 

they have been working on, they seek 

ways to communicate the information to 

others and/or to be able to refer back to 

what they have learned: 

“José, we want to write down the 

stuff we put in our cake so we can 

make it again tomorrow. if we tell 

you, will you write it down for us? 

Some of the things are from in here.” 

(Child points to an illustrated cookbook 

they were using.) 

The girls who were playing mommies 

asked if the teachers could put a 

message on the message board for 

the next day about “being quiet while 

babies are sleeping.” Carol (a teacher) 

thought that might work, but 

wondered if the children could think 

of a way that the other kids would 

remember to be quieter during work 

time. Suraya suggested that they 

make a sign to put up when the 

babies are sleeping. 


HigH/SCoPE FEEDBACK 

FQA 

Recording Anecdotal Notes: 

How Many Are Enough? 

by Karen (Kay) Rush 

H 

ow many anecdotes should 

I take when observing a 

preschool child? Does High/ 

Scope recommend a specific number? 

To answer this question, keep in 

mind the reasons for taking anecdotes: 

to observe and plan each day for each 

child and the class as a whole, to complete 

the Preschool Child observation 

Record (CoR) for each child two to 

three times per year, to share developmental 

information about children with 

their parents, and to summarize and 

document student progress for administrative 

reporting purposes. 

High/Scope does not put a number on 

how many anecdotes you need to take on 

a child. The “correct” number is whatever 

enables you and your program to 

meet the goals just stated. As a general 

rule, High/Scope advises teachers to 

make several observations per week per 

child. Sometimes Head Start agencies 

require a certain number of anecdotes. 

This policy may be instituted because 

of administrative concerns that teachers 

will wait until the last minute (e.g., just 

before it is time for a child’s assessment 

or parent conferences) instead of making 

ongoing notes throughout the program 

year. 

As a general rule, 

High/Scope advises 

teachers to make 

several observations 

per week per child, 

but does not specify 

a required number 

of anecdotes. 

The best way to facilitate planning, 

serve children’s developmental needs, 

and communicate with parents and administrators 

is to take regular notes on 


HigH/SCoPE FEEDBACK 

Using sticky notes and clipboards, teachers can jot down notes while interacting with children, then fill in the details later at planning time. 

children. This does not mean one note 

for each child in each area every day. 

However, by looking back at your notes 

periodically, you can see where you 

need to fill in anecdotes on a particular 

child and/or area of development. Then 

you can be on the lookout for relevant 

examples. As a guiding philosophy, consider 

the following encounter i had at a 

training session for camp counselors. 

A young lady found out i was an employee 

of the High/Scope Educational 

Research Foundation, and she said to 

me, “i really like the philosophy of 

High/Scope, but i don’t like that assessment 

part where you just have to stand 

back and take a day to take notes on the 

kids. i’d rather be involved with them 

instead of observing them.” i responded, 

“That’s fantastic that you want to be 

involved with them, and i’m sure the 

children want you to be involved as well. 

i bet you would be able to take more 

in-depth and meaningful anecdotes on 

your children if you wrote them while 

you were involved and interacting with 

onlineCoR 

Get to the COR of the Assessment Process! 

OnlineCOR is the next generation of Web-based assessment 

software — 

Teachers: Enter anecdotes online, view planning activities, and connect with 

online forums. 

Adminstrators: Create an instant network and access information and reports 

from multiple sites on a secure server. 

Parents: View the child’s progress in an online portfolio including anecdotes, 

artwork, photos, and more! 

Start with the online tour at www.OnlineCOR.net — it’s worth the time, and 

worth some thought. 

them.” i suggested using sticky notes, a 

clipboard in each area, and other simple 

strategies for jotting things down. i also 

told her she didn’t need to write a com- 

By looking back 

at your notes 

periodically, you can 

see where you need 

to fill in anecdotes 

on a particular 

child and/or area 

of development. 

plete anecdote on the spot — just enough 

to jog her memory so that at planning 

time she could fill in the details. “Try it 

and get back to me to let me know how 

it went,” i concluded. At our next encounter 

she told me that she was able 

to get more out of her notes now that 

she had an easy way to do them that 

didn’t interrupt her play and interactions 

with the children. She was now able to 

see much more growth developmentally, 

socially, and in all areas of their “bright 

little lives.” 


HigH/SCoPE PRoFESSioNAL DEvELoPMENT 

Training 

@High/Scope 

Workshops — 

Learn more about the High/Scope 

educational approach by attending workshops, 

customized training, High/Scope 

Regional Conferences, or the High/Scope 

International Conference. Topics include 

all the major elements of the High/Scope 

approach — active learning, adult-child 

interaction, the daily routine, High/Scope 

key experiences, and assessment using 

the Child Observation Record (COR). 

Courses — 

Designed for more in-depth curriculum training, courses range from one week to seven weeks in 

length. They include curriculum training designed for teachers and administrators and adult training 

courses designed to prepare participants to be High/Scope trainers. 

Advanced Courses — 

Recommended for those who have taken the High/Scope Curriculum and/or Training of Trainers 

(TOT) courses. These courses offer in-depth, sophisticated work with content areas, such as literacy, 

mathematics, science, visual arts, movement and music, the Preschool Child Observation Record 

(COR), and the Preschool Program Quality Assessment (PQA). They also cover a wide range of processes, 

such as mentoring, evaluation, and working with children and adults in full-day programs 

and multiage, bilingual, and intergenerational settings. 

Certification requirements 

To become a High/Scope Certified Teacher — 

Candidates must demonstrate their competence in implementing the High/Scope approach and 

using High/Scope’s child assessment instrument in their own classroom settings. Successful teachers 

must attain an average score of 4.5 or higher on a 5.0 scale using High/Scope’s Program Quality 

Assessment (PQA) and must document and share daily plans with High/Scope. Completing the 

High/Scope Preschool Curriculum Course is extremely beneficial in helping teachers develop skills 

measured by the PQA. 

To become a High/Scope Certified Trainer — 

Candidates must successfully complete seven weeks of training, including the Preschool Curriculum 

Course and the Training of Trainers Course. Coursework includes learning observation and feedback 

techniques, assessing staff needs, developing course agendas, and presenting both abstract 

and concrete concepts. To be certified, trainers must demonstrate both their curriculum knowledge 

and their training skills. 

Certified High/Scope Trainers ensure that an agency’s teaching practices are appropriate, effective, 

and consistent. Research indicates that programs with ongoing High/Scope training have more 

effective and productive interaction between adults and children, a consistent daily routine, and a 

more engaging environment for students. 

To become a High/Scope Certified Program — 

Child service programs in which all teachers are certified may become High/Scope Certified 

Programs. 

Spotlight on 

Training from 


High/Scope is for Elementary-Age 

Students Too! 

Kindergarten Teachers 

Primary grade Teachers 

Principals 

Child Care Staff 

Curriculum Specialists 

Mentor Teachers 

Wondering what happens to pre-K 

children when they enter big school? 

High/Scope now offers a workshop that 

examines the High/Scope Curriculum in 

elementary grade classrooms. Discover 

what plan-do-review looks like in a K–3 

classroom, learn how to plan meaningful 

content workshops, and gain practical 

ideas for setting up a learning environment 

that meets local, state, and regional 

guidelines and High/Scope principles. 

Tuition: $675/person 

July 13–17, 2009 

offered on-site in Lakeworth, Florida 

Customized Workshops by 


Classrooms and child care programs 

are unique. High/Scope staff is available 

to visit programs and provide classroom 

observation, feedback, and mentoring. 

one High/Scope staff member can visit 

and provide support for two to three 

classrooms per day. Strengths and opportunities 

identified in these sessions help 

drive curriculum and training plans for 

teachers and supervisors. With input 

from teaching staff, parents, and others, 

High/Scope can design a course agenda 

to deliver to fifteen workshop participants. 

Fees for customized services are 

$1,200/day plus travel expenses. 



WORKSHOPS 

Summer 2009 

High/Scope offers the following 

workshops and courses at the foundation’s 

headquarters in Ypsilanti, Michigan. 

Workshops provide examination 

and discussion about a specific component 

of the High/Scope Curriculum. 

Training Courses provide teachers with 

all of the technical assistance to fully 

implement the curriculum and to build 

the capacity to provide ongoing support 

to their colleagues. 

Introduction to the High/Scope 

Curriculum for Infants and 

Toddlers 

This week-long workshop is designed 

to provide teachers with an overview of 

the successful High/Scope Curriculum 

for infants and Toddlers. This is a perfect 

opportunity for Early Head Start 

teachers, Head Start teachers, program 

administrators, and parents. 

IN543 • July 13–17, 2009 

Infant/Toddler Child Observation 

Record (COR) 

in this two-day workshop, participants 

will work through a multistep approach 

to the daily process of observing, 

recording, interpreting, and planning 

based on infant-toddler development. 

WK547 • July 13–14, 2009 

Introduction to the High/Scope 

Curriculum for Preschool 

Teachers: Basic Principles 

and Strategies 

This workshop provides teachers with 

a one-week overview of the components 

of the High/Scope Curriculum. Discussion 

will focus on curriculum content 

areas, valid and reliable assessment, the 

High/Scope daily routine, team building, 

effective adult-child interaction 

strategies, and more. 

IN511 • June 22–26, 2009 

or July 27–31, 2009 

Preschool Child Observation 

Record (COR) 

This workshop provides teachers with 

background, knowledge, and practical 

applications of the CoR. The Preschool 

CoR focuses on children’s everyday activities 

rather than isolated tasks used in 

standardized school readiness and 

achievement tests. 

WK513 • July 15–16, 2009 

Introduction to High/Scope’s 

Growing Readers Early Literacy 

Curriculum 

The growing Readers Early Literacy 

Curriculum (gRC) is a comprehensive 

set of detailed plans for more than 90 

teacher-led small-group activities and 

accompanying children’s book collection. 

The activities actively engage and 

instruct young children in literacy comprehension, 

phonological awareness, 

alphabetic principle, and concepts about 

print. in this workshop participants will 

learn how to use these materials effectively 

to help children build new knowledge 

and literacy skills. 

WK610 • July 20–21, 2009 

Layered Leadership 

in this two-day workshop, supervisors 

will discuss and make plans for building 

and sustaining high-quality early childhood 

education programs. Discussion 

includes establishing an effective daily 

routine for children and staff; identifying, 

hiring, and motivating staff to implement 

the organizational plan; evaluating the 

team’s efforts and growth; documenting 

success; and regrouping when challenges 

occur. 

Tuition is $240/participant and includes 

a copy of the award-winning 

publication, The School Administrator’s 

Guide to Early Childhood Programs, 

published by the High/Scope Foundation. 

WK624 • July 23–24, 2009 

Movement and Music Overview 

Conducted at the High/Scope Retreat 

and Meeting Center in Clinton, 

Michigan (room and board included) 

This one-week course promotes 

understanding of the movement-based 

active learning process, the movement 

and music curriculum areas and teaching 

model, strategies for successful 

curriculum integration, and several 

beginning folk dances. 

IN558 • July 6–11, 2009 

Movement and Music Teacher 

Certification Program 

Conducted at the High/Scope Retreat 

and Meeting Center in Clinton, 

Michigan (room and board included) 

This summer program (two summers) 

promotes mastery of Education Through 

Movement content developed by Phyllis 

S. Weikart.. Teachers are Certified as 

Education Through Movement Teachers. 

TE554 • July 6–17, 2009 

Part Two is in Summer 2010 

Continued on next page 



TRAINING COURSES 

Training of Trainers (TOT) 

(Conducted over two summers) 

Prerequisite is the Preschool Curriculum 

Course or equivalent. 

The three-week Training of Trainers 

course is designed for those who have 

already completed extensive training in 

the High/Scope Curriculum and wish to 

extend their skills to training adults in the 

educational approach. The course is held 

over two summers at the High/Scope 

Foundation headquarters in Ypsilanti, 

Michigan; two weeks the first summer 

and one week the second. Those successfully 

completing the course earn 

certification as High/Scope trainers 

with an endorsement in the High/Scope 

Preschool Curriculum. 

Week 1 Developing and 

Presenting Workshops 

TR515 • July 20–24, 2009 

Week 2 Observation/Feedback 

TR516 • July 27–31, 2009 

Week 3 

TR517 • Summer 2010 

Preschool Curriculum Course 

(PCC) 

(Conducted over two summers) 

The four-week Preschool Curriculum 

Course is designed to prepare teachers 

and caregivers to implement the High/ 

Scope Curriculum in their early childhood 

programs. 

Week 1 

Fundamentals in the High/ 

Scope Preschool Curriculum 

TE511 • August 3–7, 2009 

Week 2 

Children in the High/Scope 

Preschool Environment 

TE512 • August 10–14, 2009 

Weeks 3–4 

Summer of 2010 

For more information on High/Scope’s 

professional development options, customized 

on-site training, or certification, 

please contact Gavin Haque at 734-485- 

2000, Ext. 218, or via e-mail at training@ 

highscope.org, or visit our web site at 

www.highscope.org. 

To register for training, call 734-485- 

2000, Ext. 234, fax 734-485-4467, or register 

online at www.highscope.org. 

NEW! 

online Courses 

High/Scope is now offering online 

course work in which participants join an 

e-learning community and have access 

to group discussion as well as individual 

attention from the course instructor. 

Course work can be accessed and completed 

anywhere, anytime — all with 

personal attention from the instructor 

and classmates. 

Large-Group Time for Active Learners 

if you want to learn how to bring children 

and adults together for action songs, 

cooperative games and projects, movement 

activities, storytelling, and more, 

then you should consider this workshop! 

Small-Group Time for Active Learners 

in this course you will learn to make 

small-group time a truly meaningful 

experience. in a high-quality classroom, 

teachers and children explore new materials, 

new experiences, and new ideas 

during small-group time. 

High/Scope’s Child Planning and 

Recall Process 

This course gives you the tools to 

help children become intentional and 

reflective about their experiences and 

build skills that will last them a lifetime. 

Assessing Preschool Program Quality 

Using the PQA 

High/Scope’s Program Quality Assessment 

(PQA) measures a program’s 

effectiveness in the areas of learning environment, 

daily routine, adult-child interaction, 

parent involvement, curriculum 

planning and assessment, staff 

qualifications and development, and program 

management. Use of this tool will 

increase your understanding of highquality 

practice. Learn to observe and 

administer the PQA in your classrooms. 

For more detailed descriptions of 

these new online courses, as well as 

schedule and cost information, please 

visit our Web site. 


Looking for a 

new preschool 

curriculum? 

Just beginning 


implementation? HIGH/SCOPE 

STEP STEP 

BY 

Preschool programs are all unique; each one faces different challenges 

when implementing a new curriculum. Some programs have an experienced 

and trained staff and can take on new challenges quickly. Others 

may not be as experienced and prefer to take things more slowly. And, 

of course, budgets are always an issue. 

Implementing a high-quality curriculum, if done well, is like a journey. 

It may take a little time, but what you learn along the way creates positive 

child outcomes and a stronger teaching staff. Regardless of the challenges 

you are facing, we can help you take that journey...step by step. 

To simplify the process, we have created three steps — each including 

recommendations for products and training. As you progress, you will 

build knowledge and skills that prepare you and your team to take the next 

step. It’s a way to learn about and implement the High/Scope Curriculum 

in easy, manageable pieces. From there you can step up to more depth in 

specific areas such as literacy, math, intentional teaching, assessment, 

and more. 

And the best part is... 

You can take each step — one at a time — at your own pace and 

within your budget. Or, if your team can move more quickly, buy all 

of the steps at one time. It’s up to you! And, you are not limited to the 

packages we have created. We can help you create and customize 

your own step packages, if you prefer. 

Ready to take the first step? 

High/Scope Step by Step offers you an affordable and achievable plan 

for curriculum implementation. Learn more about each step or let us 

help customize steps that are right for you by contacting: 

For Resources: 

Kathleen Woodard 734/485-2000, ext. 255 info@highscope.org 

For Training: 

Gavin Haque 734/485-2000, ext. 218 training@highscope.org

HigH/SCoPE CATALog 

New Products 

Take a closer look at our newest titles! 

We have just introduced some exciting products and classroom resources. These are just a few of the many titles 

featured in our latest catalog. To see what else we have to offer, visit our online store. 

Real Science 

in Preschool: Here, 

There, and Everywhere 

Wondering how to “do science” 

with preschoolers? This latest volume in 

the Teacher’s idea Book series shows 

you how authentic, hands-on science 

learning takes place every day throughout 

the classroom as well as outdoors. 

You’ll learn to recognize and support 

the six behaviors that are part of the 

preschool scientific method (observing, 

classifying, experimenting, predicting, 

drawing conclusions, and communicating 

ideas) that you’ll see in all types of 

children’s play — behaviors that lay the 

groundwork for children’s later science 

learning in school. introductory chapters 

provide an overview of early science 

learning and supportive adult-child interactions, 

while later chapters take you 

on a tour of classroom interest areas to 

find the science learning going on and 

consider strategies and materials that encourage 

children’s ideas. Also includes 

information on creating science-related 

group-time activities based on children’s 

interests and templates for developing 

your own group-time activities. 

FW-P1366 $25.95 

P. Neill. Soft cover, photos, approx. 

170 pages. 978-1-57379-364-3 

From Message to 

Meaning: Using a 

Daily Message 

Board in the Preschool 


When teachers 

and children read 

the daily message 

board together 

at greeting time, 

they engage in a shared reading experience 

that leads to conversation 

and the exchange of ideas. The message 

board — whether a dry-erase 

board, easel pad, chalkboard, or similar 

surface — provides children with important 

information about the day ahead. 

As active participants in deciphering the 

information presented on the message 

board, children are more likely to remember 

it. This knowledge helps children 

to feel more secure in the classroom; 

as a result, they are able to act more independently 

and move more easily from 

one part of the day to the next. 

This book describes the benefits of 

using a daily message board at greeting 

time, guides teachers through the process 

of creating messages, and offers 

strategies for making the message board 

an engaging and interactive experience 

for children. 

This book also includes 

Strategies for incorporating a daily 

message board into your own early 

childhood program 

guidelines for “writing” messages 

Classroom examples with illustrations 

of actual messages 

Tips for follow-up activities 

FW-P1355 $19.95 

S. Gainsley. Soft cover, photos and 

illustrations. 978-1-57379-355-1 

Tasty Talk: 

40 Mealtime 

Conversation 

Starters 

You can 

make snack- 

and mealtimes 

important 

learning times for preschool children! 

Tasty Talk: 40 Mealtime Conversation 

Starters puts ideas for conversation and 

simple games at your fingertips so you 

can get children thinking, talking, reflecting, 

and sharing on a variety of 

subjects while enjoying a snack or meal. 

in addition to helping boost children’s 

literacy and social skills, these ideas 

can help children engage with other key 

curriculum content through playful talk 

with adults and other children. Attractive 

4" by 5" cards, printed on one side, come 

in a handy miniature lunch box. 

FW-P1357 $14.95 

B. Marshall. 43 4” x 5” 2-color cards 

in 43/4” x 51/2” metal lunch box. 

978-1-57379-356-8 



HigH/SCoPE CATALog: NEW PRoDUCTS 

Moving Past 

Praise: Supporting 

Children With 

Encouragement 

in this media 

program, you’ll learn 

why encouragement 

is more effective than 

praise in improving 

children’s selfworth 

and self-esteem. You will 

discover how to move from praising 

children to encouraging them using 

three easy-to-implement support 

strategies. in addition, you’ll observe 

real classroom examples of 

teachers using encouragement to 

support preschool children and hear 

tips on how you can incorporate 

these strategies into your teaching 

practices. 

Video: FW-P1360 $24.95 

Color, approx. 20 minutes, viewer 

guide included. 978-1-57379-359-5 

DVD: FW-P1361 $29.95 

978-1-57379-360-5 

The Indoor and 

Outdoor Learning 

Environment 

To support children’s 

active learning, 

adults in early childhood 

programs set up 

the learning environment 

to provide children 

with plentiful 

materials and choices about how to use 

them. This means designing the overall 

learning space with different interest 

areas and labeling and storage systems 

that provide children easy access to the 

items they wish to use in their play. 

This all-new media program includes 

examples from a variety of High/Scope 

settings showing how adults can foster 

children’s initiative and creativity 

through a supportive learning environment, 

both indoors and outdoors. 

Video: FW-P1358 $34.95 

Color, viewer guide included. 

978-1-57379-357-5 

DVD: FW-P1359 $39.95 

978-1-57379-358-2 

Storybook Talk: 

Conversations for 

Comprehension 

“Let’s read it 

again!” is a phrase 

that teachers and 

parents are likely 

to hear often when 

reading with preschoolers. 

Storybook 

Talk shows you how to make reading 

and rereading a beloved book enjoyable 

for both children and adults while 

improving children’s comprehension. 

The book gives guidance on storybook 

selection and analysis and offers 63 

strategies for inviting child talk during 

story reading that build children’s vocabulary 

as well as their ability to connect 

with stories, retell them, and predict 

what happens next. Research shows 

that when adults read interactively with 

children, the children build skills that 

motivate them to read and enable them 

to learn from reading. With Storybook 

Talk, you can help children experience 

reading as a source of both information 

and pleasure! 

FW-P1354 $19.95 

M. Hohmann & K. Adams. Soft cover, 

photos, 66 pages. 978-1-57379-353-7 

NEW from High/Scope — the ability 

to download valuable fact sheets and 

newsletters as PDF files that you may reproduce 

for 90-days. These new products 

are available exclusively in High/Scope’s 

online store at www.highscope.org. 

Here’s how it works: After you purchase 

the fact sheet(s) or newsletter(s) you will 

be e-mailed a link to download the PDF 

file directly to your computer. Each PDF 

file contains a license that gives you 

permission to reproduce this copyrighted 

material for 90-days. A convenient and 

economical way to share information on 

the High/Scope Curriculum! 

All About 


Fact Sheets 

The information 

contained 

in these 

10 fourpage 

fact 

sheets is 

ideal for 

informing 

parents, policymakers, 

administrators, and others about the 

key aspects of the High/Scope approach 

and can also be used for on-site teacher 

training. These PDF fact sheets are 

available in both black and white and 

color, so you can choose the format that 

best suits your needs. 

The 10 All About High/Scope fact 

sheets are written in clear, concise, 

easy-to-understand language and cover 

these topics: 

1. Educational Approach 

FW-D1001 978-1-57379-365-0 

2. High/Scope Foundation 

FW-D1002 978-1-57379-366-7 

3. Program Setting 

FW-D1003 978-1-57379-367-4 



HigH/SCoPE CATALog: NEW PRoDUCTS 

4. Active Learning 

FW-D1004 978-1-57379-368-1 

5. Adult-Child Interaction 

FW-D1005 978-1-57379-369-8 

6. Daily Routine 

FW-D1006 978-1-57379-370-4 

7. Plan-Do-Review 

FW-D1007 978-1-57379-371-1 

8. Preschool Key Developmental Indicators 

FW-D1008 978-1-57379-372-8 

(includes a special separate page listing 

the High/Scope KDis that can be 

posted on a wall for easy reference.) 

9. Resolving Conflicts 

FW-D1009 978-1-57379-373-5 

10. Child and Program Evaluation 

FW-D1010 978-1-57379-374-2 

$9.95/each 

includes one 90-day license for 

reproduction. 

You & Your 

Child Parent 

Newsletter 

Series 

Each of 

these practical 

and informative 

PDF newsletters 

addresses 

a specific 

topic of interest to parents 

and includes helpful support strategies 

they can use at home. The four-page 

newsletters are offered in both black and 

white and color, so you can choose the 

format that best suits your needs. 

For programs that want to add individual 

site information, each newsletter 

includes an attractively designed page 

so that sites can imprint news and notes 

about their program. 

Each You & Your Child newsletter 

contains photos, captions, and content 

that is easy to understand and read and 

that covers topics important to parents: 

Young Children and Reading 

FW-D1011 978-1-57379-385-8 

Young Children and Writing 

FW-D1012 978-1-57379-386-5 

Young Children and Mathematics 

FW-D1013 978-1-57379-387-2 

Young Children and Art 

FW-D1014 978-1-57379-388-9 

Young Children and Dramatic Play 

FW-D1015 978-1-57379-389-6 

Young Children and Music 

FW-D1016 978-1-57379-390-2 

Young Children and Movement 

FW-D1017 978-1-57379-391-9 

Young Children as Family Members 

FW-D1018 978-1-57379-392-6 

Young Children as Communicators 

FW-D1019 978-1-57379-393-3 

Young Children as Decision Makers 

FW-D1020 978-1-57379-394-0 

Young Children as Challengers 

FW-D1021 978-1-57379-395-7 

Young Children as Problem Solvers 

FW-D1022 978-1-57379-396-4 

$9.95/each 

includes one 90-day license for 

reproduction. 

To view our entire catalog, 

click here 

To Order: 

Order Online 

www.highscope.org 

Order Toll-Free 

1-800-40-PRESS 

Fax Toll-Free 

1-800-442-4FAX 

Or mail orders and/or payments to 


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INSPIRING EDUCATORS to INSPIRE CHILDREN 

Don’t forget 

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Resource - High/scope In The Elementary Classroom

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