Great Preschools: Safety and Leadership

Our final two Great Preschool Quality Factors can be found in the atmosphere of the school itself: safety and strong leadership. Use our examples and tables below to help you evaluate these two factors as you make your preschool decision.

Safe and Orderly Environment. Children are kept safe from harm by other people, facilities and equipment. Children are taught behavior skills and told how they are expected to behave in and out of the classroom. They learn behavior skills because consequences are clear, consistent, and fair for the age of the child.

Examples include:

• Discipline policies forbid corporal punishment, and these policies are followed.
• Behavior expectations are explained to parents.
• Teachers spend significant time explaining and reinforcing behavior expectations in the classrooms, firmly but calmly.
• Teachers teach behavior skills. They teach names for strong emotions that lead to disruptive behavior, the impact of behavior on others, and alternative ways to behave in "trigger" situations (toy sharing, child feeling hungry, etc).
• Children who harm others face immediate consequences.
• Children and staff follow clear hand-washing procedures - posters and pictures remind everyone what the rules are.
• The facilities appear in good repair; bathrooms are cleaned and toys sanitized often.
• Visitor policies are clear, mandatory and followed - doors are locked and monitored as appropriate for the preschool's setting.
• Rules for volunteer adults are clear and minimize abuse potential; adults who spend time alone with children are screened for past criminal records.

A Safe Environment and Your Preschool Search

Strong Instructional Leadership. The preschool director maintains clear, high expectations for teachers, recruits and keeps great teachers, organizes teachers to work together, monitors and improves teacher performance, and acts on high and low teacher performance (ridding school of low performers, recognizing and rewarding high performers).

Many preschool directors know generally what makes a good preschool classroom and teacher. But far fewer articulate standards of excellence - and then recruit, develop and hold staff accountable for these.

Examples include:

• Great teachers clamor to work at the preschool, and the best ones stay a long time.
• The preschool director can tell you of a time when she has let a staff member go due to performance problems.
• Teachers can tell you what the director expects of them, and they act proud of the high expectations of them.
• Teachers have regular time to share and discuss student problems and ideas for helping children's development.
• The director helps staff improve, rather than being "hands off" or defending staff weaknesses.
• The best teachers, not just the longest-tenured or best educated, are lead teachers.

Instructional Leadership and Your Preschool Search