Winning Beginning NY is a statewide coalition working to inform policy makers and the public about the many benefits of early care and learning including home visiting, child care and Pre-K. The coalition aims to build a broad-based constituency to make investment in quality early care and learning a top public priority in New York State.

For more info on WINNING BEGINNING NY visit their website at www.winningbeginningny.org

Click here to watch Video on What is QUALITYstarsNY?

Tutor Time, New City has been chosen to participate in two new learning projects. The first is called the QUALITYstarsNY Field Study. In this project we have become a study center to help create the Stars Rating Scale. NYS is creating this scale to award Child Care and Learning Centers a number of 1 – 5 Stars (similar to restaurant or hotels - see ratings criteria below). This program is sponsored by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (NYSOCFS) and funded by the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant.

Currently, we have completed Phase I and are beginning Phase II in which NYS is granting more training dollars for our center. We are being closely observed by Childcare Resourses of Rockland and receiving technical assistance.

The expectation of the designers of QUALITYstarsNY is that specific training, professional development, technical assistance and other supports for quality improvement will be available. These will include introductory trainings on the Environmental Rating Scale, curriculum, using child assessment, developing program budgets and other topics.

Because of this program our teachers have received valuable training hours specific to the needs of our center. We have been able to assess our lesson planning and use our assessment tools to better create an individual lesson plan for each child based on observations and anecdotal note taking. It has made a significant difference in meaningful lessons for our children and we hope you have noticed this yourself.

Quality Stars Program is continuing to offer our center more quality training specific to our needs. In the months of October and November we had workshops with technical assistance in the areas of Playground Curriculum Development and Toddler Behavior Expectations. Our staff was each given a minimum of 20 hours of training specific to our goals. This was all funded due to the fact that we have committed to participate in the study. We are so proud to be able to mold the quality of education for young learners in our state!

We have also received funding to purchase curriculum enhancements for our classrooms. We were able to purchase the Time to Sign sign language curriculum which we are using in Infants, Toddlers and Twaddler classrooms as well as grandparent dolls and books written in print and Braille.

Each of our preschool and Pre-K classrooms participated in a minimum of 25 hours of intensive in-service training and implementation. At the start of the program, each classroom was rated using the same rating scale used by Quality Stars. Every classroom scored well and provided a good foundation in literacy. At the end of the program each class was evaluated again and found to have scored at highest levels of the scale. We are so proud of all the teachers that took part in this and the hard, long hours they worked on that! Thank you Ms. Berta, Ms. Marie, Ms. Rachel, Ms. Kirsten, Ms. Nicole and Ms. Heather you have all enhanced our curriculum greatly!

The QUALITYstarsNY project is ongoing and we will be participants until the official Stars are awarded. We are very lucky to be part of this from the “ground up” and have a role in creating the system and criteria by which stars will be awarded to all programs in the state.

Points are totaled across all four categories. At least 5% of the total (5 points) must be earned in each category. Programs can achieve up to 100 points. The total number of points obtained determines how many stars the program has earned.

For more info on QUALITYstarsNY visit their website at www.qualitystarsny.org

We hope our participation in these projects is as important to you as they are to us and we truly hope the children reap the rewards!

QUALITYstarsNY is a project of the New York State Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC)

As you are aware, we have been working with Child Care Resources on a Literacy Program in our preschool and Pre-K classrooms. The program is funded by the United Way and EPIC (every person influences children). Each of these rooms participated in a minimum of 25 hours of intensive in-service training and implementation. At the start of the program, each classroom was rated using the same rating scale used by Quality Stars. Every classroom scored well and provided a good foundation in literacy. At the end of the program each class was evaluated again and found to have scored at highest levels of the scale. We are so proud of all the teachers that took part in this and the hard, long hours they worked on that! Thank you Ms. Berta, Ms. Marie, Ms. Rachel, Ms. Kirsten, Ms. Nicole and Ms. Heather you have all enhanced our curriculum greatly!