Jumpstart’s program is replicated across the country in 14 states and the District of Columbia. We leverage partnerships with higher education institutions, community organizations, Head Start programs, community-based preschools, and school districts to create sustainable solutions in order to make sure ALL children are prepared for kindergarten success.
Early Childhood Education Philosophy and Approach
As part of Jumpstart’s mission to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to succeed, members work to provide high-quality services to children through Jumpstart classroom service and planning. Jumpstart provides members with the training, coaching, and support to ensure that all of Jumpstart’s activities provide children with high-quality, developmentally appropriate experiences and supportive interactions with well-trained adults. Jumpstart programming supports the success of all children by:
- Embracing a culturally competent approach to curriculum implementation that values diversity and children’s unique strengths, language backgrounds, and cultures.
- Utilizing developmentally appropriate practice, including facilitating intentional powerful interaction and positive guidance strategies.
- Engaging children in playful learning experiences with an emphasis on valuing children’s emotions, voices, and perspectives.
- Holding all children to high expectations while striking a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning.
- Supporting children’s development of oral language and social-emotional skills in an inclusive environment where children feel safe, valued, respected, seen, and heard.
Focus on Oral Language
Jumpstart’s curriculum provides deep focus on key areas of oral language development, including specific attention to social emotional language skills. Select skills were identified based on recent literature demonstrating their importance to the population of preschool children Jumpstart serves.
Together, these key oral language skills are predictors and leading indicators of later school success, and are able to be implemented well within the Jumpstart program, given our low adult-to-child ratios and individualized interactions.
A Summer Vs. School Year
Curriculum has been developed to meet unique needs, including both a school-year model, where programming is implemented two-times per week in a Jumpstart session, and a summer model, where programming is spread out over the course of the week and more reflective of the needs of many summer programs. Programming also takes place through various partnership models, such as public and privately funded preschools, Head Start programs, extended day programs, and recreational summer programs
