The Sunshine School, the Marcus JCC of Atlanta's East Cobb Preschool, Receives Recognition from NAEYC, and Bright from the Start's "Quality Rated"
The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta's (MJCCA) award-winning East Cobb preschool, the Sunshine School, recently received prestigious recognition from agencies including: NAEYC, for completing its rigorous re-accreditation process; and Bright From the Start's “Quality Rated,” for participation in its early childhood quality improvement program. The Sunshine School was also selected as a model program to film lessons showing examples of implementing the GELDS (Georgia Early Learning Development Standards). The Sunshine School is located at Temple Kol Emeth, in Marietta. For more information or to schedule a tour, call 678.812.3720, or visit www.atlantajcc.org for information.
NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) Re-Accreditation
NAEYC is a professional organization which promotes excellence in early childhood education. NAEYC strives to raise the quality of education for all children from birth through age eight. Accreditation systems are major part of NAEYC's efforts to improve early childhood education; they allow programs to provide the best learning experiences for young children and their educators by meeting national standards of quality.
The Sunshine School has been accredited by NAEYC since 1992. The school recently successfully completed its renewal process, achieving a 5-year term of NAYCE accreditation (through May 2018). Out of the ten in-classroom areas that NAYCE assessed, the school scored close to 100%.
MJCCA CEO Gail Luxenberg explains, “NAEYC is the highest governing body of early childhood programming. Accreditation is a rigorous process that signifies excellence when awarded. I am pleased to say that the Sunshine School passed with flying colors.”
Bright From the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
Bright from the Start is an agency that administers the nationally recognized Georgia's Pre-K Program, licenses child care centers and home-based child care, administers federal nutrition programs, and manages voluntary quality enhancement programs. The Sunshine School preschool has been licensed by Bright From the Start of Georgia since 1989.
Since 2006, Georgia has used the GELS (Georgia Early Learning Standards), which the Sunshine School followed along with additional curriculum benchmarks and materials. This year, Bright From the Start is revising their standards in the form of GELDS (Georgia Early Learning Development Standards), which will align with the common core curriculum for kindergarten in Georgia. The Sunshine School will be using the new GELDS as the basis for their curriculum planning.
Quality Rated
Finally, The Sunshine School participated in a voluntary Bright From the Start program called Quality Rated, a systematic approach to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early and school age care and education programs. The Sunshine School had Quality Rated assessors come to the preschool to observe in classrooms. They subsequently received a highest quality rating of a 3 (only the fourth preschool in the state to rank a 3).
Sunshine School Director Raye Lynn Banks explains, “The Sunshine School was asked to be a filming site – one of only 9 in the state of Georgia – to be a model program exemplifying how to teach lessons, and show how GELDS can be implemented through classroom activities. These videos will be resources to appear on the Bright From the Start website so teachers can learn how to institute GELDS into the classroom. They wanted us to model lessons that people can learn from.”
Ms. Banks continues, “I felt like we had won the lottery. We were being filmed, we had received word of our NAYCE reaccreditation, and we had the Quality Rated visit, which we received the results of a short time later.
People would say, ‘I Googled Best Preschools in East Cobb and The Sunshine School would come up.' We feel so fortunate that we can continue to provide the best early childhood experience to the East Cobb community.”
Ms. Luxenberg said, “We are so proud of our wonderful East Cobb preschool. We know that the Sunshine School team worked hard in preparation for this process and we are so pleased with the results. Thank you to Kim Sucan, Raye Lynn, and all of the great staff for their help in this process. We know our parents are confident that their children are attending a school whose excellence is recognized by a national agency.”
About The Sunshine School
The Sunshine School, one of the Marcus JCC's two preschools, is located at Temple Kol Emeth, in Marietta. It has more than 60 years of expertise in early childhood learning; and a nationally-acclaimed, pluralistic, Jewish values curriculum, “An Ethical Start™”. The Sunshine School teachers are highly-trained, loving, and experienced professionals who guide children ages 6 weeks – 5 years through their exceptional program. Limited spaces for full- and half-day preschool camp, and traditional preschool, programs are available for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Contact Information
Call Raye Lynn Banks at 678.812.3714, or visit on-line at www.atlantajcc.org.
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