“Children learn best from hands-on, play-based learning experiences that are interest and strengths-based,” says Stephanie Springer, Encompass Director of Curriculum, a new position that’s not only unique to Encompass but unique for child care centers. This role will focus on training and professional development for our educators, ensuring the highest quality throughout a child’s education at Encompass. This means providing tools, resources and coaching to follow best practices.
The educational curriculum that Encompass utilizes is called HighScope and is a national standard that originated out of the Perry Preschool Project conducted from 1962–1967. This project led to a longitudinal study as the Perry Preschool participants were followed throughout their lives. “The Perry Preschool Project established the lasting human and financial value of early childhood education and led to the establishment of the HighScope Education Research Foundation and one of the first early childhood programs in the United States intentionally designed to increase school success for preschool children living in poverty.” ( https://highscope.org/perry-preschool-project/)
This project, Stephanie says, showed that access to high-quality early education has a lifelong impact with some of the following outcomes:
• less likely to experience pregnancy before age 18.
• more likely to graduate high school.
• more likely to get and maintain employment.
• less likely to engage in activity that leads to imprisonment.
With this type of impact, it is easy to see why early childhood curriculum is a passion for Stephanie. Being from New York, her first position was with ABA therapy in an early intervention program, and that’s where she discovered her love for working with younger children. She graduated college with a Bachelor’s in English and a minor in Child Development, and then started working as a one’s teacher. As she continued to gain experience, she realized the importance of education and teaching. She saw each child’s mind as a puzzle, and she could work with them to help put pieces together to grow and build skills.
Stephanie moved to Wisconsin and started as a Child & Family Advocate at Encompass in July of 2022. In May of 2023, Stephanie completed her education, graduating with her Master’s in Early Childhood Education. In her Advocate position, she could see the impact of staff training and how a child’s behavior could be improved if educators had the right educational tools to respond. So, when she saw this new position as the Director of Curriculum open up, she didn’t hesitate. Stephanie says, “I get to spend my days doing what I love most.”
As the Encompass Director of Curriculum, Stephanie hopes to develop an internal system for training and educating teachers in the field of early childhood education who are passionate and need the tools to grow their skills as an educator. “Everyone can gain new information to continue growing with the science and research behind our practices,” Stephanie says. The first thing she’s tackling? “New hire orientation” she says, ” and ongoing education on best practices and and how to create and implement that within their classrooms across their first six months with Encompass.”
When curriculum is a focus in early childhood education, we see changes in children: they approach learning in an active and curious way. This build stamina for problem solving and improves their executive functioning skills. With the development of this new position focused on curriculum, Encompass continues to be the leader in early education and care across the northeastern Wisconsin region.
