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The Center for Child and Family Studies

Photo of teacher reading with two toddlers

Staffing, Grouping and Adult/Child Ratios

We employ a professional staff of people who are well educated in the areas of child development and early childhood education. They are mature, warm and nurturing, adept at applying their knowledge in the classroom, and respectful of each child as an individual. Our staff values working as a team with parents, colleagues, college students, and community members.

The CCFS Research Director is a Ph.D. developmental psychologist; and the ECL Director, as well as the three age group Program Coordinators, have all earned M.A. or M.S. degrees in early childhood education or child development. The Head Teacher in each classroom has earned a B.A. or B.S. in one of these fields.

Continuing education is an ongoing element of our work, and occurs in the form of weekly inservice training sessions and participation in periodic professional conferences and other educational opportunities. An important component of our mission as a lab school is to learn about and help to develop new research and evidence-based practices that we can then employ in our work with children.

In addition to the Head Teacher and Coordinator, each classroom is staffed by undergraduate students currently enrolled in the Human Development course, Communication and Interaction with Young Children. They are upper division students who are putting into practice what they have learned about young children during the course of their studies. They are in a lecture course that bridges theory and research with practice, and also participate in a weekly discussion section led by the Program Coordinator and Head Teacher of the children in their classroom program. Each of the students is assigned a "care group," (infants and toddlers) or "target group," (preschoolers) of children to observe and interact with closely, while being available to the whole group as needed. They are closely supervised and coached in their work, and always have a professional member present when they are interacting with children. They often become so enthusiastic about their work that they return for subsequent terms.

Children at the ECL are grouped according to age, both for their own benefit and so that students and observational researchers can observe early development at a particular stage. We have a total of six classes of children grouped as follows:

Class Age Range (in Oct) Group Size Adult/Child Ratio
Infant Room 6 - 14 mos. old 10 1 to 2
Toddler Room 15 - 27 mos. old 12 1 to 3
AM Red Room 2.5 - 3.5 yrs. old 14 1 to 4
AM Green Room 3 - 4.5 yrs. old 16 1 to 4
PM Red Room 3 - 4.5 yrs. old 14 1 to 4
PM Green Room prekindergarten year 16 1 to 4