Kids doing artWe employ a core teaching staff of child development and early childhood education professionals. This includes Masters-level ECL Director and Program Coordinators and Bachelors- or Masters-level Lead Teachers. They are experienced, nurturing, and adept at working with college students, partnering with parents, and approaching each child as an individual learner deserving of respect.

The ECL staff engages in ongoing professional development, both on site and through participation in professional conferences and opportunities to contribute to the early childhood field through our own presentations, collaborations and publications. 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 demonstrate in our work with children.

Reading book with kidsIn addition to the Lead 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 Lead 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 throughout the academic term, while being available to the whole group as needed. They are closely supervised and coached in their work, and always have a professional staff 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 7 - 15 mos. old 10 1 to 2
Toddler Room 1.5 - 2+ yrs. old 12 1 to 3
AM Red Room 2.5 - 3.5 yrs. old 14 1 to 4
AM Green Room 3.5 - 5 yrs. old 18 1 to 4
PM Red Room 3.5 - 4.5 yrs. old 14 1 to 4
PM Green Room 4 - 5 yrs. old 16 1 to 4
Kid learning outside