Program Description

Small Steps provides a quality early childhood education that prepares each child for elementary school while building a foundation for future learning.  Small Steps provides a high quality education, transportation, nutritional meals, supplies, and social and emotional therapy to approximately 102 of Houston’s economically at-risk inner-city children.  Small Steps offers our program five days a week, ten months each year, at no financial cost to the families it serves.  Parents participate in the program by fulfilling required volunteer hours.  Small Steps is funded solely by private donations.

Faculty

Research shows that the essential elements of a quality early childhood program include highly qualified teachers and small class sizes.  Small Steps recognizes the importance of these factors, and requires that the lead teacher in each classroom have at least a bachelor’s degree in an early childhood related field.  Additionally, thirty hours of professional development, directly pertaining to early childhood education, are required each year for all teachers and teacher assistants.  Furthermore, the school maintains a teacher:child ratio of approximately 1:7  This low ratio allows for increased teacher-child interactions and more opportunities for the children to grow socially and intellectually.  

Curriculum

Small Steps has adopted the project approach to learning – an approach used in Houston’s leading early childhood programs.  This method of learning gives children a greater mastery of language, reading and math skills.  Project style learning allows for the integration of the Center’s curriculum, which includes: The High/Scope Curriculum, Rice University’s Classroom Storytelling Project, Neuhaus Education Center’s Language and Literacy for Preschool and Reading Readiness, and University of Chicago’s Everyday Mathematics.  Language development is at the core of all learning activities and teachers promote science, math concepts, and critical thinking skills through problem solving, observations, sorting activities and investigations. 

Small Steps is organized ideally to provide individualized educational opportunities to our students.  Small Steps achieves this through individual educational plans (IEP) for students with specific needs, and by special training in areas of need.  Examples include an IEP with a death and dying curriculum developed for a student who had a terminally-ill parent.  This curriculum was used both for the student and for the student’s entire class.  The staff of Small Steps is also trained to to address the needs of students with incarcerated parents.

Social and Emotional Development

A nurturing, supportive, stimulating environment during young children’s development has a dramatic impact on their brain development, and will impact success in school as well as the rest of the children’s lives.  To this end, Small Steps has implemented a program, SET (Social Emotional Tools) for Life ®, to facilitate the creation of such an environment and employs mental health professional on site at both school campuses.  The SET for Life program is dedicated to helping each child realize his or her potential in terms of social, emotional, and cognitive development.  SET for Life includes evaluation tools and intervention steps and offers therapeutic support for Small Steps’ children and their families.

We also often serve as a support network in times of crisis and have dealt with issues including parental death, incarceration, domestic violence and job loss.  The presence of staff therapists gives us the capacity to provide support to our students in times of crisis.

Families

Close contact with families is an important element in successful early childhood programs for economically at-risk children.  Small Steps is intentional in creating opportunities to strengthen relationships with the students’ families through volunteer requirements, home visits, education programs, family referrals and career mentoring.

• Parents are required to volunteer a total of ten hours each school year.
• Families host teachers two times a year during home visits.
• Sixteen parents have completed Small Steps’ 10-hour substitute training program.  This qualifies them to work for early childhood education programs or for day care centers.
• Small Steps faculty and staff refer families to professional services and education/training programs as needs arise.
• Seven parents and two grandparents have been hired by Small Steps as permanent employees on the faculty and staff.

Collaboration

A large part of Small Steps’ success is due to the dedication to the unique needs of our students through collaborations with many Houston area organizations and churches.  In addition to the children’s cognitive, social and emotional needs, Small Steps addresses their medical and nutritional needs as well as exposes them to the arts.  Small Steps’ collaborative partners include: Texas Children’s Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital, MedCare Pediatrics, Houston Food Bank, The AD Players,  YMCA, Communities in Schools, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Grace Bible Church and St. John's Presbyterian Church.