Child Development Center at MiraCosta College

The Child Development Center at MiraCosta College serves as a campus-based child development program providing both academic instruction to students enrolled in child development/early childhood education courses and childcare services to student, staff, and community families. Providing demonstration classrooms to the college community, our program offers a model of best practice in early childhood education while providing students learning opportunities through observation and on-floor interactions with young children and their families.

The Child Development Center is strongly committed to a play-based approach to early learning (as outlined within the Preschool Learning Foundations and the Preschool Curriculum Framework published by the California State Department of Education). The framework for our curriculum development incorporates careful attention to design of the environment (with a focus on interest centers), developmentally appropriate practices (DAP), purposeful planning, and accurate assessment of learning outcomes. Teachers use a variety of ways to observe and document the interests and abilities of each and every child in their charge, and develop curriculum that is responsive to individual child interests. Teachers assess children's learning using a variety of tools (including the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) designed to provide children with a seamless transition to kindergarten), incorporate this information in their planning for learning, and explicitly communicate the outcom es of such ongoing assessment with classroom families.

Elements of the Reggio Emilia approach to learning are incorporated within our program philosophy and these directly influence curriculum development and child assessment.