Pioneer Tech Children’s Lab receives top accreditation

PONCA CITY — The Pioneer Technology Center Children’s Lab is now one of 53 childhood programs in Oklahoma to earn accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children program. This honor signifies high standards of early childhood education for the Children’s Lab.       

NAEYC has worked for 90 years to raise the quality of programs for all children from birth through age eight. A major part of the association’s efforts is to improve early childhood education through different systems of accreditation for programs that are committed to meeting national standards of quality.

There are 10 program standards and the framework of the standards and criteria focus on best practices in the field and the benefits to stakeholders in early childhood education. There are four groups of early childhood education stakeholders: children, teachers, family and community partners, and the program administration.

Each of the 10 standards falls under a category according to the early childhood education stakeholder. The majority of the standards focus on children–the most important stakeholders. The remainder of the ten standards focus on other stakeholders and the programmatic structure they build to support quality.

The PTC Children’s Lab is a school within a school and it is open to everyone in the community. Their curriculum is implemented based on Oklahoma’s State Department of Education Standards and Early Learning Guidelines, the regulations of the Department of Human Services (DHS), NAEYC standards and Oklahoma’s Quality Rating and Improvement scale system.  The facility boasts a 5-Star childcare center. 

Children’s Lab Coordinator, Lora Walton said, “We are so excited to receive this accreditation once again.  This marks our 25th year of being an accredited program through NAEYC.”

The PTC Children’s Lab uses the biannual assessments to guide curriculum that is not only enriching but also engaging. They follow the Oklahoma Early Learning Guidelines which are standard for curriculum mandated by the Oklahoma State Board of Education. Regular hours for the lab are 7:30 a.m. until 4:30p.m. Monday through Friday.  The center follows the Pioneer Tech calendar and is closed when classes are not in session and are open all summer.    For more information visit www.pioneertech.edu or call 718-4268.