Colorado Shines rates Colorado’s early learning programs, connects families with quality programs, and helps programs improve their quality level. It’s free for programs, professionals and families to use.

We have just received our Colorado Shines rating, after an October evaluation, and we are a Level 4 rated program.  This rating shows our commitment to supporting children’s health and safety, ensuring our staff are well-trained and effective, providing a supportive learning environment, and helping families be active in their children’s learning.  The rating is one way our staff demonstrate their dedication to offering high quality preschool to the children of Firestone, Frederick, and Dacono, which currently serves 325 preschoolers in 15 classrooms, with 32 sessions of preschool. 

Our program is licensed and in good standing, plus our school has successfully engaged in the following continuous improvement processes during this process, which we began in 2015:

• A Quality Improvement Plan is in place and updated 
• Conducted the Level 2 Quality Indicator Program Assessment
• Completed Colorado Shines Level 2 E-learning Courses with 98% of teaching staff
• Registered 100% of teaching staff in the Colorado Shines Professional Development and Information System
• 8 of 15 classes were randomly evaluated by an independent rater using the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale during the month of October, scoring an average of 5.48 (out of 7)      
• Been assessed and rated a Level 4 by a Colorado Shines Quality Ratings Assessor based on:

     o Workforce qualifications

     o Family partnerships

     o Administration

     o Learning environment

     o Child health

Growing research shows that the early years are essential to child development. In fact, neuroscientists have shown that the first five years – in particular the first three – have the greatest potential for setting a strong foundation for lifelong learning and health. During that time, children’s brains are developing at rapid rates with 700-1,000 new neural connections being formed every second. This makes it important for families to connect with quality child care programs and preschools like Spark! Discovery Preschool, which support child development and kindergarten readiness.

Visit www.ColoradoShines.com for more information