Families interested in enrolling a child at the A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning may send email to SFC_Enrollment@osu.edu or call 614-247-7488.
In June 2024, early childhood educator Meredith Schilling stood in front of a capacity-filled meeting room in a New Orleans convention hotel at this year’s National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Learning Institute to discuss how to deal with challenging behaviors in the preschool classroom.
In a presentation lasting more than an hour, Schilling urged the audience to understand what was behind a child’s disruptive actions and to interpret the behaviors through the lens of childhood trauma such as food insecurity or neighborhood violence. This deeper understanding by teachers should allow for better outcomes in helping the child modify and learn self-control over challenging behaviors.
For Schilling, a master teacher at the college's Schoenbaum Family Center, A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning, sharing her expertise by speaking at a national conference was not only part of her mission as an educator, but it also represents how the staff at the school translate into practice Ohio State’s world-class research in early childhood.
“It certainly supports the feeling of professionalism and excellence,” Schilling said about having the opportunity to showcase her knowledge at the institute. “It justifies for me that what I’m doing is making a difference.”
Schilling isn’t the only A. Sophie Rogers staff member who has recently shared her expertise at professional conferences. School Principal Anneliese Johnson and Assistant Principal Samantha Peterson discussed how the school boosted family engagement through robust and interactive programming in a presentation in Columbus at the 2024 ReadOhio Literacy Academy sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. It was the second year in a row that the school was asked to participate.
In April, Sarah Simpson, the school’s family engagement and literacy specialist, partnered in a presentation at the Public Library Association annual conference, which was also held in Columbus. The presentation offered strategies to make storytime for infants and toddlers more culturally responsive and to improve engagement with parents, caregivers and the community. Librarians in attendance from across the country were inspired to write blogposts about the presentation.
“As a Baby Time presenter myself, I was so energized by the ideas presented at this session,” wrote a librarian from Illinois. A librarian from Utah wrote that “the greatest outcome for me was finding joy in storytimes again.”
A. Sophie Rogers School staff also see their expertise appear in print. Family Education Specialist Dilshad Tolliver has written a chapter on how to support the emerging literacy skills of infants and toddlers for a book on developmentally appropriate educational practices to be published later this year by NAEYC. The chapter discusses techniques used in Tolliver’s classroom to engage 12-to-24-month-old children who are starting to explore handling literacy tools like paper, markers and brushes.
The school also recently fashioned a set of tests to measure a child's kindergarten readiness, a tool that can easily be adapted to many preschool settings. Known as the Kindergarten Screening Assessment (KSA), this tool has garnered interest from pre-K programs across the country. To learn more about the KSA, contact School Principal Anneliese Johnson.
The staff at the A. Sophie Rogers School combine their personal expertise with the latest research in early childhood. The school frequently participates in research projects developed by the college's Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, which shares offices with the school at its Weinland Park facility. The relationship between Crane and the school is two-way.
“We can give that practical feedback to researchers as a study develops,” Schilling said. For Schilling, partnering in research “allows my voice to be heard, and also allows me to be challenged myself.”
The national recognition received by staff at the A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning marks the institution as a center of excellence for pre-K education. Families interested in enrolling a child at the school may send email to SFC_Enrollment@osu.edu or call 614-247-7488.