Tomorrow's Promise regains four-star rating
Dec. 11—After three years, Tomorrow's Promise The Montessori School of Huntsville has regained its Texas Rising Star ranking with the highest possible rating by the State of Texas for quality child care.
The Montessori school has been a Texas Rising Star school nearly since 2000, holding a four-star ranking that it maintained until losing its TRS status in 2018, due to the actions of a teacher that has since left the school. Tomorrow's Promise was reevaluated the next year and regained its two-star raking, however, due to the pandemic, it has not been able to redeem its four-star status until recently.
"We're very excited to have the four-star rating back," said Kaye Boehning, Tomorrow's Promise director.
To be a Texas Rising Star school, learning institutions are required to complete certain requirements and undergo rigorous assessments to determine their stance in the program. Over a two-day period, assessors observed the school's 13 classrooms for about an hour each, invisibly monitoring the teacher's conversations with the children and their interactions. Schools were judged in four different categories — director and staffing qualifications and training, program administration, indoor and outdoor environments and teacher-child interactions, which account for 40% of their score.
Director of curriculum Shelbi Myers spearheaded the project, preparing the required paperwork and the school's educators for the classroom assessments that ensured they were meeting the TRS standards.
"It was more of a team effort because without the teachers, it wouldn't have been possible, because it was the teacher interactions that were 40% of our overall score, so it's actually them, they're amazing, they were on their game, they had everything that they needed, they met all of the requirements," Myers said, noting that the majority of their classes met the three-star score.
With a second campus in the works, Boehning added that the school has doubled its enrollment and teachers since January and is nearly at capacity.
"It's a testament as to the teachers and people that work here that we can grow that rapidly and serve that many new children and still get this status," Boehning said.
It's a great feat for the school, as TRS schools receive funding opportunities for teachers to continue their education and provide the best possible care for their students.
"There's opportunities to get your Child Development Associate Credential, start college courses for those who have not finished for financial reasons, we get grants, scholarships, and so forth to continue that professional development for the teachers," Myers said. "I think that's one of my favorite things about Texas Rising Star."
Nine of their teachers are either currently in the process of finishing their CDA or have already completed the credential due to their placement in the TRS system.
Myers is one of those teachers in the CDA program, who was afforded the opportunity to earn her Montessori credentials, director's credential and take college courses, which she notes that she wouldn't have been able to accomplish without the financial help of the school.
"It's a win-win for everybody that's enrolled here that we have those opportunities to give to our teachers," Boehning said.
Now that the school is a Texas Rising Star school again, Myers is hoping to continue Tomorrow's Promise's growth and retain its students for a little longer.
"I think our biggest competition is public school, because who can compete with free, but my biggest goal for this year is to keep students for their kindergarten year and hopefully with parents seeing that we are a TRS program, they'll feel more comfortable keeping them here," Myers said.
