Challenge
Before implementing Teaching Strategies, The Parish School’s early childhood program relied on a mix of themed lessons, books, online resources, and therapeutic materials.
Assessment was centered primarily on speech and language checklists, and each classroom had its own scope and sequence. While that approach reflected the school’s specialized mission, it made it harder to ensure continuity across classrooms and to provide a clear, shared instructional framework.
“Before Teaching Strategies, we really didn’t have a specific program. It was a hodgepodge of different things.”
Anne Brown, Head of Early Childhood
Anne Brown, MS, CCC-SLP, Head of Early Childhood at The Parish School, wanted a more systematic way to support and celebrate each child’s growth, especially since many students transition to more traditional schools after pre-K 4.
A more structured and comprehensive curriculum that was flexible enough to support the needs of the wide range of children in the program
Consistent benchmarks and integrated guidance to help educators see and support each child’s continuing development
A way to help families understand and celebrate their child’s learning progress over time
Solution
By adopting The Creative Curriculum and GOLD across toddler, preschool, and pre-K classrooms, The Parish School found a connected system for planning, instruction, assessment, and family communication.
The Creative Curriculum offered flexibility within a framework to help teachers individualize instruction while keeping the overall classroom experience aligned and intentional.
The GOLD assessment tool helped the team monitor progress throughout the year and from year to year, and offered teachers, administrators, and families a shared understanding of each child’s development.
With the curriculum and assessment designed to work together, teachers could use the planning features to create learning experiences that are developmentally appropriate and responsive to where each child is.
“The biggest thing for me as an administrator is being able to see the progress that students are making, and then not just the progress, but also helping us determine what we need to work on and where we need to go.”
Anne Brown, Head of Early Childhood
Results
More consistency across classrooms
With Teaching Strategies, The Parish School has a more consistent instructional foundation across classrooms and age levels. That consistency helps ensure children are receiving a more aligned experience year to year, while still allowing teachers to individualize based on each child’s developmental level and needs.
“It helps me ensure that each level looks and feels consistent from year to year, so students receive the same high-quality program experience, even though instruction is personalized to meet their unique needs.”
Stronger assessment and progress monitoring
GOLD gives the team a clearer view of children’s growth over time. Color bands, reports, and checkpoint data help teachers and administrators understand where each child is now and what comes next.
Because The Parish School uses GOLD three times per year for checkpoints, aligned with parent conference periods, that data not only supports more informed instruction, but also more meaningful conversations with families.
Better support for teachers at every experience level
Anne emphasized that teachers at The Parish School find The Creative Curriculum user-friendly and practical. That ease of use matters in a specialized setting where teachers bring strong therapeutic expertise, but still need a framework that makes planning and implementation manageable.
The curriculum provides guidance, structure, and support that help teachers stay focused on children rather than spending time piecing together materials from scratch.
“We’ve had teachers with 30-plus years of experience using The Creative Curriculum, and teachers who just got out of graduate school using it with the same efficacy.” said Anne.
Clearer communication with families
Families appreciate being able to understand where their child is developmentally through the color banded GOLD reports. For families whose children will transition to a traditional school setting after pre-K 4, that visibility gives them confidence that their child is working toward Texas standards and building the readiness they need for the next step.
“They enjoy seeing the color bands and the different reports and understanding, ‘This is where my child is. This is where they’ll go next.’” said Anne.
Support for accreditation and funding-related documentation
Anne also shared that curriculum and assessment data were especially helpful when the school went through accreditation tied to funding requirements. Having longitudinal data available made it easier to demonstrate quality and document progress.
“It was so helpful to have The Creative Curriculum, because all of the data was there.”
Moving from a hodgepodge of resources to a connected approach
For Anne, the value of Teaching Strategies is not just in the solutions themselves, but in how everything works together to support and amplify the individualized, whole-child experience The Parish School is known for.
By pairing The Creative Curriculum with GOLD, the school has been able to support diverse learners, strengthen instructional consistency, and give families a clearer picture of their child’s growth, making program quality visible in ways that matter to teachers, leaders, and families.
“Teaching Strategies has been wonderful for us. I do think it makes a huge impact for children, and the more people that can use it, the better.”
The Parish School
Houston, Texas
- Ages 2–6
- Private
- Focused on children with communication delays and learning differences
