Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1103796
W e are the dinosaurs, march- ing, marching. We are the dinosaurs. Whaddya think of that?" The sound of 24 young learners sing- ing in unison fills preschool learning facilitator Liliana Mendoza's classroom at Washington Preschool in the small C entral Valley farming community of Lindsay. e room is bright, colorful, and filled with toys and puzzles and adven- ture. e students settle in for morning circle time, eager to start their day of fun and learning. While this is a typical scene in just about any early childhood educational environment, the preschool program at Lind say Unified S chool D i strict i s anything but run-of-the-mill. The rural school district offers free preschool at five locations to all students in the district, an endeavor LUSD began fully funding in 2017 after data showed a major difference between incoming kindergartners who had attended preschool and those who hadn't. While the state doesn't collect specific information, Lindsay's program s m a l l L e a r n e r s , GREAT POTENTIAL As California invests in early ed, Lindsay's universal preschool program stands tall By Julian Peeples Photos by Scott Buschman Lindsay Unified's universal preschool program gives little students a chance to "learn how to learn." 26 cta.org special report