Current Program Sites
Currently the Tools of the Mind program is being implemented in Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. There are currently 15,000 pre-k classrooms implementing Tools of the Mind program and 3,000 in the kindergarten program for a total of 18,000 classrooms. 32,250 children have been taught in a Tools of the Mind classroom prior to 2009-2010 school year.
The Tools of the Mind program has been used in both full- or half-day programs in Head Start programs, public schools, and childcare centers. Tools classrooms are found in a variety of school settings from high-poverty schools in urban or rural areas to suburban areas that serve primarily middle-class children
In order to provide a seamless transition to elementary school, the ideal experience for students (especially those that are considered “at risk”) is to attend both a Tools preschool and kindergarten program. Although the Tools kindergarten program provides a seamless transition for children who attended a Tools preschool program, those children who have not been in a Tools preschool program have adjusted to the program easily and excel with the rest of their peers.
The Tools of the Mind curriculum has been implemented in classrooms with large numbers of English language learners in a variety of programs -- bilingual, dual language, and immersion. Special Tools scaffolds and activities have been developed to meet the needs of these students. The focus on self-regulation and language development has helped these students to succeed in school.
While the Tools of the Mind curriculum is not specifically designed for children with special needs, it has been used in both inclusion and self-contained special education classrooms with great success. The implementation of the program involves modifying activities and materials and is designed based on teacher input and child-specific disability. Several districts implementing RtI (Response to Intervention—IDEA legislation approach to special education) have used Tools as the core curriculum because the scaffolding built into the program can accommodate many different types of learners at many levels at the same time. Tools is well suited to the delivery of interventions within classroom activities so that learning transfer is maximized after the special education staff are no longer present to provide special support. This unique integration allows the regular classroom activity to continue to support the child with special needs.
If you are interested in implementing the curriculum in your school or program please contact us.