Frog Street Pre-K - Criterion 3.4
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Criterion 3.4: Implementation Support
Curriculum materials include tools and resources for understanding, executing, and monitoring program implementation.
Indicator 3.4a
Curriculum materials are educative, developing teacher understanding of program design and providing guidance for implementation support.
Frog Street Pre-K materials meet expectations for supporting teacher understanding and implementation (3.4a).
The materials provide a range of tools and resources to help teachers understand, implement, and monitor the program. The Welcome Guide (pp. 2 and 8) describes the curriculum as a dual-language, research-based program built on neuroscience, math, literacy, and language acquisition. It includes 36 weeks of instruction organized into nine thematic guides in English and Spanish, emphasizing developmentally appropriate, hands-on learning.
The materials provide a comprehensive set of supports grounded in a strong program design and research base. The Welcome Guide clearly articulates the theoretical foundation and alignment across key developmental domains. For example, literacy guidance (p. 49) emphasizes oral language, phonological awareness, and comprehension, with developmental progressions detailed in the appendix (p. 112). Mathematics instruction (p. 69) aligns with five research-based recommendations from the “What Works Clearinghouse” and is integrated throughout the daily schedule. Science instruction (pp. 74–79) promotes inquiry-based learning through hands-on exploration in life, earth, and physical sciences.
Instructional guidance and implementation supports are robust and highly structured, offering clear direction on what to teach, how to teach, and why it matters. Structured lesson plans and schedules provide a strong instructional backbone, while Teacher Guides embed strategies, scaffolding, and differentiation throughout, often highlighted in blue boxes (e.g., Welcome Guide, p. 59). Strategy cards and scripted lessons promote clarity and consistency in delivery. The integration of “Conscious Discipline” (pp. 39–48) supports social-emotional development through routines such as the greeting circle and closing circle. In addition, resources such as 7 Essential Skills for School Readiness and 8 Classroom Strategies to Optimize Pre-K Learning provide actionable guidance on transitions, behavior management, and authentic assessment practices.
The program also demonstrates flexibility in classroom structures, enabling educators to adapt implementation to their specific contexts. Practice Centers (Welcome Guide, pp. 18–19, 81–86) include weekly activity suggestions, midweek adaptations, and opportunities for informal assessment. Both full- and half-day schedule options are provided, and multiple anchor texts for read-alouds (Welcome Guide, pp. 62–63) support thematic integration. Color-coded supports for English learners, students with disabilities, social-emotional learning, and differentiation ensure accessibility for diverse learners. Lesson plans are intentionally designed to be adaptable, allowing teachers to adjust the pacing and instruction to meet students' needs. Professional development and ongoing support include curriculum implementation videos located in Lilypad.
Overall, Frog Street Pre-K materials provide a structured, research-based curriculum that supports teacher understanding and implementation. The program includes a theoretical foundation, along with instructional tools such as lesson plans, embedded scaffolding and differentiation, and social-emotional supports such as “Conscious Discipline”. Implementation videos available through Lilypad offer additional support for teachers. Together, the materials provide a system that supports educators in delivering developmentally appropriate instruction across domains.
Indicator 3.4b
Curriculum materials provide guidance to support and evaluate implementation fidelity.
Frog Street Pre-K materials partially meet expectations for providing guidance to support and evaluate fidelity (3.4b).
The materials provide clear structures and directions for daily instruction, including three sample schedules (full-day and half-day options), time frames, and detailed lesson directions for each activity (Theme 1, pp. 6–16). Scripted lessons, “Look-fors” and strategy cards support consistency in delivery and implementation, and embedded formative assessment opportunities guide teachers in collecting work samples and reviewing portfolios to inform instruction.
Materials include guidance and tools to support implementation and evaluation, including administrator observation resources such as the Administrator Classroom Observation for Curriculum Fidelity and accompanying User Guide. These tools include checklists for documenting implementation across areas such as instructional strategies, classroom environment, and social-emotional supports, with references to components like “Conscious Discipline”, literacy, math, science, STEAM, and differentiation (Welcome Guide, pp. 39–86).
Strategy cards are also available to support coaching conversations. Materials offer support to ensure fidelity of implementation through structured instructional guidance and observation tools, and include resources to support evaluation and reflection, with varying levels of detail and consistency. Guidance for evaluating implementation is more frequently directed toward administrators, while guidance for teacher-led reflection and ongoing improvement is included in some instances. The program could be strengthened by more clearly defined structures for ongoing reflection, evaluation, and continuous improvement within daily instructional practice.
Overall, Frog Street Pre-K materials provide structured guidance for daily instruction, including detailed lesson plans, schedules, and strategy supports that promote consistent implementation. Assessment and observation tools support instruction monitoring, with evaluation resources often directed toward administrators. The program could be strengthened by more clearly defined structures for ongoing teacher reflection, self-evaluation of implementation, and continuous improvement, and by consistently implementing those structures in instructional practice.
Indicator 3.4c
Curriculum materials integrate technology to support student learning.
Frog Street Pre-K materials incorporate digital tools to support student learning and engagement across instructional contexts. Key resources include Lilypad, a teacher-facing platform that provides access to lesson plans, instructional materials, and implementation supports, as well as a listening library with digital e-books, read-aloud stories, videos, and music-and-movement resources available in both English and Spanish. These tools support repeated exposure and language development while offering engaging, multimodal learning experiences. The Welcome Guide (pp. 19, 23, 35) also describes the use of technology within Practice Centers and STEAM activities, such as Frog-E coding, which supports early problem-solving and sequencing skills in developmentally appropriate ways.
Digital tools are also used to support family engagement. Through Lilypad, teachers can share weekly newsletters in up to 19 languages, including digital stories and home-based activities aligned with classroom themes. These resources support connections between home and school and provide families with accessible ways to engage with learning.
Overall, the digital tools provide opportunities to support learning through music, stories, coding, and family communication, offering additional resources that complement classroom instruction.