Unique Curriculum Provides Students With A Stellar Education At Wellington Preparatory School By Deborah Welky
There are 500 students in the area getting a stellar education at Wellington Preparatory School, founded four years ago by Jeffrey Altschuler. Wellington Prep is located on the same campus that houses its sister preschool program that has been in existence for 15 years. Although the prep school is now teaching kindergarten through fourth grade only, it has been designed to grow with its students and will add fifth grade classes in the fall. New for the 2015-16 school year, there is also a one-on-one program for the high school grades that partners with the home schools of young equestrians while they train and compete in Wellington. Meanwhile, the preschool focuses on the development of chil-
dren ages 6 months to 5 years. “The entire school is accredited by AdvancED — formerly known as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools — and we’re very proud of that,” Altschuler said. “That’s the most prestigious accrediting body in the area. We’re accredited by the National Independent Private Schools Association, too. In addition, when our voluntary pre-kindergarten students are tested for kindergarten readiness, they score at the 97th percentile at both county and state levels, according to the Florida Department of Education.”
Part of this success is due to Altschuler’s approach to curriculum. Where other elementary schools reviewed and compared curricula offered by publishers, he sent a team of experts to universities that had done extensive research on the best way to teach elementaryschool children a variety of subjects. In the end, the Columbia University Reading and Writing Workshop was chosen based on test groups’ outstanding ability to comprehend the subjects; as was the University of Chicago’s Everyday Math, reflecting 30 years’ work by both the education and math colleges at UC and a curriculum that is continually refined. “That’s the core,” Altschuler said. “We also have a science curriculum, a wellington the magazine | june 2016
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