Advanced PreK

The Las Cruces Public Schools Advanced Pre-K classroom is designed to serve students who do not meet the age requirements to start kindergarten and exhibit characteristics of advanced learning, as measured by screenings.  The program is a collaboration between New Mexico State University (NMSU) and Las Cruces Public School (LCPS) and serves as a lab school for NMSU early childhood programs. Six slots in the program are reserved for children of NMSU students and staff.

The foundation of the Pre-K for Advanced Learners classroom is rooted in the seminal work of Dr. Lev Vygotsky. At the core of Vygotsky’s theory is the idea that child development is the result of interactions between children and their social environment. These interactions involve people—parents and teachers, playmates and schoolmates, brothers and sisters. They also involve cultural artifacts, such as books or toys, as well as culturally specific practices in which a child engages in the classroom, at home, or on the playground. Children are active partners in all of these interactions, constructing knowledge, skills, and attitudes, not just mirroring the world around them.