Carlyn Rahynes
Founding Principal
Learning Through Play Pre-K Center
Bronx, New York
As founding principal of Learning Through Play Pre-K Center, Carlyn Rahynes oversees the education and care of 304 3- and 4-year-olds. Part of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s initiative to provide free prekindergarten to all 4-year-old children in the city, Learning Through Play offers both inclusive and special education 3-K and pre-K classes to children living in New York, especially those in South Bronx. Its three centers were among the first standalone pre-K facilities in the city’s public school system and among the first sites to welcome 3-year-olds to New York City Public Schools. Through the city’s Department of Education, the program is now in the process of applying for NAEYC accreditation.
Carlyn’s role is the culmination of years spent as a teacher, instructional leader, education advisory board member, and even a presenter before the National Assembly of Quebec, Canada. Here, she reflects on lessons learned and the significance of NAEYC’s 100th anniversary.
You oversee 76 educators in your program, and you liaise with multiple principals who lead pre-K programs within New York City’s public schools. How do you describe your leadership style?
Distributive. Supportive. I also try to be transformative. For example, our city’s 23 prekindergarten principals report to the district superintendents of elementary schools. Sometimes during district meetings, we found that pre-K issues or instructional topics weren’t being specifically discussed. So I created a cohort where just pre-K principals can meet to talk about the early childhood issues we’re facing, such as curriculum, budgets, and how pre-K teachers are observed and supported. The goal is to strengthen teachers’ practices as well as the cohort’s leadership.
What do these meetings look like?
We present a problem of practice (teacher recruitment, assessments, creating professional development plans) and help each other come up with solutions. We recently looked at documentation: How are teachers documenting children’s learning and playing throughout the day? Some teachers volunteered to be videorecorded. We were able to look at these recordings and compare them to the documentation notes the teachers had made. We found that teachers tend to have more documentation in the content areas they feel most comfortable teaching. Identifying that, we were able to offer specific feedback, like “I noticed you had a lot of documentation in literacy and language; however, you only had one or two pieces of documentation in math and discovery.”
Was this a role you always aspired to?
I thought I would be a social worker. But one day in college, I was in the library and overheard two students talking about Hunter College’s former Training Tomorrow’s Teachers program. It sounded delightful. I joined and was put in a kindergarten program, where I fell in love with the children and the environment. After graduating, I taught second grade. Then my principal asked if I would be interested in becoming an early childhood staff developer. I became a coach and mentor, then an assistant principal in an elementary school, pre-K to grade 5. Then I became the founding principal of Learning to Play. I opened our school.
As a member of the Chancellor’s Principal Advisory Board, you were invited to present before the Quebec National Assembly in Canada. How did that opportunity arise?
Quebec’s minister of education came to visit our school in 2019. He invited my supervisor and me to speak to the National Assembly because he wanted to implement a prekindergarten-for-all program and was facing some opposition from home-based educators who were afraid children would leave their programs. We shared that in New York, family child care programs are part of our pre-K offerings. Families get to decide what setting they want for their children. The bill passed, and I was happy we were able to give our feedback. That was a highlight of my career.
You’re a fierce advocate for play-based learning. How do you communicate its importance?
Oftentimes, people think children in early learning settings are only playing. But they’re learning through play! We work hard to help families understand what we’re doing through workshops and other activities. We also share our practices with other educators. We’ve had teachers from all over the world visit us: Teachers from Korea; teachers, superintendents, and mayors from the Philippines. An executive for the curriculum we use also visited us to see the curriculum in action.
NAEYC is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. What does this milestone mean to you?
As an early childhood educator and school leader, NAEYC’s centennial is both a moment of reflection and a call to action. This anniversary means continuing to fight to ensure that young children are seen as capable learners and that early learning environments are grounded in developmentally appropriate practice, equity, and inclusion. NAEYC’s early learning standards, position statements, and emphasis on play-based, child-centered learning have shaped how I approach teaching and leadership.
You’ve been in the early childhood education field for several years, and you’ve served in a variety of roles. What are some of the challenges you see?
One of the biggest issues is funding. I’m very passionate about STEAM [science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics], but how can I get the necessary resources to the educators and children in our centers? The school system recently got a grant, but it was for K–12 only. My former supervisor advocated for pre-K and 3-K to be included in this initiative. We were able to purchase a wind tunnel for aerodynamics activities, and we also bought hydroponic gardens. The children now grow fruits and vegetables that are shared with our families.
We continue to hear about federal cuts. But these children are our future! How can we cut from our future?
Photographs: courtesy of Kiri Laurelle Davis
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