A conversation with Dr. Samantha March

When it launched in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, the STL Pre-K Cooperative had a goal of expanding access to high-quality pre-K in some of the city’s most under-resourced areas. It started with seven early childhood education providers and 120 students. Now, four years later, the cooperative has 1,000 students—and no plans of slowing down. This year, it wants 85 percent of those kids to leave the program kindergarten-ready, and though it operates only in the city right now, it has its eye on the county. Samantha March, the associate partner for early learning at The Opportunity Trust, is the former director of early childhood education for Saint Louis Public Schools. At the cooperative, she is responsible for the early childhood educators’ professional development, and she helps them navigate the accreditation process.

MY HEAD IS SPINNING JUST FROM TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE FORMULA FOR FUNDING PRE-K. THIS ALL SEEMS LIKE REALLY COMPLICATED WORK. I tell folks this job is not hard because this is heart work. A lot of people in this field want to help kids. They want to give kids the best—I’ve never come across an administrator who did not want the best for children. That’s what makes this work incredibly collaborative and so much easier. The co-op is trying to instructionally get everybody in the same boat, rowing toward the same destination.

DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL IN ST. LOUIS? I have a unique background because I am a desegregation student. I live in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood; however, I attended school in the Clayton school district, K–12. I’ve had a wonderful education experience, and I know what education excellence is through my own experience. What drew me to child care was being a teen mom, having left St. Louis to go to Dillard University in New Orleans and then coming back to St. Louis to have my child. Everything was unknown and uncertain when I came back, but the one thing that was always stable for me was child care. It was a place that I could take my child, and every day he felt safe. I felt safe there, too.

YOU’RE HELPING CHILD CARE PROVIDERS AND CENTERS GO THROUGH THE MISSOURI ACCREDITATION PROCESS RIGHT NOW. WHAT DOES THAT PROCESS LOOK LIKE? We have over 10 providers going through the Missouri accreditation process so that they can make sure that their child care center is of quality. They have to have their classrooms set up in a certain fashion. They have to have print-rich classrooms. A print-rich classroom is not only providing books but when you walk into a classroom, it should have the students’ artwork there. They should have different postings that are at eye level for the children. All of them have to have a sensory center with a water-play table.

“LEARNING THROUGH PLAYING” IS ONE OF THOSE PHRASES THAT’S EVERYWHERE NOW, BUT WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IN A CLASSROOM SETTING? Making Play-Doh in the classroom is a learning activity in itself—the measuring and science that goes along with that. You’re placing solids with liquids making the Play-Doh. And then after that, you can pair it with a student who is maybe 4 years old and learning the first letter in their name. So take my name: “Samantha.” The teacher has given me maybe three different letter blocks, S, T, and B. I identify the letter S and then place that stamper in the Play-Doh, so I’m also getting fine motor skills. You’re taking fun activities and pairing them with learning objectives.

“SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT” IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE PHRASES. HOW DO YOU MAKE THAT CONNECTION WITH A CHILD? It’s about the child learning about themselves, about their big feelings. What does it mean to be happy? What does it mean to be sad? Being able to articulate that for themselves. Part of their social-emotional development is connecting with other people, regardless if it’s a teacher-to-student connection or a student-to-student connection. One thing that we have to be aware of in the early childhood realm is the separation anxiety—children leaving their parents at the beginning of the day. I was at a child care center, and a child came in, and they were crying and didn’t want to leave Mom. Another child came over, patted them on the back, and said, “It’s going to be OK.” They were able to coach them. For me, on the outside looking in, that shows the strength of the social-emotional learning, because the student was able to model what a teacher had done for them. I pointed that out to the teacher. She said, “You wouldn’t believe it, but that was him a year ago. He was the one crying, and now he’s helping somebody else.”