Sarah Lawrence College

The Early Childhood Center

What is a Laboratory School?

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The Early Childhood Center (ECC) is one of the longest existing college laboratory schools in the United States, and is among the most influential historically. Founded in 1937 by developmental psychologist Lois Barclay Murphy with a grant from the Macy Foundation, the ECC has had  a strong impact on progressive education through the integration of developmental psychology, teacher education, and research. But what about the ECC makes it a laboratory school? 

Person showing children how to plant seeds. One child is holding soil, while others watch and join in the activity.

It is a living laboratory of child development.

  • Sarah Lawrence College undergraduate and graduate students serve as fieldwork assistants as participant observers in the ongoing life of the classroom.
  • Fieldwork students may carry out observational or interview studies on various aspects of child development. These projects are developed with their course teachers, approved by the ECC director, and presented to the children as part of their daily activities.
  • Fieldwork student project activities might involve: play; drawing; talking about what it means to be a friend; or memory, perception or language tasks. Activities are always developmentally appropriate and fit directly into the daily work in the classroom.
  • Fieldwork student presence means a high adult-to-child ratio, which helps the lead teachers provide an enriched physical and social environment for the children’s exploratory learning activities.

It is a setting for research.

  • The Early Childhood Center was founded to study the normal development of children.
  • Currently, a longitudinal research study—perhaps the first of its kind to include teachers, college students, and children in the research—is being conducted to study and re-design the play yards in both ECC buildings. Bringing together the constituents of the Early Childhood Center, the Child Development Institute, and the graduate programs in Art of Teaching and Child Development to design and implement this type of participatory action research project exemplifies the Children, Childhood, and Education Collaborative’s (long and unique history of working together across disciplines to promote what is best for children.
    • The goal of the project is to design outdoor spaces that match the magic of the ECC classrooms; spaces that inspire imagination, discovery, and facilitate opportunities for children to create their own play experiences and learning.

It is a model of educational practice.

  • The Early Childhood Center is a fieldwork site for Sarah Lawrence students in undergraduate psychology classes, graduate students in the Art of Teaching, Child Development, and Dance/Movement Therapy master’s programs, as well as students studying Early Childhood Education at Westchester Community College.
    Many professionals also visit throughout the year to observe the school ‘s implementation of a progressive early childhood educational philosophy.

Attending a lab school is an enriching experience for children in many ways, including the fact that they get to know a range of students of different ages, interests, and backgrounds—making it a living laboratory for the children’s ongoing “research” in the world!