About
A Legacy of Educational Transformation
From Segregated Roots to Modern Early Childhood Excellence
Turner Prekindergarten Academy traces its beginnings to 1952 as Turner High School, established for African American students during segregation. Named for Matilda Turner and led by Charles Leon Sheffield, the school opened following a 1950 bond to serve the community’s youth.
Following integration efforts in the late 1960s and transition to Turner Middle School, the site became fully integrated by 1972. Today, the campus is an early childhood center, offering free, full-day programs focused on language, math, and kindergarten readiness for qualifying students.
Turner, Where the Love of Learning Begins
Matilda Turner
Matilda Turner was born into slavery in Hancock County, Georgia, and maintained a relationship spanning several decades with the Getzendaner family, who later settled in Waxahachie. In September 1948, Willia Getzendaner-Skinner (1869–1954), the daughter of William Harrison Getzendaner and Willia Elizabeth Latimer, donated six-and-a-half acres of land on Getzendaner Road in memory of Matilda Turner.
At nearly 80 years of age, Skinner sought to honor Matilda, with whom she had formed a close bond during her childhood. Skinner described Matilda as displaying faithful devotion to her mother and family for nearly three-quarters of a century. The site was named “Matilda Turner Park” and designated “to be used for the benefit of the colored people of this community at the discretion of the Waxahachie School Board.”
In May 1952, Superintendent T.C. Wilemon announced that the newly established all-Black school would be named Turner High School. Matilda Turner is not listed in any Getzendaner or Skinner household records after the 1880 census, although other household employees are present, indicating that she likely passed away before 1900.
Child Centered Programs
Learning Environment
Turner Pre K programs reflect the belief that children are active learners and they build meaning and understanding through full participation in their learning environments. Our child-centered programs combine high expectations for each child with respect to individual development.
Teachers prepare the environment for children to learn through active exploration and interaction with other children and materials. Children are provided with hands-on learning activities with materials relevant to their own life experiences. The classrooms are arranged to facilitate flexible grouping and multitasking.
Students are given opportunities to participate in the library, music, art, PE classes, and STEM activities.
The early childhood environment is created for children to develop:
- responsibility for their own behavior;
- a sense of responsibility for completing assigned tasks;
- oral and written language skills;
- an understanding of mathematical concepts;
- self-confidence and self-worth through secure relationships and independence through meaningful learning experiences.
Curriculum and Instruction
In WISD, early childhood curriculum and instruction are based on the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Guidelines (state standards). The teachers in these classrooms implement:
- Frog Street, a comprehensive early childhood program that integrates all domains as required by state standards.
- Handwriting Without Tears (Get Set) curriculum to teach the mechanics of handwriting
- Handwriting Without Tears (Numbers and Math) curriculum to teach mathematics
- Conscious Discipline evidence-based discipline approach program that is built on the premise of developing the discipline within children rather than applying discipline to them. This program integrates classroom management with social-emotional learning.
- Ready Rosie-a video modeling & mobile technology program created to build partnerships between families and educators to promote school readiness. Using peer-to-peer modeling and two-way communication, parents are supported and empowered in their child's learning.
Assessments
The prekindergarten classroom teachers utilize the Circle Progress Monitoring System, a technology-driven tool that enables a teacher to assess a child’s progress in a particular skill area. The Head Start teacher administers the GOLD assessment. Both assessments enable educators to focus on and measure the knowledge skills, and behaviors most predictive of school success. Both tools assess areas such as:
- Social and emotional development
- Language and communication
- Emergent literacy reading
- Emergent literacy writing
- Mathematics
Teachers also use other strategies such as observations, report card testing, checklists, discussions, projects, and performance tasks to measure a student’s progress.