The RURAL Excellence initiative is a partnership among six preschool centers and two eligible local education agencies (LEA) located in rural central Missouri.

The vision for RURAL Excellence is to create preschool "Centers of Excellence" that support children's development of oral language and literacy skills, thinking and mathematical skills, and social skills so children experience a successful transition to kindergarten.

RURAL Excellence, under the auspices of First Chance for Children, will implement the Emerging Language and Literacy Curriculum (ELLC).

In 2002, ELLC was recommended by an American Speech Language Hearing Association committee to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, as one of the six potential model preschool language/literacy programs.

RURAL Excellence will serve over 170 preschool children, their parents, and educators.

Children, parents and teachers are part of the RURAL Excellence project. The RURAL Excellence curriculum, Emerging Language and Literacy Curriculum (ELLC), is based on story-book-themed units to involve children in language and literacy-rich activities.

Each child receives their own book to accompany each them -two books each month. Parents have opportunities to attend workshops, home visits, and frequent teacher conferences designed to involve them in enhancing their child's learning experiences.

Parents receive newsletters two times a month describing key concepts and other language and early literacy components of the classroom and ELLC plan.

Teachers are provided on-going training as well as childhood educators, to implement the curriculum. Classrooms receive additional instructional materials for implementation of the curriculum. In addition, each child's language and literacy development and progress is monitored to ensure success.