A bilingual preschool in South Minneapolis
Built for families who want more.
Four-Star Parent Aware Rating
English and Spanish, side by side
Infants through Pre-K
Part of Urban Ventures
Your child's first classroom should be as big as the world they are growing into.
Cornwell Early Learning Center is a dual-language early childhood center for infants through pre-K.
What Bilingual Really Means
Two languages.
One classroom.
A different kind of mind.
Children who grow up with two languages learn something early that most of us learn later, if we learn it at all: the same idea can be held in two different ways.
That is not a soft skill. Bilingual children practice managing their attention, switching between tasks, and filtering out noise every time they move between languages. By kindergarten, they have been training their brains to do something most adults still find hard.
At Cornwell, English and Spanish hold equal weight. The child who speaks Spanish at home hears it from their teachers, sees it on the walls, and watches their classmates learn it. The child who speaks English at home gains a second language the way children learn languages best: by living inside it.
Every student is both a teacher and a learner of language. That is how a dual-language classroom is supposed to work.
What Four Stars Means
Minnesota's highest early learning rating. Here is what it actually means.
Parent Aware is Minnesota's voluntary quality rating system for early childhood programs. Centers that participate go beyond basic licensing requirements through extra training, coaching, and professional development.
The four-star rating is the highest level.
Earning it means documented, research-based classroom practices. It means staff credentials above what the state requires. It means on-site observation of how teachers interact with children, scored across emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional quality. The rating is valid for two years. Then you earn it again.
Cornwell holds a four-star rating. Your child's development is tracked, shared with you, and used to shape what happens in the classroom. You can trust your child is getting the best available early education.
About Cornwell Center
A place your child will know by heart.
Cornwell is small on purpose. Classrooms are sized so teachers know your child as a person. Routines are consistent because young children build confidence through what they can predict. Relationships come first. Everything else is built on top of them.
We care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The teachers are experienced and the pace is set by how children actually learn.
At Cornwell, the field trips come to the students! Our campus includes an urban farm where children learn where food comes from. The music director comes to the classroom for music time. The athletics director leads movement and exercise. Lake Street Works, a construction trades program, runs a building module with the kids. These are not special events, it’s just how things are here.
Cornwell is a part of Urban Ventures, a South Minneapolis organization that has been in this neighborhood for more than 30 years. Your child grows up inside a community, not just a classroom.
Our commitment to access.
Great early childhood education should not require a spreadsheet to figure out.
Tuition details are part of the tour conversation. We walk every family through the finances, answer your questions, and make sure you understand your options before you make a decision. We are familiar with CCAP, scholarship programs, and other ways families pay for care, and we help you figure out what applies to you.
Start with a tour. We sort out the rest together.
Come See It
You’ll know when you walk in, you’ve found your place.
A website can tell you what Cornwell is. A tour shows you what it feels like. Tours are about 30 minutes. You will see classrooms, meet teachers, and get a real sense of whether this is the right fit for your family.
Community Empowered
Cornwell Early Learning Center is a program of Urban Ventures, a community development organization in South Minneapolis since 1993.