Maple Bear USA Schools has grown to be one of the largest education brands for early childhood, globally.

While not initially planning to start an early childhood education franchise, the two founders shared a belief that quality Canadian education can bring positive change in the world by educating future leaders to be critical thinkers and instilling within them a strong sense of social responsibility and global citizenship.

Together, they incorporated into the Maple Bear curriculum the very best of Canadian practices, centered on the child and based on hands-on learning methodologies.

Rodney Briggs, one of Maple Bear’s founders, was a Canadian diplomat from 1981 to 1996, and joined the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada as the Vice-President responsible for the Canadian Education Centre Network project. In 1997, he became the first President of a newly-formed non-profit company, the Canadian Education Centre Network.

While with the CEC Network, Briggs conceived and developed the Maple Bear education system, and in March 2007 he became the owner of Maple Bear, purchasing it from the CEC Network. As President of Maple Bear Global Schools, he traveled extensively, expanding Maple Bear’s global footprint to over twenty countries and setting the stage for the creation of the early childhood development franchise that it is today.

Canada has long been committed to the education and sustained development of its youth, and as a result, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Canada’s education system is ranked among the best in the world.

With a nationwide commitment to excellence in education as a baseline, a team of highly specialized educators developed what the school now refers to as its three pillars, as it created the unique early childhood development franchise opportunity known today as Maple Bear.

Maple Bear Pillar 1 – the consistent and systematic application of the Canadian education methodology, which is hands-on learning. Instead, the methodology is play-based with the student at the center, encouraged to experiment, discover, and problem-solve.

Maple Bear Pillar 2 – the early childhood education program itself, which meets all standards set by local departments of education. The curriculum is developed by Canadian and local educators and is complete in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. It boasts clear learning objectives and all classroom resources link to the curriculum which relies heavily on the skill and dedication of the teaching staff.

Maple Bear Pillar 3 – the intensive training and support of the academic leadership and teachers. The Maple Bear faculty is a distinguished team of experienced educators who continually update the proprietary material to reflect the latest in research and Canadian best educational practices.

Another key aspect of the Maple Bear approach and one that makes Maple Bear stand out as an early childhood educational franchise opportunity is the school’s commitment to quality control. There are more than 200 faculty members that stay up-to-date on the research and improvements made to the Canadian education standards and implement them into the curriculum and materials that Maple Bear schools utilize throughout the global school system.

Each year, every Maple Bear School undergoes an inspection that ensures optimal performance. This inspection covers everything from safety equipment and building facilities to classroom performance.

Also, recognizing the importance of the family to the education process, Maple Bear is committed to daily communication between parents and program staff ensuring that the well-being of the child remains a priority, while placing heavy emphasis on the child’s emotional and social development which is critical to overall learning.

One common goal of many of the parents who choose Maple Bear for their children is the opportunity for their children to be exposed to learning a second language at a young age. Maple Bear, as it set out to build the school’s current early childhood education franchise model, decided early in its planning to offer language immersion.

As a result Maple Bear in the USA is unique in its approach to language, offering our Spanish immersion program to children two years of age and older at our Maple Bear Early Learning Centers.

How beneficial is learning through language immersion at an early age? Young learners have been shown to:

• Have better concentration, analytical skills and multitasking capabilities
• Learn to read sooner than monolingual students
• Have an increased sense of self-worth and identity
• Have the ability to live abroad and learn other foreign languages later in life
• Enjoy exposure to more than one culture which leads to a global perspective

Maple Bear stands out among other immersion and language programs and its system, structured so that young students learn language in a natural way, the same way in which they learned a first language, is proven in 30+ different countries.

While other early childhood education franchises only offer Spanish as a second language, Maple Bear can provide more language options that may be integrated depending on the local ethnic community’s needs.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 21.6% of people in the United States speak a language other than English at home. That’s 1 in every 5 adults. With about 3,000 dual-language programs nationwide, 10 times the number in 2001, recent research reveals that 58% of school districts across the US have plans to expand bilingual programs.

Clearly the time is right for Maple Bear, as an early childhood education franchise that is making a difference in the lives of youth and families around the world, to expand our proven education methodology within the United States.

It is no accident that the first three Maple Bear Early Learning Centers currently operating in the United States are located in Texas (Denton and Lewisville) and Arizona (Tempe), three additional schools are in the works this year with development already underway on the first.

With a fast growing population comprised of an ever-increasing number of bilingual speakers, the benefits of second-language immersion in this part of the United States is obvious and provide a huge opportunity for potential new owners in the process of learning how to open an early childhood education franchise.

There are numerous factors that make Maple Bear a great investment for those interested in an early childhood education franchise.

• According to PRNewsire, with a current value of $248 billion and a projected compound annual growth rate of 11.8% between 2022-2030, the Early Childhood Education Market is projected to reach $676 billion by 2030.
• You will be investing in a proven, scalable franchise business model in a recession-resistant business.
• While owning your own business, as the owner of a Maple Bear early childhood development franchise, you will be surrounded with subject matter experts and ongoing support to help you start and grow your business. From site selection and facility construction to marketing training and support and ongoing quality assurance assessments, as an owner you can rest assured that the highly-experienced team at Maple Bear team is there to guide and serve you.

For more information on how to open an early childhood development franchise with Maple Bear, contact us through our website.