Countdown to Kindergarten

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PRESENTED BY Jackie Brock Educational Service
District 112 Doreen Turpen Fort Vancouver
Regional Library District
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Defining the field of early learning
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How does your district currently support early
learning?
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The Achievement Gap

• Starts as a preparation gap
• 56 of incoming kindergarten students lack
  requisite skills necessary for success
• This gap is greater for non-native English
  speakers
• The gap grows over time

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What is School Readiness?

• A childs readiness to enter school
• The schools readiness for children
• Identified family and community resources and
  supports to contribute to readiness of children

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High Cost of Doing Nothing

• For every 50 children still having trouble
  learning to read, 44 of them will still have
  trouble in the 3rd grade
• Children without reading skills by 3rd grade are
  unlikely to graduate
• The state of Indiana determines the number of
  prison beds it will need base on the reading
  scores of 2nd graders

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The Challenge

• The best way to develop a well-educated and
  well-trained workforce for the future is to start
  early because even the best schools cannot
  produce the best workers if children are coming
  to school ready to fail.
• --Former N.C. Governor James B. Hunt Jr.

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Shifts in Thinking Strategically

• Old way of thinking

New way of thinking

• Add-on luxury
• Separate, unconnected phases
• Preschool for special needs children and full
  day kindergarten programs
• Legally mandated services only
• Children ready for school
• Schools can do it alone

• Key strategy for closing the gap
• Two stages in continuum of learning
• Services for children and families birth through
  the third grade
• Services help all young children especially
  those at-risk
• Children ready for school AND schools ready for
  children
• Schools cant do it alone partnerships are
  critical

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Aligning Birth to Five and K 12 Systems

• Too often, government officials design programs
  for children as if they lived their lives in
  silos, as if each stage of a childs life were
  independent of the other, unconnected to what
  came before or what lies ahead.
• --James Heckman (2007)

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Role of ECE Coalition

• SELF membership
• Unified vision strategies
• Reaching children home and neighborhoods
• Intersections with k-12 education
• Leveraged resources
• Reach children where they are

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Clark County ECE Coalition

• SELF membership
• Unified vision strategies
• Reaching children home and neighborhoods
• Intersections with K-12 education
• Leveraged resources

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Countdown to Kindergarten

• One communitys approach to the school readiness
  framework developed by the National Education
  Goals Panel

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Program Values and Philosophy

• Neighborhood based service delivery
• Parent involvement
• Strengths-based approach
• Universal access
• Building relationships and trust
• Partnerships are key

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Program Components

• Site-Based Kindergarten Transition Teams
• Read and Play Story Times
• Discovery Kits
• Home Visits
• School Events
• Developmental Screenings
• Outreach
• Cross System Professional Development

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Investing Wisely

• Return on investment is greatest in early years
• The League of Education Voters estimates
  districts will save approximately 3,000 per
  student per year for each child who enters
  kindergarten ready to learn.
• The Foundation for Child Development has found
  that schools that connect high-quality pre-school
  programs with high quality kindergarten, first,
  second and third grades have produced strong
  student performance

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Summary

• Early learning has many meanings
• Community partnership models exist
• You dont have to do it all

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Parents report increased awareness of school
expectations

• My son started kindergarten here and was so
  ready he walked right in and didnt look back.
  My 3 ½ daughter now comes on her own and opens up
  much faster to songs and people. They both own
  this school now and feel so much more confident
  in themselves!
• --Parent of children participating in the
  program

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Additional Resources

• http//www.del.wa.gov/parents-family/
• http//www.k12.wa.us/EarlyLearning/default.aspx
• http//web.naesp.org/misc/ECLC_ExecSum.pdf
• http//www.k12.wa.us/EarlyLearning/pubdocs/WhatisS
  choolReadiness.pdf

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Would you like more information?

• Jackie Brock Early Learning
• School Readiness Specialist
• ESD 112
• 360.750.7500 x370
• jackie.brock_at_esd112.org
• Doreen Turpin Special Projects Director
• Fort Vancouver Regional Library
• 360.699.8859
• dturpen_at_fvrl.org