When Early Ed Meets Elementary Ed

 

In the early 1990s, Congress and President Clinton articulated the nation’s first educational goal: that all children would enter first grade “ready to learn” by the year 2000. That goal unmet, President Bush and Congress set the bar higher: all children will read and use mathematics at or above grade level by 2014.  

 

Both goals require one thing: that prekindergarten and elementary schools work together, preparing the child for the work ahead. Such continuity and coordination is tough, say educators, especially when families move around, experience economic distress and lack access to preschool programs. But there are hallmarks of good, integrated educational systems. Here are some things to consider:

 

How is research on early learning being translated in schools?

In a system with a 25-year history of providing universal pre-K, Washington, D.C elementary school principal Sheena Tuckson has seen the educational trends come and go. What does your system expect from early learning? If the answer is not much, Tuckson says, pre-K and kindergarten may end up as a “dumping ground” for teachers who aren’t successful in higher grades, where the stakes are seen as higher.

If a child hasn't mastered pre-reading skills, there's trouble ahead, says Oregonian education reporter Bill Graves. “You learn to read in the first three grades,” Graves told the fellows, “and read to learn after that.” (Graves also wrote about pre-K programs in a recent article for the Foundation for Child Development.)

 

What do the principals think?

Beyond their preoccupation with the primary set, elementary school principals may have another reason not to concern themselves with what happens in prekindergarten: they typically don’t have training in early childhood ed. But some have become converts, particularly after realizing that full-day kindergarten might not be enough to level the playing field for school-readiness.

 

“I can remember begging, ‘if you’d let me have them in all day kindergarten, the (achievement) problems would be solved,’” said Carol Miller of Louisville’s McFerran Elementary School. Now she believes age 5 isn't early enough. "The earlier you address (their educational needs), the more it saves us in students dropping out of school.”

 

For more, check out the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)’s report, “Leading Early Childhood Learning Communities: What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do.”

 

What does a good early pre-K program look like?

            According to Vincent Ferrandino and other panelists, there are several hallmarks of a             quality early childhood education program. Consider:

 

1. Supportive interaction between teachers and children. In addition to cognitive skills, children should receive supported instruction in areas of social competence, in the creative arts and emotional development.
2. Safe and engaging learning environments with plenty of room for play. Play areas should not just be mini-academic environments.
3. Whether the children can pursue activities that interest them.
4. Student assessments. How are children evaluated or tested? Does testing align with program activities? What are the “stakes” and how are those communicated to the child?
5. Trends in whether pre-K “graduates” are being identified as special needs students, or whether they show up in programs such as Reading Recovery. Compare them to students who didn't receive early education.
6. Connections to families and organizations in the community to help reinforce learning at home.
7. Effective administration and adequate staffing. Does the school operate well? What is the rate of staff turnover? Are they college graduates or certified?
8. Program location and integration. Many prekindergarten programs are not housed in schools and may be run by outside agencies instead of the school system. How are program administrators communicating and working together?

 

What role do parents play?

Especially when the prekindergarten or school schedule poses some challenge to parent and child, keeping a family enrolled or involved can be a problem, principals say. But research shows that parent engagement in school and learning is a key indicator of student success, particularly for black and Latino families.

 

Carol Miller, principal at McFerran Elementary School in Louisville, described the challenge in balancing school and work for one family in her school. To get to her workplace on time, a single mother must wake her daughter at 4:30 a.m. and have her in child care by 5. Four hours later, the girl must be ready to start the school day. “The girl comes in and is miserable; she’s already tired,” Miller said. After school, the child returns to child care until 6 p.m. According to this principal, “This is just what poor people are having to do to survive.”

 

Miller discovered the situation when teachers began complaining about the girl’s disruptive behavior in class. The discipline problems evaporated when the girl was given time to sleep at school before the 9 a.m. bell. Miller and other principals said that getting to know families, and finding ways to support them, is critical to helping children be successful and parents to feel positive about the school.

 

One reason why struggling parents don't communicate with schools is because they never felt successful as students, said Christine Frude, a principal in Casper, Wyoming. Her solution? Following the Head Start model, she requires that parents volunteer a few hours a month in the school. As a result, she sees parents who feel valued and become more engaged with their children's education. In some cases, Frude has even found part-time jobs for parents as playground supervisors.

 

Is it better to have a low quality pre-K program, or none at all? And who will pay for it?

“One of the dangers of underfunded programs is that (students) may not show actual gains” and legislators lose confidence in pre-K’s potential, said Chris Drape, principal of a Seattle charter school, New School @ South Shore.

 

That’s one reason to start small, said Drape and other educators.

 

Here’s another. Even if integrating pre-K and elementary systems makes good educational sense, it doesn’t happen without resources. Successful schools often have motivated principals who patch together government, foundation and even private funding sources to support the range of services that keep families involved in schools. The risk of the piecemeal approach, said Vincent Ferrandino, executive director of NAESP, is that once that leader retires or leaves, everything can fall apart.

 

“When you look at the price tag for implementing (universal pre-K) it’s overwhelming,” said Ferrandino. “That stops political leaders; they’re worried about funding existing programs.” National estimates for offering universal pre-K are up to $78 million a year, a price tag similar to the cost of offering prescription drug benefits to seniors.

 

Louisville's Carol Miller wants policymakers to recognize that holding back on early learning programs levies other costs, especially for the poor.

 

“Education is their ticket out of poverty. We’re spending more and more on prisons. Most of those people in prison were unsuccessful in school and didn’t have the skills to do something later in life,” Miller said.

 

“Pay for it early or pay (more) for it later.”