A REPORT FROM THE DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS TASK FORCE ON EARLY EDUCATION AND SCHOOL READINESS

The work of the Task Force was generously supported bythe Piton Foundationthe Donnell-Kay Foundation and Making Connections (Annie E Casey Foundation)

Ready for Kindergarten

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From the very beginning children are learning about the world. They are also learning about what learning is about. So everything that is going on is a learning experience.

— Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, Dean, Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University

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Denver Public Schools Task Force on Early Education and School Readiness

TASK FORCE CO-CHAIRSBruce Hoyt DPS Board of Education/St. Charles Capital

Helen Thorpe Education Activist and Freelance Journalist

TASK FORCE MEMBERSGeorge Brantley Hope Center

Cecilia Broder Mile High United Way

Dr. Jeff Brown Denver Health Pediatrics

Valin Brown Colorado Bright Beginnings

Cheryl Caldwell DPS Early Education

Antonio Esquibel Rocky Mountain SER Head Start

Kathryn Hammerbeck Colorado Child Care Association

Anna Jo Haynes Mile High Montessori Early Learning

Robert Hill Hill & Robbins, P.C.

Sue Kempton Harrington Elementary School

Jennifer Landrum Colorado Children’s Campaign

Tony Lewis Donnell-Kay Foundation

Hatton Littman JVA Consulting

Monique Lovato Xcel Energy

Brian Mandell-Rice Hein & Associates LLP

Susan Moore SLHS Center Language and Learning

Maria del Mar Munoz-Visoso Hispanic Ministry Centro San Juan Diego

Cec Ortiz Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development

Emma Perron Perron’s Daycare

Adele Phelan Clayton Foundation

Rosemary Rodriguez City Council District #3

Lisa Roy Piton Foundation

Joann Trujillo-Hays Academia Ana Marie Sandoval

Doug Wright Faegre & Benson

TASK FORCE STAFFCarol Chazdon

Charlene Hill

Cover Photo: This young girl is about to walk into Fairview Elementary School. Has she been prepared to succeed? Is this school ready to help her reach her fullest potential?

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Children who are exposed to books early in their development possess greater literacy skills later on. At Clayton Family Futures, an early childhood education center, infants are encouraged to play with books.

7 Executive Summary

11 Introduction

17 Critical Background

25 Recommendations

25 Recommendations for a Ready Child

27 Recommendations for a Ready Family

28 Recommendations for a Ready Community

31 Recommendations for a Ready School

33 General Recommendations

33 Conclusion

35 Selected Research Sources

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Table of Contents

In today’s world, where education and skill levels determine future earnings, the economic and social costs to individuals, communities, and the nation of not taking action on early childhood education are far too great to ignore, especially when the benefits far outweigh the costs.

— The Business Roundtable, May 2003

Executive Summary

The Case for Early Childhood EducationIn order to be successful, the effort to close the achievement gap between better and poorer performing students must begin before kindergarten. Studies clearly show that the achievement gap is apparent long before children reach the age of five. Some children arrive in kindergarten without the ability to socialize with their peers, without any practice holding a pencil, and without knowing half the words of others their age. These children seldom catch up. That’s the bad news.

What’s the good news? Broad research has proven that quality early childhood education (ECE) programs with strong parent involvement and education can largely eliminate this pre-kindergarten gap.

Disadvantaged children who have had the benefit of quality ECE attend school more frequently, are less likely to need special education services, score better on achievement tests, and graduate from high school at higher rates than their peers who failed to attend such a program.

As compelling as quality ECE is from an educational standpoint, the economic impact of ECE is equally enticing. Analysts at the Federal Reserve and economists who have studied the financial impact of ECE have concluded that a $1 investment in ECE results in anywhere between $4 and $12 of public tax savings down the road – a result of lower demand for social services, reduced crime rates, and greater tax payments by the higher wage earning ECE recipients.

Denver is experiencing a large boom in the number of births of children who are at risk of failure due primarily to socio-economic and language barriers. More than fifty percent of Denver’s public school students are Latino, and twenty percent are from homes where English is not the primary language. At the kindergarten level, however, the number of children from homes where English is not the primary language is twice as high. It is imperative that we act now to bring the benefits of quality ECE to as many of these young children as possible, if they are going to be prepared to succeed.

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The Task Force on School ReadinessThe Denver Public Schools (“DPS”) Task Force on School Readiness is comprised of early childhood education providers, foundation executives, education experts and business and community leaders who have spent the last ten months studying ways in which DPS can best implement and promote quality ECE in its schools and the com-munity at large. The task force adopted the following core mission statement:

Denver Public Schools adopts as a critical mission to enhance the school readiness of all Denver’s children through the aggressive support, promotion and implementation of proven high quality early childhood education programs.

Recognizing the major role ECE can play in helping DPS fulfill its mission of setting high expecta-tions, improving the performance of all students and closing the gap between the better and poorer performing students, the task force has issued a set of recommendations to improve school readi-ness levels in Denver.

Summary of RecommendationsThe most widely accepted definitions of school readiness talk about a Ready Child, a Ready Family, a Ready Community, and Ready Schools - the idea being that all of these players must work in concert to create the right environment for a child to succeed. We talk about this concept more in the School Readiness section. We then group our recommendations, which are summarized below, into four main categories: Ready Child, Ready Family, Ready Community, and Ready School. A more comprehensive listing of these recommendations, as well as the next steps that we suggest in order to implement them, is included in the Recommendations section of this report.

— RECOMMENDATIONS TO DPS FOR A READY CHILD 1. Establish and aggressively promote what it means for children to be ready for school to parents, other ECE providers, and the community at large. 2. Adopt a validated instrument to assess child outcomes in a developmentally appropriate manner. 3. Utilize the adopted assessment tool to establish clearly defined goals for children.

— RECOMMENDATIONS TO DPS FOR A READY FAMILY 1. Reach out to Denver parents of children birth through five with the intent of supporting and educating parents in getting their children ready for school. Key components of parent education activities shall be language development and early literacy. 2. Begin building parent involvement and trust with the schools well before children enter kindergarten.

— RECOMMENDATIONS TO DPS FOR A READY COMMUNITY 1. Work with the DPS/City of Denver Joint Council on Early Care and Education to expand the number of ECE providers who are participating in quality improvement programs such as the Qualistar rating system or accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 2. Increase collaboration with community organizations providing support to parents of at-risk children

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from birth through age five. 3. Increase collaboration with early education providers in child care centers, preschools, and family child care homes. 4. Work with families, caregivers and other ECE providers to promote a seamless transition for children and families as they move from an ECE setting into the public education system.

5. Raise awareness of the importance of ECE and increase resources for ECE services.

— RECOMMENDATIONS TO DPS FOR A READY SCHOOL1. Make sure that DPS leaders, particularly principals, know the value and prioritize the importance of ECE. 2. Ensure quality in ECE programs by reducing class size and student/teacher ratios.3. Make all-day kindergarten available to all children whose families want it. 4. Include high quality instruction in ECE classes to support language and literacy learning, both for children who are learning in English and for children who are learning in another primary language.5. Assure that Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers have appropriate credentials and receive high-quality, annual professional development specific to the particular needs of Pre-K and Kindergarten children based on best practices.6. Use a validated assessment tool to improve instruction in the classroom.

— GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS:1. Develop a work plan by January of 2006 that spells out how the district intends to implement these recommendations. The work plan should include a detailed budget.2. Conduct a regular review of the progress toward attaining the goals set forth by the School Readiness Task Force.

ConclusionUrban school districts around the country have realized that to improve achievement for all students, they must change their focus from a K-12 model to a P-16 model. DPS has already taken many steps in this direction, adding full-day kindergarten classes to most schools and using dollars from the most recent mill levy election to increase the number and quality of ECE classrooms. The recommendations contained in this report are designed to move DPS further along the continuum of best practices in early childhood education. Implementation of high quality ECE programs, parent education programs, and other efforts to reach children from birth through five will have as profound an impact on student achievement as any of the K-12 reforms currently being implemented by the district. The long-term returns make ECE one of the best investments a community can make, as well as one of the most effective ways to close the achievement gap. When all of Denver’s children are ready for success as they enter school, the district will finally be able to realize its dreams of lowering drop-out rates, raising test scores, and sending more students to college.

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A DPS teacher engages a preschooler in conversation about a book they are reading. Dialogic reading (when an adult asks a child questions while they read) is one of the most important ways to stimulate development.

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Introduction

In the fall of 2004, The Board of Education established the DPS Task Force on Early Education and School Readiness and charged that it recommend effective policies and partnerships that will guide DPS in its efforts to promote school readiness. It is the purpose of this report to present the recommendations of the task force and to establish a plan of action and a long-term vision of a bright future for all of Denver’s children. As the task force worked to formulate recommendations to increase school readiness, the group examined the extensive research on early learning and how to prepare children for school.

For several decades, researchers have been studying the effects of high-quality early childhood education on children and families. Today, there is strong evidence that children’s interactions and experiences in the first few years of life, beginning even before birth, have a lasting and profound impact on their social, emotional, intellectual, and language development throughout their school years and into adulthood.

Extensive research into the brain development of young children tells us that the years from birth to five are critical. In other words, by the time many young children enter school, the question of whether they will succeed or fail in the classroom has already been determined. Most children who live in poverty do not receive the preparation needed to enter school with the same skills as their classmates, and therefore operate at a disadvantage from the moment they first enroll in Kindergarten. The achievement gap, which emerges publicly for the first time on standardized tests in the third grade, is merely the documentation of a phenomenon that begins years before.

DPS believes that it is imperative to close the achievement gap, something that will only be possible when all children enter school ready to succeed. Unfortunately, the school district is far from realizing this dream today. According to a recent survey, at least one of every three children in the state enters school not ready to learn (Colorado Children’s Campaign, National Association of Elementary School Principals).

Extensive research shows that quality early childhood education – whether that is provided at home or in achild-care setting - greatly improves a child’s readiness for school and has a significant positive impact on later life. For those who are not familiar with this research, highlights of the major findings are included in the “What We Know” section, and a complete bibliography is attached in the appendix of this report.

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What We Know…• Children are born learning and this learning begins even before birth. Children are active learners and the more involved they are in their own learning, the better they learn. — Mind in the Making, Families and Work Institute

• The years from birth to three are critical ones. A large degree of brain development occurs during this time, and early experiences clearly affect this development. — Zero to Three

• Early and frequent exposure and experience with language through parent talk are critical to children’s early language learning experience. What parents say and do with their children in the first three years of language learning has an enormous impact on how much language their children learn and use. — Meaningful Differences in Everyday Experiences of Young Children

• Home support for literacy—as measured by quantity of books owned, frequency of reading, and variety of reading activities—is predictive of children’s early literacy skills. — Beginning Literacy with Language

• High quality home visitation programs can be one of the most effective ways to reach parents of at-risk children, if the programs are well-funded, coordinate their services with others, and are part of a system that offers multiple services. — Deanna S. Gomby

• High quality early care and education demands a high quality learning environment that includes small class sizes, low teacher-pupil ratios, and teachers with training in early childhood education. — Magnuson & Waldfogel

12Small student-to-teacher ratios are the single greatest predictor of quality in education. Optimum ratios for toddlers are four children to one adult.

• Full-day Kindergarten programs have no detrimental effects on children who attend, and students show significantly stronger academic gains over the course of the Kindergarten year than their counterparts in half-day programs. — Debra J.Ackerman, W. Steven Barnett and Kenneth B. Robin, Making the Most of Kindergarten: Present Trends and Future Issues in the Provision of Full-Day Programs

• Social, emotional, and intellectual learning are completely interconnected. “Children learn through their important relationships (social learning); they learn when they feel good and are engaged and motivated in what they are learning (emotional learning); and they learn when they are making sense of their world (intellectual learning).” — Mind in the Making, Families and Work Institute.

• For every $1 invested in high-quality early education for at-risk children, between $4 and $12 are saved later in costs for special education services, health care, incarceration, and social services. — Perry Preschool Project, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

• Two years of full-day, full-year high-quality early childhood education such as Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten has been shown to significantly close the achievement gap between better and poorer performing students. — U.S. Department of Education, Early Reading First program

• Children whose first language is not English enjoy even greater benefits from full-day, full-year high-quality early childhood education than do their peers. — Northwest Regional Education Laboratory

13These families are participating in the Early Excellence program, which promotes parent involvement in education beginning when children are young.

Poverty is the single greatest factor in determining which children lack preparation. In urban school districts, poor children also tend to be of color, meaning that communities of color are disproportionately affected.

– Ron Haskins and Cecelia Rouse, 2005

Abecedarian ProjectThis renowned North Carolina study followed the program vs. no-program group into adulthood. Those children receiving the high quality early childhood education attained significantly higher education and health outcomes than did their no-program peer group.

Perry Preschool ProgramAs the longest running study of the impact of quality early childhood education, the Perry Preschool Program demonstrates the significant positive effects of quality ECE on children in poverty. The cohorts have been studied through age 40, with the program group having attained higher education levels, higher employment rates and wage levels, lower incidents of criminal behavior and better indicators of healthy lifestyles and stable family relationships. The economic benefit to society is currently estimated at $12.90 return per dollar invested.

PERRY PRESCHOOL EDUCATIONAL EFFECTS

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Parents are their children’s first teachers. This mother holds a book that was given to her by Padres Como Maestros (Parents as Teachers), a program that fosters good parenting skills.

Critical Background

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National Perspective The federal government first recognized the importance of early childhood education in 1965, when it began the Head Start program. Head Start is the largest and best-known program for preschool-aged children in the country. It provides comprehensive services to children aged three to five whose families are living below the federal poverty level.

Recognizing the critical importance of the first three years of life to a child’s development, the federal government decided to expand its services to pregnant mothers and children from birth to three in 1995, when it began Early Head Start.

More recently, the federal government has increased its focus on literacy through the implementation of a new program called Early Reading First, which is part of the No Child Left Behind initiative. Begun in 2002, Early Reading First tries to prepare young children to enter Kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive and early reading skills to ensure school success.

State PerspectiveCurrently, 45 states and the District of Columbia allocate funding for preschool programs. Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, California and Oklahoma have emerged as the national leaders in implementing preschool programs and policies.

Colorado has been active in early childhood education since the 1970’s and has the following legislation:

• The Colorado Preschool Project, first signed into law in 1988, provides statewide funding for approximately 12,000 four year-olds who lack overall learning readiness due to family risk factors, who are in need of language development or who are receiving aid as neglected or dependent children. • The Community Consolidated Child Care Pilots were established in 1997 to reduce bureaucracy and ensure collaboration among public and private stakeholders. These pilots were charged with streamlining services to children and families and allowed participants to request waivers of laws, rules and regulations to make that possible. • Established by legislation in 2000, the Colorado Early Childhood Professional Credential program promotes staff development in early childhood care and education.

In addition, Colorado has established an Early Childhood State Systems Team to create a statewide strategic plan for a comprehensive early childhood system, integrating services in ECE, health and mental health, family support and parent education.

Local PerspectiveA demographic study of Denver indicates that there will be a significant increase in the number of Denver children under the age of five over the next several years. Current estimates predict that the population of four-year-olds in Denver is expected to balloon from approximately 10,000 today to more than 12,000 by 2008. Almost half of these children are from low income families (at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline), placing them at risk for failure in school. Increasing the capacity and quality of the city’s ECE is an urgent challenge for both DPS and Denver.

Investing in Early Childhood Education is a priority shared by both the City of Denver and DPS. Currently, the City of Denver has several early childhood initiatives designed to promote, support, and implement quality preschool programs.

Former Mayor Federico Pena established the Office of Child Care Initiatives (OCCI) to help expand and improve the available child care in the city, and established the Mayor’s Child Care Advisory Committee. The DPS School Board and former Mayor Wellington Webb then established the DPS/City Joint Council on Early Childhood Care and Education. Through a series of five-year plans, the Joint Council has developed goals and strategies for Denver’s early childhood education providers. Former Mayor Webb also created the Mayor’s Office of Education and Children, which now includes the OCCI, Denver’s Great Kids Head Start agency, and the Mayor’s Commission on Youth.

In 2003, Mayor John Hickenlooper launched the early childhood initiative known as Invest in Success to fulfill the vision that every child in Denver will have access to quality early childhood care and education. The Mayor’s Early Childhood Education Commission was established that same year to serve as an advisory board concerning early childhood education for children birth-8 years old.

District PerspectiveDuring the 2005-2006 school year, it is projected that DPS will serve 3,617 preschool-aged children in its early education programs. Availability of funds limits the number of children served. Denver has thousands of poor children who are not receiving ECE from DPS or any other provider.

During the 2005-2006 school year, it is projected that DPS will serve 6,500 kindergarten-age children. Approximately 40% of DPS kindergarteners are English Language Learners, and this number is steadily increasing.

Greater numbers of children of poverty, children with special needs, and children whose primary language is not English will be entering DPS over the next several years. Unless DPS and the community improve access to quality ECE, more and more children will enter school unprepared.

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All of the District’s early education teachers are licensed in early childhood education. In recent years, DPS has participated in several progressive early education initiatives. Denver’s Early Childhood Education Standards is a comprehensive set of developmentally appropriate standards for instructional practices in the areas of Literacy (oral language development, pre-writ-ing, and pre-reading), Mathematics, Science, and Motor skill development. Project I.D. identifies children receiving early care and education services in publicly funded non-DPS sites (e.g. Head Start, private-for-profit and private-non-profit child care centers) and assigns each child a DPS student identification number that remains with the child throughout enrollment in grades K-12. Approximately 550 children were assigned identification numbers during the 2003-2004 academic year through Project I.D. Early Standards Assessment of Readiness Test (ESTART) provides early childhood teachers with a tool for determining the school readiness of preschool-age children.

DPS is on the verge of being able to discuss the readiness of children entering its schools based on quantifiable data, as the district has now amassed several years worth of information that shows how prepared children are when they enter kindergarten. The preliminary data confirm that an achievement gap does exist before kindergarten. The fact that DPS can quantify and discuss the achievement gap is good news, as we believe that this is the first step towards being able to do something about eliminating this gap.

Pre-tests are administered to all children entering DPS Kindergarten classes. One of the strongest predictors of school success is the number of letters children know as they enter school. The charts above demonstrate the dramatic gulf in levels of readiness between higher-income children and lower-income children. Among lower-income children, a further gap exists between English speakers and Spanish speakers, with Spanish-speaking low-income children being the least prepared of all. As mentioned earlier, this is the fastest growing demographic in DPS.

Work of the Task ForceThe DPS Task Force on Early Education and School Readiness met monthly from November 2004 to July 2005. The group also worked in subcommittees that focused on best practices, language and literacy, parent involvement and community engage-ment. The task force adopted the following vision and mission for early childhood education in Denver.

Vision StatementDenver is a community where all young children enter school ready to succeed.

Mission StatementBecause we recognize the significant impact of quality early childhood education on later success in school and in life, DPS adopts as a critical mission to enhance the school readiness of all Denver’s children. DPS will accomplish this mission through the aggressive support, promotion and implementation of proven high quality early childhood education programs, particularly those that are targeted to serve at-risk children from birth through age five, as well as their families.

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LOWERCASE LETTER RECOGNITION FALL UPPERCASE LETTER RECOGNITION FALL

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Higher Income Spanish SpeakersLower Income Spanish Speakers

Higher Income English SpeakersLower Income English Speakers

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Through simple activities like blowing bubbles, children develop fine motor skills.

1. Physical well-being and motor development refers to a child’s overall health, growth and physical abilities such as: • gross motor skills - those used for running and jumping on the playground • fine motor skills - holding a pencil, cutting with scissors or fastening a button • physical strength and coordination • good nutrition and health care, i.e., being current on all immunizations and well-child check-ups; oral health such as regular dental check-ups, and mental health

2. Social and emotional development refers to children’s ability to interact well with others and communicate feelings in an appropriate way and includes their ability to: • form and sustain relationships with parents, teachers and peers • take turns and cooperate • follow directions • understand the emotions and respect the rights of others • interpret and express one’s own feelings • calm oneself, regulate emotions and impulses • display attention span for learning • ability to participate in a group and engage in classroom tasks

3. Cognitive development and general knowledge concerns children’s ability to understand the world around them and includes: • knowledge of characteristics of objects such as color, shape, texture, and size • knowledge derived from seeing how objects, events or people are the same or different and how they are related to one another • awareness of one’s surroundings and the roles of different people in one’s family and in one’s community • recognition and understanding of basic mathematical concepts such as patterns, shapes and numbers • ability to retain information; memory • ability to place items in a certain order • ability to understand stories

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What is “School Readiness”?School readiness is defined as the dynamic interplay between children’s overall achievement of developmental milestones and their ability to display a specific set of skills that have been found to increase the likelihood of school success. This section defines school readiness within the broad context of ready child, ready family, ready community and ready school.

A ready child involves competency in five key domains that are linked together. These five domains are described in more detail in the sidebar at right and are:

1. Physical well-being and motor development 2. Social and emotional development 3. Cognitive development and general knowledge 4. Approaches to Learning 5. Language Development Children’s rates of individual development vary widely.

Children grow and develop within the context of their families, communities and schools, each of which has its own set of indicators that measure how ready they are to support children and families. A comprehensive defini-tion of school readiness takes into account the impor-tance of all three of these domains in addition to the readiness of the child.

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4. Approaches to learning is a term used for how children acquire new skills, knowledge and capabilities and includes their developing joy in learning. Major signs of good approaches to learning include: • openness to and curiosity about new tasks and challenges • paying attention to and maintaining interest in an activity • thinking about things in a way that demonstrates interpretation • using interpretations gleaned in one setting in a new learning experience • using imagination and inventing new things • proposing new things to do or new ways to do them

5. Language development refers to verbal skills and pre-literacy skills. Major signs of strong language development are: • ability to speak and understand one’s primary language (a strong vocabulary at the Kindergarten level is defined as knowing 5,000 – 7,000 words) • ability to communicate effectively with adults and other children (such as asking and responding to questions, making needs known, using facial expression and tone) • knowing where the front of a book is, that sentences go from left to right and that books give information and can tell a story • knowing that words stand for things and making connections to printed material in the surroundings, such as road signs, store logos, etc. • awareness of letter-sound relationships and other phonemic skills • playing with the sounds of language, rhyming and making up rhymes • joy in reading, ability to listen and attend to stories, ability to retell parts and predict story endings ability to recognize and begin to be able to write own name • knowledge that child’s dictation to adult is represented in letters on paper

A ready family is the greatest predictor of a ready child. Economic self-sufficiency, educational attainment of parents, and family stability are all factors that create a ready family. We know that one approach DPS can take to ensure children are ready for school is to strengthen the families of children by giving them the supports they need to create strong healthy environments for their children.

A ready community is equally important to the development of a ready child. A ready community offers many resources such as quality early care and education, access to good nutrition, health care, and dental care, as well as support programs such as libraries, places of worship, parks and recreation centers that contribute to a high quality of life for children and families.

And finally, our schools must be ready to receive children when they first enroll and support them as they develop a love for learning. Ready schools create a climate for academic achievement; they are clean, in good repair, properly equipped and they have the capacity to ensure young children are in small classes with the best teacher/student ratio for early learning.

When young children enter preschool and kindergarten ready to learn, they are more likely to adjust well to school and to discover a love of learning that leads to success in later life.

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A home educator (right) visits a mother and child at their home. The home educator has brought books to read and teaches exercises that help foster other critical areas of development. She became a home educator after receiving home visits herself, when she had young children.

My take on the evidence is that those seeking large improvements in school readiness for disadvantaged children would do well to limit class size to 15 children, while 20 may be more appropriate for the general population.

— Steve Barnett, Director, NIEER

Recommendations to DPS for a Ready Child

1.Establish and aggressively promote what it means for children to be ready for school to parents, other ECE providers, and the community at large.

Goal A By March 2006, translate the comprehensive definition of a “ready child” into lay terms so that parents and other ECE providers can understand clearly what DPS expects of children when they arrive at school. For example, tell parents that children should know and recognize their letters and the numbers from one to twenty before they enter kindergarten, etcetera.

Goal B By June 2006, as part of a coordinated communications campaign (see also next section), disseminate these expectations through a multitude of communication channels in terms that will inform, educate and support parents and caregivers.

Suggested tactics

• Media options could include hosting a press conference, publishing announcements in local and neighborhood newspapers, and working with Spanish-language media outlets. • Attempts to reach parents of at-risk children directly could include: — working with cultural navigators or promoters — distributing culturally appropriate targeted fliers and mailings in Spanish and English — working with places of worship, clinics, and family resource centers — participating in existing annual events as well as large cultural and community gatherings — sponsoring an annual “School Readiness” fair — augmenting the DPS web site to include a high profile portal to inform the parents of preschool children

2. Adopt a validated instrument to assess child outcomes in a developmentally appropriate manner.

Goal A In collaboration with community partners, identify the most appropriate instrument for assessing a child’s development by January 2006.

Suggested tactics

• Options include existing instruments that are already validated but are not in use within DPS, or E-start, the instrument that the DPS community is currently using, which has yet to be validated. Goal B If the district and its community partners decide that E-start is the best instrument, carry out the validation study by June 2006.

Goal C Streamline assessment as much as possible to avoid burdening teachers and staff.

RecommendationsThe recommendations of the Task Force are divided into categories related to school readiness. Recognizing that we must promote school readiness at all levels of the community and the school district, our recommendations address the need for DPS to help prepare a ready child, a ready family, a ready community, and a ready school. A general recommendation section is also included.

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What looks like mere play also helps a child get ready for school: This girl is developing her gross motor skills.

3. Utilize the adopted assessment tool to establish clearly defined goals for children.

Goal A Establish a baseline of current readiness by September 2006.

Goal B By November 2006, set clear goals for where DPS wants children to be in the future and use the assessment tool to ascertain whether these goals are being met.

Recommendations to DPS for a Ready Family

1. Reach out to Denver parents of children birth through five with the intent of support-ing and educating parents in getting their children ready for school. Key components of parent education activities shall be language development and early literacy.

Goal A By June 2006, as part of a coordinated communications campaign, develop a public relations strategy to support parents in their role as their children’s first teachers.

Suggested tactics

• Consider partnering with Mile High United Way to promote the importance of teachable moments with children to parents and caregivers. Born Learning, a campaign initiative created by United Way of America, the National Ad Council, and Civitas, informs parents and caregivers about simple everyday things they can do to help young children learn. • Given that the Born Learning campaign may not reach the parents who are most in need of help with language and literacy issues, develop a complementary campaign targeted at families whose first language is not English. This campaign should inform families about the importance of language development and reading to their children during their early childhood years, acknowledge that children can learn in two languages, and promote the concept of teachable moments. • Make school libraries and computer labs available to parents and caregivers to access resource materials before and after school and during lunch, to help bridge the digital divide. Build a partnership with public library system to expand access to resource materials.

Goal B By April 2006, complete an inventory of DPS resources devoted to parent education and consider supplementing those resources.

Suggested tactics

• The following represent important aspects of parent education: learning about the importance of the preservation of home language and culture; helping parents perform activities at home that support children’s learning of language and literacy; providing parents with information about the importance of interactive book reading and story telling; giving parents materials and resources that they can use at home to support their child’s literacy and language development in their first and second languages; assisting parents in navigating the school system and the available community supports. Determine where DPS already meets these criteria and where it doesn’t. • Study the role of administrative staff in other school districts such as the “Cultural Mediator” who bridges cultural divides between school, staff and parents. Identify staff who play similar roles within DPS, and consider reframing their job descriptions, responsibilities, and titles so that they enhance parent-to-parent connections, parent education programs, home visitation, and family engagement with activities focusing on language learning and literacy.

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2. Begin building parent involvement and trust with the schools well before children enter kindergarten.

Goal A Look at the use by other districts of onsite parent resource centers in schools that are accessible to the community at large, and establish at least one center within each of the quadrants in DPS. Goal B Expand and improve programs with a strong track record, such as the Parent Education Preschool Program and Early Excellence. PEPP now serves children in 17 schools, where parents come once a week with their children. Early Excellence now serves children in four schools.

Goal C Enhance relationships between school programs and home for all families through consistent communication in preferred languages and encourage parents to provide feedback and to share their cultural perspectives with school staff.

Goal D Provide greater opportunity for all parents to become leaders through opportunities to serve on site-based management teams, advisory boards or councils, classroom committees, etc.

Goal E Adopt an open-door policy and actively work to ensure that schools are welcoming and accessible to families, community groups, and other ECE providers.

Suggested Tactics

• Offer evening and weekend events and activities throughout the school year and summer to serve the needs of parents with young children • Provide access to school libraries and DPS facilities to host parenting classes and meetings • Publicize the availability of school playgrounds to families of preschoolers and the community at-large • Offer open house programs and tours of DPS schools on a scheduled and unscheduled basis especially kindergarten classrooms

Recommendations to DPS for a Ready Community

1. Work with the DPS/City of Denver Joint Council on Early Care and Education to expand the number of ECE providers who are participating in quality improvement programs such as the Qualistar rating system or accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

2. Increase collaboration with community organizations providing support to parents of at-risk children from birth through age five.

Goal A Partner with organizations such as Healthy Families Colorado and the Piton Foundation to create a more complete inventory of family support programs.

Goal B Play a lead role in forging collaborations with existing home visitation providers such as Parents as Teachers (PAT), Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), Bright Beginnings, FACES, and the Nurse Family Partnership Program to ensure that a wider network of parents has access to the existing resources in the Denver community, and to support these existing organizations in their work.

Goal C Support and collaborate with other types of programs that provide outreach to parents such as the 5 By 5 program of The Mayor’s Office for Education and Children, Family Resource Centers, faith communities, Reach Out and Read, the Denver Public Library, and others.

3. Increase collaboration with early education providers in child care centers, preschools, and family child care homes.

Goal A The principal of every elementary school and/or ECE and kindergarten teachers will be aware of and have had contact with all of the licensed child care providers in the school’s area of attendance.

Suggested tactics

• Develop personal relationships and formal partnerships between DPS personnel and ECE providers, offer joint trainings and other shared professional development, promote information sharing, and provide joint access to web sites. • Prioritize time so that administrators and staff can link with ECE providers in the community. • Offer public school discounts on educational materials & supplies to community ECE providers. • Share DPS early education curriculum with other community providers in an effort to foster collaboration among staff • Support efforts of community site teachers and teacher assistants to obtain AA and BA degrees focused on early education. • Work with health care providers and school based clinics to boost immunization rates. • Invite these partners to use elementary school facilities, especially in schools that are underutilized. • Encourage DPS administrators and staff to attend ECE provider activities

4. Work with families, caregivers and other ECE providers to promote a seamless transition for children and families as they move from an ECE setting into the public education system.

Goal A Provide all pre-school and kindergarten teachers with five days for individual assessments and meetings with parents.

Goal B Develop a plan where every child in a publicly funded program or private program, as appropriate, comes to DPS with a readiness profile that is based on information from the assessment tool adopted by DPS.

Goal C Increase communication with other providers to facilitate transition.

Suggested Tactics

• Increase access to elementary schools so that other ECE providers can provide appropriate transition activities • Increase the ease and timeliness of transfer of information and records

Goal D Increase communication with parents to facilitate transition.

Suggested Tactics

• Educate parents of children under four about the choices they have in where their children can go to school and the deadlines they need to meet to ensure their child’s enrollment in Pre-K and Kindergarten programs

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At Academia Maria Sandoval, children learn to read and write in both English and Spanish, using the Montessori method. Studies show that preservation of home language helps improve language acquisition.

• Provide materials and support to incoming parents concerning transition to kindergarten, including parents of children with special needs • Provide materials and support to incoming parents about the benefits and challenges of preservation of home language and culture so that parents can make informed decisions about the language in which their child is taught and the best way for their child to acquire English • Strongly encourage parents to meet personally with their child’s teacher prior to the child’s first day in the classroom.

5. Raise awareness of the importance of ECE and increase resources for ECE Services.

Goal A Involve leading representatives of business, government, foundations, non-profit organizations, schools, and higher education in promoting and communicating the positive impacts of quality ECE.

Suggested Tactics

• Coordinate with the early childhood community to educate business about the importance of early education and best practices

Goal B Work together with leaders from these different sectors to increase funding and other resources for quality ECE initiatives.

Suggested tactics

• Expand the work of the Consolidated Child Care Pilots (state legislation that supports innovation and community collaborations in the 17 pilot site agencies) • Work with Mayor’s Leadership Team to pass a ballot initiative to create a new funding stream for ECE

Recommendations to DPS for a Ready School

1. Make sure that DPS leaders, particularly principals, know the value and prioritize the importance of ECE.

Goal A Identify and acquaint teachers and principals with evidence-based research on high-quality early childhood programs and their benefits as part of their regular training sessions.

Suggested tactics

• Link the superintendent’s performance evaluation to accountability for ECE initiatives • Link the evaluation of principals to their implementation of early childhood policies and activities to promote school readiness • Work with school districts throughout the country to identify and disseminate information regarding evidence-based early childhood programs with proven long-term positive outcomes

Goal B Make funding and staffing quality ECE programs in the DPS system a priority.

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Suggested tactics

• Work with the DPS Foundation and other funders to provide professional assistance to teachers and principals pursuing “outside” funding opportunities to implement quality ECE programs.

2. Ensure quality in ECE programs by reducing class size and student/teacher ratios.

Goal A By 2009, the maximum class size for a Pre-K class with 40% or more of the children eligible for free or reduced price lunch will be 17 with at least two credentialed adults in the classroom.

Goal B By 2009, the maximum Kindergarten class size will be no more than 25 children and the teacher will have a full-time assistant if the class size exceeds 20.

Suggested tactics

• In Kindergarten classes where 40% of the children are eligible for free or reduced price lunches, class size will be limited to 22 children and the teacher will have a full-time assistant if the class size exceeds 15. • In Kindergarten classes where 70% of the children are eligible for free or reduced price lunches, class size will be limited to 20 children and the teacher will have a full-time assistant if the class size exceeds 15.

3. Make all-day Kindergarten available to all children whose families want it.

Goal A Currently 42% of DPS Kindergarteners are in a full-day Kindergarten program. By 2009, every Kindergarten-aged child enrolled in DPS should have the opportunity to attend a full-day program if his/her parents would like.

4. Include high quality instruction in ECE classes to support language and literacy learning, both for children who are learning in English and for children who are learning in another primary language.

Goal A Base instructional practices around language and literacy on scientific research into best practices.

Goal B In ECE classes, focus on preservation of home language and culture in the context of strengthening language and literacy learning in English.

Suggested tactics

• Engage children in learning activities reflective of cultural and linguistic differences. • Support language and literacy learning through modeling and supportive feedback when presented with children who switch back and forth from their primary and secondary languages. • Recruit, employ and maintain a high-quality workforce to staff Pre-K and Kindergarten programs including qualified bilingual and bicultural educators reflective of the populations served.

5. Assure that Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers have appropriate credentials and receive high-quality, annual, professional development specific to the particular needs of Pre-K and Kindergarten children based upon best practices.

Goal A By 2006, at least 90% of Pre-K teachers will have a credential appropriate to Kindergarten, and by 2009, 100% of Pre-K teachers will be credentialed.

Goal B Adopt a new policy specifying professional training practices for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten teachers by August 2007.

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Suggested tactics

• Ensure that all Kindergarten teachers have appropriate professional development to guarantee teaching practices appropriate to Kindergarten-aged children.

• Continue to provide consistent training on an annual basis to early education specialists who provide professional development and monthly in-classroom coaching to teachers. • Address varying levels of knowledge among Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers, including knowledge of social-emotional development, the effect of different cultural backgrounds on learning, and best practices related to primary and secondary language development.

6. Use a validated assessment tool to improve instruction in the classroom.

Goal A Provide appropriate assessments of each child as they enter and leave Pre-K and Kindergarten so that ECE teachers are aware of how ready children are when they enter the classroom, and how much they have learned over the school year.

Goal B Establish guidelines to ensure that Pre-K and Kindergarten assessments are used to drive instruction. At this age, it is not appropriate to use assessments to hold children back a grade or to segregate children who are able to learn but are simply behind their peers.

General Recommendations

1. Develop a work plan by January of 2006 that spells out how the district intends to implement these recommendations. The work plan should include a detailed budget.

2. Conduct a regular review of the progress toward attaining the goals set forth by the School Readiness Task Force.

Suggested tactics

• The Board of Education will have as an agenda item twice a year a progress report on implementation of the Task Force recommendations.

• The DPS/City Joint Council will add oversight of the work of the Task Force to its monthly agenda.

ConclusionUrban school districts around the country have realized that to improve achievement for all students, they must change their focus from a K-12 model to a P-16 model. DPS has already taken many steps in this direction, adding full-day kindergarten classes to most schools and using dollars from the most recent mill levy election to increase the number and quality of ECE classrooms. The recommendations contained in this report are designed to move DPS further down the continuum of best practices in early childhood education. Implementation of high quality ECE programs, parent education programs, and other efforts to reach children from birth through five will have as profound an impact on student achievement as any of the K-12 reforms currently being implemented by the district. The long-term returns make ECE one of the best investments a community can make, as well as one of the most effective ways to close the achievement gap. When all of Denver’s children are ready for success as they enter school, the district will finally be able to realize its dreams of lowering drop-out rates, raising test scores, and sending more students to college.

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Children get ready for school by learning how to make sense of the world, which involves understand-ing the color, shape, texture and size of objects. They also have to learn how to get along with other children and how to form good relationships with adults.

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Selected Research Sources

Barnett, W. S. (1996). Lives in the Balance: Age 27 Benefit-cost Analysis of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program. Monographs of the High/Scope Education Research Foundation, (No.11). Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press

Barnett, W. S., Schulman, K., & Shore, R. (2004). Class Size: What’s the Best Fit. National Institute for Early Education Research, Issue 9

Brewster, C & Railsback, J. (2002). Full-day Kindergarten: Exploring an Option for Extended Learning. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

Campbell, F. A., Ramey, C. T., Pungello, E., Sparling, J., & Miller-Johnson, S. (2002). Early Childhood Education: Young Adult Outcomes from the Abecedarian Project. Applied Developmental Science, 6, (1), 42-57

Dickinson, D. and Tabors, P. (2001). Beginning Literacy with Language. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company

Gomby, Deanna (1999). Understanding Evaluations of Home Visitation Programs. Future of Children, 9, 27-43

Hart, B, & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company

Heckman, J. (2000). Policies to Foster Human Capital. Research in Economics, 54, 3-56

Magnuson, K., & Waldfogel, J. (2005). Early Childhood Care and Education: Effects on Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School Readiness, Future of Children, 15, 169-196

Masse, L. N., & Barnett, W. S. (2002). A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.

National Association of Elementary School Principals (2005). Leading Early Childhood Communities: What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do. Alexandria, VA: NAESP

National Child Care Association (2001). Building Universal Preschool in Partnership with the Private Early Education and Care System: A Policy Paper for Programs, Policymakers and Advocates. Washington, D.C.: NCCA

National Institute for Early Education Research (2005). Preschool Matters: Pre-K Class Size: What’s the Best Fit for the Nation’s 3-and 4-year Olds? New Brunswick, NJ: NIEER

National Research Council (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press

National Research Council (2001). Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press

NGA Center for Best Practices (2000). Research Findings on Early Childhood Intervention Programs. Washington, D.C.: National Governors Association

Rolnick, A., & Grunewald, R. (2003). Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return. Fedgazette Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (in press). Lifetime Effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40. Monographs of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 14. Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press

Zero to Three Policy Center (2004). Building Bridges from Prekindergarten to Infants and Toddlers. Washington, D.C.: Zero to Three

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