The early learning world is full of shiny new studies, proposals and expanding ambition. But Washington State’s own city of Bremerton offers a reminder that success is often built on what exists in child care and preschools rather than on completely new models and mindsets.
The Bremerton School District has made stunning progress getting kids ready for kindergarten. The percentage of kindergarten students requiring specialized services has dropped to 2 percent from 12 percent, while the percentage of first grade students able to read at their grade level has jumped to 73 percent from 52 percent, according to Public School Insights.
Bremerton’s story may be known to some, but what isn’t as well known but arguably much more important is its 5,500-student school district scored these successes by working with what many schools and teachers were already doing, Insights reports.
“So instead of saying we need to go do our own preschool, we got our partners together to look at the data and ask what we could do about this. And we made an effort to say we want to increase the quality and services for children in all preschools in Bremerton, not just in special ed or blended preschools. So instead of reaching a few kids, we now reach 570 kids before they come into kindergarten,” Linda Sullivan-Dudzic, the Bremerton School District’s head of special programs told Public School Insights in a question and answer. “We wanted to value what people were already doing. If you have a childcare in Bremerton or a preschool and you feed into our schools, we wanted to support you.”
Check out the extensive interview. It is well worth reading.
Bremerton’s success also offers hope to the rest of Washington because one of its architects, Bette Hyde, is now one of the leaders building a statewide early learning plan as head of the Department of Early Learning.
Vaccination News: Despite the apparent hysteria over vaccine safety, more U.S. kids received all of their shots in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control found in a new study, Reuters reports.