The idea of integrating early learning and the first grades of elementary school is a good idea, but it’s not always easy to find out what works.
In Wisconsin, a school district is giving some lessons by building a model that not only connects pre-kindergarten to elementary school, but goes back to birth, a new CLASP issue brief reports. The Appleton Area School District created its Birth to Five Program with federal, state and private funds, although federal Title I funding is a main source of support, according to the brief.
The initiative was sparked by policymakers’ worry about test scores of their grade school students and overall school readiness.
The district was striving to get all of its students reading on grade level by third grade and recognized this would be impossible when children were already entering kindergarten with significant gaps – “Financing a Birth to Five Program: The Appleton Area School District Model,” CLASP, 3/15/11.
Some of the more interesting developments in Appleton are what the Birth-Five Coalition chose to fund. For example, money from the economic stimulus pays for two more Parents as Teachers home visiting workers, who help 16 to 20 families with children under three years old, according to the report.
Other elements of the effort include:
- Books for Babies literacy program for parents delivering at local hospitals.
- Community parent education workshops offered in partnership with local community agencies.
- Early Childhood Special Education.
- Title I Preschool and Even Start Family Literacy.
Finally, the effort “engaged partners across settings including the school district, child care, and Head Start. Appleton demonstrates that a school district can take the lead in facilitating early childhood systems building in local communities to best use resources and meet children and families' needs, according to the brief.
Sound familiar? It’s another echo of Bremerton, Wash.’s PreK-3rd effort.
Check out the whole issue brief. It is short and well worth a read.