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[What Facilitates School Involvement] School Involvement in Early Childhood, July 2000
Since public schools have not historically worked with prekindergarten children, some school and early childhood leaders are not sure how schools should be involved with younger children. Meeting participants unanimously agreed that schools should work with families and with preschool care and education programs on high-quality preschool opportunities and successful transitions to kindergarten. They discussed the following partnership roles for schools: developing a seamless care and education system, coordinating community resources, and helping families develop social networks.
Most child care programs, Head Start programs, and public schools operate in isolation from each other, even though they are located in the same neighborhoods and serve many of the same children and families. They respond to separate legislation and policies developed and administered by separate federal, state, and local agencies with little systematic coordination, even when agencies are located in the same cities and buildings.
Schools, Head Start, and child care programs develop individual policies and procedures, staff training and development, and procedures for communicating with families. Unfortunately, most programs do not communicate with each other to develop shared expectations for children or coordinate the curricula they use with children. Some states are taking steps to bring more coherence to separate programs for children.
| Vermont has aligned licensing standards for preschool care and education programs in public schools, child care and Head Start centers, and other facilities. Their "Playing with the Standards" video demonstrates how preschools can implement state curriculum standards in playful classroom environments. The Kansas Department of Education convened parents and representatives from state agencies, universities, religious and other organizations to develop Quality Standards for Early Childhood Programs. The Departments of Education and Health have endorsed the Quality Standards and implemented them in all their sponsored programs. Parents as Teachers, Even Start, state university early childhood classes, and many private preschool care and education programs also use the standards. Research will track the academic success of children over time. The Maryland Model for School Readiness links prekindergarten through third-grade curriculum, instruction, and assessment and the state's third-grade test. The model includes training for public school, child care, and Head Start teachers on articulation of students' progress between preschool and public school and across grade levels. The Illinois Early Learning Initiative includes a prototype for an early learning system for all children birth through age eight, including year-by-year learning standards, assessment strategies, and program quality standards. State specialists support school districts in adopting and implementing early learning systems. The state is identifying model early learning sites--partnerships between school districts, institutes of higher education, and other community organizations--in strategic locations to offer assistance to other sites across the state. |
Some public schools, Head Start programs, and child care programs are coordinating policy, family communications, and curricula to help families access preschool care and education and provide continuity for children from preschool through elementary school.
| The Child Care Action Campaign works with school districts to help develop partnerships between schools and preschool care and education programs. Their recent publication documented 68 partnerships in 37 states and provided in-depth profiles of partnerships in Flint, MI; Albuquerque, NM; Nashville, TN; Covington, KY; Birmingham, AL; and Pittsburgh, PA.57 |
School readiness depends on children's physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development.58 Schools can work with medical and mental health service providers, libraries, parks, recreation centers, and police departments to develop community networks focused on school readiness and success.
| The Oakland 2000: Ready to Learn initiative in Oakland, California includes 175 community organizations that deliver comprehensive services to strengthen school readiness. Connecticut's School Readiness Councils facilitate ongoing communication among community health, child care, social service, recreation, and education providers about their mutual roles and shared responsibilities for school readiness. |
The neighborhood school can be a focal point for agencies and organizations that serve preschool and school-age children, linking with health care and other essential services that it does not directly provide.
| One of the six core goals of Missouri's Caring Communities initiative is to improve school readiness. Five state agencies combine resources to help 119 communities provide comprehensive, integrated services in schools or closely coordinated with schools. The Children's Aid Society sponsors four community schools in New York City and one in Washington, D.C. The schools operate Head Start and Early Head Start programs and serve as a focal point for coordinating comprehensive services for preschool and school-age children and their families. |
Children and families need to feel part of neighborhoods, including neighborhood schools. Reaching out to other parents and contacting public schools can be difficult for families who have limited English proficiency, no transportation, children with disabilities, or other obstacles. Public schools can work with preschool care and education programs to provide facilities and opportunities for families with preschool and school-age children to develop social relationships and support systems. Schools might start "buddy systems," pairing families who have children in school with families who have preschool children, so that children and families have someone to talk with informally about their questions and concerns.
[Why Should Schools Be Involved?] [What Facilitates School Involvement]