Transcript Early Steps to School Success

Early Steps to
School Success (ESSS)
Rural Early Childhood Institute
Kansas City, Kansas
March 25, 2010
Judith Jerald, MSW
Early Childhood Advisor
Save the Children/U.S. Programs
About
Save the Children
• Leading independent organization creating lasting change
for children
• Founded in Appalachia in 1932, celebrating 75 years of
service to children
• Work in more than 50 countries, including 14 states in the
United States
• Serve more than 37 million children and 24 million adults
U.S. Programs
Overview
• Early Childhood
• Literacy in school tutoring
• After-School Program
– Literacy
– Nutrition
– Physical Activity
• Children in Emergencies and Crisis
Locations
Serving children in poor rural communities in the
United States since 1932
• Kentucky
• Tennessee
• South Carolina
• Mississippi
• Louisiana
• Georgia
• Alabama
• Arkansas
• New Mexico
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Nevada
• Washington
Early Steps to School
Success: Meeting an
Unmet Need
• Rural Poverty
• Resource Poor Schools and Communities
• Teen parents, Non-English Speaking
Families, Cultural Minorities
• Lack of Birth to Age Three Services
The Evidence: What
Research Tells Us
• Starting early matters
• The quality of the early learning experiences matters
• Low-income children lagging behind
• School readiness skills make a difference
• Poor and minority groups benefit the most from highquality early childhood programs
• Rural areas have a high number of children living in
poverty, with limited resources to serve them
Early Steps
Characteristics
• Early Steps is a language development
and pre- literacy program
• Early Steps provides services through
home visiting and parent groups
• Early Steps works with children and families from
pregnancy until the child enters kindergarten.
Services may continue with Save the Children
Literacy and after school services until age 12.
• Early Steps provides services through public schools
and other community partners
Nurturing Early
Language & Literacy:
Core Beliefs
• Families are a child’s first and
most important teachers.
• Relationships are central to learning.
• Language and literacy unfold within a cultural
context.
• Literacy learning emerges from loving interactions
and daily routines.
• Sharing, hearing and reflecting on stories are
important to nurturing language and literacy.
Early Steps Program
Goals
• Children will enter school with the skills necessary
for school success.
• Parents will have the knowledge and skills to support
their children’s education.
• Home and school connections will be strong.
• Early childhood knowledge and skills in communities
will be significantly increased.
Program
Implementation:
Meeting the goals
1. Bi-weekly home visits by trained early childhood
staff from the community; developmental
screenings
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Language and literacy skills
Social-emotional skills
Thinking (cognitive) skills
Physical (motor) skills
Sample Portfolio Layouts
Language and Literacy Skills
• Completed Plan and Play Portfolio Activities
• Collected List of Child’s Favorite Books
• Dated Photographs of Shared Book Experiences
• Dated Photographs Showing Use of Book
Exchange
Meeting the goals…
2. Regularly scheduled parent/child support and
education groups in school
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Toddler storybook hours
and play groups
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Parenting education groups
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Family nights
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Building connections with
school personnel
Meeting the goals…
3. Positive Transition to School
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Parent/teacher meetings
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Child visits to school
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Teacher home visits
Summer program before
school entry
Meeting the goals…
4. “Raising a Reader”
book exchange
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Age and culturally
appropriate books
–
Training for parents
in dialogic reading
Professional
Development for
Early Steps Staff
• Two group trainings per year
• Regular mentoring visits by Early Childhood
Specialist
• Monthly training calls and webcasts
• Regional trainings
• Opportunities for pursuing early childhood degrees
and certifications
Monitoring and
Evaluation
• Web based data collection system; monthly
monitoring protocol
• Program quality assessment tool
• Organizational goals, objectives, and outcome
milestones
• Independent evaluation
Web-Based Data
Collection System
• Enrollment Demographics
and Health Information
• Family
• Child
• Adult
• Risk Inventory
• Resources Inventory
• Community Partner
Events
• Group Activities
• Home Visit Record
• Times Read
• Family Updates
• Assessments
• Child Exit or Transition
• Professional Development
Use of Data for
Continuous
Improvement
• Orientation
• Sharing data and joint problem solving
• Locally specific monthly reports and phone calls
• Standard Indicators tied to staff performance
• Liaison with management and planning groups
Early Steps to School
Success:
Program Results
• Retention
• Risk and Resiliency
• Times read to correlation
• PPVT
Critical Elements of
Early Steps
• Location
• Connection
• Continuity
• Content
• Quality
• Affordability
What We Are
Learning
• We are reaching 0-5 children in isolated, resource poor
rural communities
• Families are engaging and staying in the program
• Enrolled children have high risks (3.8)
• Intensity of the services is increasing
• Professional development, monitoring and support
structures are in place
• Connections with the schools are increasing
What We Will
Continue to Learn
• How will the flexibility and variations of the model
impact on its success and results?
• How and why does a program of this intensity/cost
have an impact? Will it hold up? What are the
critical elements of the model?
• How is local culture impacting on the model? What
unintended/unexpected impacts might there be?
• How is the program effecting the school? Are there
changing perceptions about early learning?
• What is the likelihood of sustainability?
Strengths and
Challenges
• Fast growth
• Limited birth to age three work force available
• Need to show results in order to maintain funding
streams
• High need families
• Transportation
Partnerships and
Collaborations
• Save the Children U.S. and Global Early Steps
• Zero to Three
• Raising a Reader
• State and Local Partners