Quality Facilities Lead to Quality Programs

In Minnesota, this is a bonding year at the legislature. Traditionally, this is the session when the legislature looks at passing money to build infrastructure such as public buildings, roads and of course bridges.

As part of our 2008 Legislative Agenda, Ready 4 K has worked in partnership with First Children’s Finance to increase state dollars for early childhood facilities through the Early Childhood Facilities Grant Program.

As a sign of the need around the state, in a recent Request for Proposals for this funding from the Department of Human Services, there were requests for twice the amount of the available funds. Earlier this session, thanks to the leadership of the Legislature, resources for the Early Childhood Facilities Grant program were increased from $500,000 to $2 million. However, the governor line-item vetoed these dollars. He cited that bonding proposals should come directly from the local communities, rather than through the grant program, even though the program has been in place for over 15 years and has helped to build 56 sites statewide totaling $13 million.

Click here to see our current action alert, asking you to call Legislative Leadership to ask them to include early childhood facilities dollars in the next round of the bonding bill.

If you’re interested in learning more about why public support for facilities are an important part of building a quality early learning system, check out this archived conference call from Pre-K Now, recorded in March 2008, Early Education Facilities: Buildings that Maximize Program Quality. This call featured presentations by David Wasch from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority, Molly Munger from the Advancement Project, and Hon. Beth Bye a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives. You can listen to the entire call and view slides and materials directly from the web page.

The key point of the call and the reason Ready 4 K is promoting early childhood facilities bonding dollars is that quality facilities lead to quality programs. If you are interested in learning about what a quality facility looks like, I recommend viewing the slide presentation Beth Bye shared during the call.

What do you think? Do you have experience with designing or building early childhood facilities? How has the facility impacted your program?

photo by momboleum

Will my child be ready? Language and Literacy Development

The next in our series of posts based on the Early Childhood Indicators of Progress, Language and Literacy Development, explores how children acquire language and literacy. Previously, we’ve discussed Social and Emotional Development and Approaches to Learning.

As children grow during their preschool years, they increasingly use language to share how they are feeling, to interact with others, and to communicate their own thoughts and needs. Children do this both with spoken and written language. The Language and Literacy Development domain has four components: Listening, Speaking, Emergent Reading, and Emergent Writing. As usual, we’ll briefly look at each component. The indicators within the components are taken directly from the ECIPs manual.

Listening
Children are developing normally in listening skills when they:

1. Understand non-verbal and verbal cues
2. Listen with understanding to stories, directions, and conversations
3. Follow directions that involved a two or three-step sequence of actions
4. Listen to and recognize different sounds in rhymes and familiar words

Families can help facilitate children’s development in listening by talking to their children regularly every day in a way that is equal to their level of understanding and encouraging children to respond. Also, introducing children to rhymes and songs will help children to gain broader interest in words and sounds.

Teachers and caregivers can assist children in developing this component by modeling language for children to use including questions and facial expressions, listening and responding to children as they communicate both verbally and non-verbally, and by providing opportunities for children to interact with adults.


Speaking
Children are progressing in this area when they:

1. Communicate needs, wants, or thoughts through non-verbal gestures, actions, expressions, and/or words
2. Communicate information using home language and/or English
3. Speak clearly enough to be understood in home language and/or English
4. Use language for a variety of purposes
5. Use increasingly complex and varied vocabulary and language
6. Initiate, ask questions, and respond in conversation with others

Families can support children in developing their speaking skills by talking with them every day and encouraging children to discuss and respond including adding to stories that are read to them.

Teachers and caregivers can encourage children in developing their speaking skills by responding to children when they attempt to communicate verbally or non-verbally, supporting children in communicating in their home language using interpreters when necessary, and talking with children on a variety of subjects demonstrating the various uses of language.


Emergent Reading
Preschool children show progress in this component when they:

1. Initiate stories and respond to stories told or read aloud
2. Represent stories to or read aloud through various media or during play
3. Guess what will happen next in a story using pictures as a guide
4. Retell information from a story
5. Show beginning understanding of concepts about print
6. Recognize and name some letters of the alphabet, especially those in own name
7. Begin to associate sounds with words or letters

Families can facilitate children in their emergent reading by making book reading special for their children and reading often for both information and pleasure. Parents can engage children in the reading by talking about the story and asking them to predict what will happen next. And finally, visit a library often to select books to read as well as point out reading materials around the home.

Teachers and caregivers can support children in emergent reading by providing a variety of books and story-making materials such as flannel-board sets and puppets. Teachers and caregivers can talk about words and what they mean, help children to understand the sequences in books and stories (such as beginning, middle and end), and give opportunities for children to repeat favorite rhymes and word-play.


Emergent Writing
Children are progressing normally in this area when they:

1. Understand that writing is a way of communicating
2. Use scribbles, shapes, pictures, or dictation to represent thoughts or ideas
3. Engage in writing using letter-like symbols to make letters or words
4. Begin to copy or write own name

Families can encourage children in their emergent writing by providing writing materials at home (paper, pencils, crayons, markers, etc) and supporting children in their scribbles and "pretend" writing. Families can also engage children in everyday writing activities such as making a grocery list or writing a card or letter.

Teachers and caregivers can support children in this area by creating a "literary-rich" environment by having writing materials in many areas of the classroom and proving lots of opportunity for children to draw and paint. Teachers and caregivers can also encourage children in their attempts to copy or write letters and their name.


For all components of this domain, community members and policy makers can support children and families by providing opportunities for literacy-related events where families can participate together such as story hours and book fairs, encourage adults (both families and volunteers) to spend more time talking and engaging with young children, support and promote libraries and community awareness on the importance of reading with young children.


I think it’s important to be clear that children do not all need to be fully reading and writing when they start kindergarten. But, showing progress and interest in language and literacy is a key component to future learning success.


What about you? Do you have any tips or tricks for encouraging children in their language and literacy development?

Minnesota Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

Earlier this month, the Minnesota Department of Education released the results from the 2007 Minnesota School Readiness Study. This is the fifth year of the study. You can view and download the report from MDE here. The study assess how ready children are for kindergarten in five domains:

• Physical Development and Health
• The Arts
• Personal and Social Development
• Language and Literacy
• Mathematical Thinking

Children are rated as Proficient, In Process, and Not Yet in expressing competence in these domains.

Ready 4 K has released a statement responding to the fact that we are seeing fewer kids rated as Proficient in the 2007 study versus 2006.

You'll note that the domains in the School Readiness Study are closely aligned with the Early Childhood Indicators of Progress. Check out the series we are continuing on the ECIPS, including an introduction, social and emotional development, and approaches to learning.

What do you think? Do you have any comments on the MDE study? Has your program or district participated in assessing young children?

New Free Environmental Toolkit

In honor of Earth Day and previous posts about helping children to experience nature, check out the new Environmental Education Toolkit for Early Childhood Family Education Programs. The toolkit is for ECFE programs and is produced by Hennepin County and Community POWER.

The toolkit:
--follows Minnesota's Parent Education Core Curriculum;
--was written by experienced ECFE leaders;
--includes detailed lesson plans and resources;
--is flexible and can be modified to fit many programs;

ECFE programs in Hennepin County may also request $3,000 to implement activities from the toolkit in the coming year. A short application is due May 8, 2008. Funded projects can take place June 15, 2008 to June 30, 2009.

I hope the toolkit will be useful to everyone, not just ECFE programs. I'd love to hear what you think about it. Check it out with a free download and leave your thoughts in the comments.

Time to take action! Governor vetoes Early Childhood Bonding dollars

Governor Pawlenty Used His Line-Item Veto to Eliminate Funding for Early Childhood Facilities

Yesterday, Governor Pawlenty used his line-item veto to eliminate funding for a number of construction projects that were part of the legislature's Bonding Bill. One of the items that he vetoed was $2 million for the Early Childhood Facilities grant program, which local communities can use to build or rehab facilities for early childhood programming.

The grant program has received funding in previous years, helping to expand access to quality early learning across Minnesota. Recently, the Department of Human Services received a number of applications for grants with previously allocated.funds. Priority is given to communities with a high percentage of children living in poverty and to projects that involve partnerships between schools, Head Start and child care.

The Governor's veto is short sighted and is a missed opportunity to build quality safe early learning environments, especially when funding for quality programs is so limited. Past governors have supported funding up to $5 million for these grants. In fact, Governor Pawlenty has supported this funding in the past. There is a great need for early childhood facilities across the state.

In his comments, he stated that these are for local projects and should be funded locally. Like most bonding projects, these require local matching dollars, and build on and support existing collaborations and partnerships. He misses the point that these dollars can be a catalyst for that exact local funding.

What you can do

While the legislature is not able to override a line item veto, there is the possibility that legislators will pass another bonding bill that the Govenor will sign. Ready 4 K will be talking to legislative leaders in the next few days to understand what their next steps will be and will be encouraging them to include funding for Early Childhood Facilities in any new bonding bill. In the meantime, you can do two things to advance the cause.

1. Call the Governor and let him know that you are disappointed in his line-item veto of bonding for early childhood facilities. His phone number is (651) 296-3391 or Toll Free: (800) 657-3717
2. Write a letter-to-the-editor of your local paper talking about how this veto is a missed opportunity to invest in quality early learning for our youngest citizens. You can use some of the points raised in this alert or download our talking points. You can also download Tips for writing a letter-to-the-editor.

Let us know if you write a letter or make a call by sending a quick email to info@ready4k.org or making a note in the comments. We will be watching the developments over the next week and will be in touch about other actions you can take on this, especially if the legislature starts to debate an additional bonding bill.

Thank you for your support of our youngest citizens!

What a three-year old can teach you about reading

My friend Rachael works for First Book, a fabulous, award-winning organization that works to get books into the hands of kids. Of course, I'm a fan. :) She sent me a great story from another friend about reading to a three year old. It's a reminder of how important reading is for both kids and adults.

See story here.

Take time to read to a child!