Marilyn P.

Bernardino Achievement Gap and High Quality Pre-k

I remember about a year ago, my sister consulted me about a problem she was having with her daughter, Sophie, who was then five years old. Sophie was only in kindergarten and her teacher already expressed some concerns about Sophies lagging behind in her reading class. Of course, the family was worried and being a Pre-k teacher, I was really concerned. You see, Sophies parents are both working. So, she was raised in the day care since she was 6-months old and this is her first year in an elementary school. The day care seems to be doing a great job with her. She was learning the ABCs and numbers. She knows colors and shapes. She can definitely sing songs and recite nursery rhymes and she is learning how to write her name. If I had known that she would have a hard time coping with her kindergarten class, I could have taken her to sit in my class when she was four. In Texas, there are certain requirements in order for a four years old child to be qualified for a state-run pre-k program. To qualify, the child must be unable to speak or comprehend the English language or he or she is educationally disadvantaged, which means the child is eligible to participate in the national free or reduced-price lunch program. A child may also qualify for a public pre-k education if he or she is homeless, or under the custody of the Child Protective Services or one or both parents is on active duty in the military. None of these will qualify Sophie to be in the Pre-k program run by district schools.

Why is Sophie lagging behind in her academics this early? My theory is that her day care did not prepare her enough to succeed in kindergarten. Many of our day care centers are paid to care for the kids, not necessarily to educate them. They may

provide a safe and fun environment for the kids, but their curriculum, if there is any, is not aligned with state- mandated guidelines.

Being a pre-k teacher, I cannot express the satisfaction that I feel whenever the school year ends. It does not only mean that my students are going away, but the joy of seeing how they blossomed into shy little kids to confident young children ready to take on the next level. Preparing these children for kindergarten takes a lot of patience, understanding and creativity. School readiness does not only include cognitive

development, but more importantly, the social and emotional aspect of the childs development. The role of the teacher is to foster these early cognitive and developmental skills so the student may be successful in the coming years.

The Young Learners School is one of the providers of high-quality prekindergarten program in Houston, Texas. The school has a unique set up of collaborating with different child care providers and head start organization. Currently, the school provides rigorous instructions to partner organizations such as Houston Independent School District, the Southwest School District, Gulf Coast Community Services, AVANCE Head Start, Harris County Department of Education, and privatelyowned licensed early childhood centers. Teachers here work at different partner sites within the Houston area to provide instructions that are aligned with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. Young Learners School teachers, who have finished their bachelors degree and are state-certified to teach in Texas, work together with collaborative partners teachers using a co-teaching model. The partnerships resulted to smaller teacher-student ratio, thus providing more students the services needed to support

their educational needs. The benefits of this program are felt not only by the students, but also by the parents and the teacher as well. In this school, the children are provided with comprehensive and integrated instruction using a research-based curriculum, the Frog Street Press Pre-k. Instructional activities are fun and stimulating and are aligned with the domains required by the Texas Pre-k Guidelines. Children are learning not only the early literacy and math skills, but also key social skills and emotional control. With a lower teacher-student ratio, behavioral problems are easier to deal with and interaction among the students and teachers become more meaningful and joyful. The curriculum also covers an assessment of the child at the beginning, middle and end of the year, thereby providing a basis for differentiated instruction, so that the child can catch up with his peers.

Sophie is in first grade now, but slowly and surely she is trying, with the help of her teachers, to bridge these academic gaps that could have been avoided if she was provided with a high quality early childhood education experience. Every child has a right to a universal state-paid education, can we start it earlier?