Early Childhood Education

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Best in Class
Best in Class 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

April of 2013, then four-year-old Davion knew just two colors and the first letter of his name. Recognizing Davion was slightly behind, Tonia, Davion’s Family Educator got right to work. Tonia referred the family to Way to Grow Preschool Pals and began increasing home visits to get Davion caught up before he started school. After lots of hard work, Davion started kindergarten this fall recognizing all nine colors and counting up to 50 orally. He was also able to recognize all of his upper case letters except for “Q”. Davion recognized all lower case letters except “q” and “d” — because after all, Davion starts with a capital “D”!

Because of your support, Davion was able to enter kindergarten with the knowledge necessary to start off strong academically and socially. Now, he can spend more time enjoying the fun stuff. Davion’s favorite parts of kindergarten are story time and playing with toys. He also enjoys playing and talking with his best friend, Sammie.

Mom and Dad continue to be very supportive of their family and of each other. Their co-parenting skills have greatly improved and they are working more as a team advocating for the education of their children. Both parents attended fall conferences which went especially well. They were both very proud to hear that Davion is now ahead of his peers and is getting more challenging work during class time. Davion’s teacher has been helping him start to work on writing complete words and short sentences instead of simply practicing writing his ABCs.

Way to go, Davion!

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ESSA – Three Things to Know
ESSA – Three Things to Know 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Eight years after No Child Left Behind (NCLB) went into effect, congress has passed a revision to the bill to allow states to reclaim control over much of their education policies. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law on December 10, will take full effect at the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

How is it different?

  1. ESSA includes a new $250 million program earmarked for high-quality early childhood education programs as well as avoiding Title I Portability, which according to Martin and Sargrad, would have caused the poorest districts to lose more than $675 million while gaining the richest districts more than $440 million.
  2. States will now look at multiple measures of performance and success beyond test scores and graduation rates and begin to consider altruistic factors like student and teacher engagement, success in advanced coursework, attendance rates, school climate and safety, and social-emotional development of their students. These factors also serve as important indicators of educational equity – encompassing a more holistic approach to evaluating each school’s success.
  3. States are federally required to identify and take action in the bottom 5 percent of schools and schools graduating less than two-thirds of students, but how they do so is now entirely in the hands of the state. States are now not only responsible for setting their own interventions, but also for setting new solutions, overhauling the one-size-fits-all approach of NCLB.

By allowing local legislators and officials more flexibility and say in how the state’s education system will operate, this bill holds great potential to positively impact our earliest learners here in Minnesota. As we go into the new year, and a new legislative session, one thing is for sure; it will be as important as ever for educators and officials to remember the old adage, with great power, comes great responsibility.

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children Awards More Than $1.3 Million in Grants

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children Awards More Than $1.3 Million in Grants 150 150 Ivy Marsnik
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Emril’s “E”
Emril’s “E” 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Emril is a very energetic three-year-old who came to Way to Grow just seven months ago. Marie, Emril’s Way to Grow Family Educator, noticed he was having trouble sitting still and focusing on tasks.  He wasn’t responding to questions and wasn’t sure how to hold a pencil. In an effort to get Emril ready for preschool this fall, Marie got straight to work on teaching Emril to write his name.

In September, Emril began attending Way to Grow Preschool P.A.L.S. The talented teachers there build on the skills Emril learns at home. The preschool experience has been beneficial for Emril’s Mom as well.  While Emril is at school, she attends ESL classes to continue her education in hopes of earning her GED. During the preschool’s parent-child days, Emril’s mom enjoys the opportunity to play and learn with her son. “I am learning so much new stuff [from the home visits and preschool lessons],” Mom says, “Things I never knew before!”

Thanks to parent, classroom and home visiting support, Emril is now able to sit for longer periods of time and concentrate more on his learning. He also comes home cheerfully singing the songs he learns at school and enjoys telling Mom and Marie all about what he did that day. Between home visits, Mom practices writing lessons with Emril. In fact, when Marie returned two weeks later, Emril was eagerly writing the letter E!

“Preschool P.A.L.S. has definitely had a tremendous impact on Emril’s social-emotional skills,” Marie says. “Emril is already more engaged at visits and is responding to questions more readily.  When I would ask who his friends were at school, it was initially very difficult to get a response. Now he’ll happily tell me, ‘Sanja..  Josephina.. Mohammed..’ His progress over such a short amount of time has just been a lot of fun to watch. I am excited to see both Mom and Emril continue to grow.”

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Guest Blog: Books to Grow – My Volunteer Story
Guest Blog: Books to Grow – My Volunteer Story 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

It is easy for all of us to talk about how we love children – those cute little faces are irresistible. But it is also easy to forget that so many children do not live the carefree, happy lives they deserve because their parents are stressed or struggling. I support Way to Grow because it is dedicated to the well being of the entire family, as well as the child. I believe that a supported and educated child grows up to become a productive, self sufficient adult.

IMG_4292

My name is Jeanne Ravich and I have been a Way to Grow supporter since my first meeting with Carolyn Smallwood, Executive Director of Way to Grow, several years ago. My husband Paul and I direct our efforts, both financially and as volunteers, to organizations in the education arena. We believe that education begins at birth and that parents are always a child’s most important teachers. The more I learned about Way to Grow and the successful programs it offers to children and their families, the more I committed my wholehearted support.

My relationship with Way To Grow has itself continued to grow over the years as I had a chance to meet the staff and get a closer look at the programs. I am especially impressed with the quality of the home visiting program, tailored to the culture and individuality of each family. I was impressed with the fact that the Family Educators come from the communities they serve, and collectively speak 8 different languages. They visit each family regularly, often beginning prenatally, and in 2014, they completed over 12,000 home visits.

Raising children is challenging for us all, and is especially difficult without a safe environment and when basic needs are not met. Way to Grow Family Educators and Resource Advocates help parents meet those needs, then teach child care and parenting skills. I wish I had that kind of support when I was a young parent!

The support continues through Way to Grow preschools and the Great by Eight program, fostering academic success through the third grade. I loved hearing that the Family Educators are there every step of the way. They often accompany parents to parent/teacher conferences and events, encouraging parents to embrace their role as their child’s number one teacher.

I have heard many personal and inspiring stories about parents and children whose lives changed for the better because of Way to Grow. I see pictures of proud parents and smiling children at preschool graduation. The statistics support the stories – more healthy babies, less teen pregnancy, and most importantly nearly 90% of children enrolled in the program were deemed prepared to succeed in school.

IMG_4291 - CopyInspired by the work the Family Educators do, I asked Carolyn if they had any specific needs. Without hesitation she said, “Books in the home.” It was hard for me to imagine a child without books, so important to verbal and cognitive development. I couldn’t imagine a home with nothing for parents to read to a child in their lap, no sturdy board books with colorful words or pictures, no Dr. Seuss rhymes or Goodnight Moon. I began to collect new books, for distribution through the Family Educators. I am currently working on setting up a network of generous moms who also cannot imagine a child without books. We have a mission. Family Educators on all home visits will give all children a book of their very own. Both inspired by and as a partner to Way to Grow, I call this project Books to Grow.

 

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Home Language Proficiency as a Resource
Home Language Proficiency as a Resource 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

IMG_4657Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Way to Grow participants speak a primary language other than English in the home. In Minneapolis Public Schools overall, twenty-five percent (25%) of students are English Learners[1]. Native language skills, though often overlooked as an educational resource, are just as important to foster as ever. Growing evidence supports that strong home language literacy skills benefit English Learners’ overall academic success, serving as a prerequisite to success in school and life. Not only does bilingualism aid in the development of cognitive advantages such as problem solving and critical thinking, a positive relationship has also been shown between bilingual proficiency and achievement in math and reading[2].

Research suggests children educated initially in their home language learn a second language more proficiently and achieve more academic success than those who have not had such a solid foundation. Once students have built basic literacy skills in their home language, they will be able to apply those skills to the new language. It is also often times easier for children to reach an understanding of the complex mechanics behind reading and writing when explained in the language they are more comfortable with[3].

Fostering the home language and literacy development is not only greatly beneficial to children and families, but is also an invaluable gain for society as a whole; enhancing community cohesion and building acceptance and understanding of cultural diversity. Through language-to-language programming, Way to Grow fosters preservation of the home language while providing a space for English learning. One obstacle we often see our English Learner families faced with is having access to quality varieties of literature written in their home languages. Each of the families we work with have at least one goal in common: to read with their children each and every day. Lacking these resources, it can be challenging for our parents who are not yet fluent in English to find books they can read together with their children.

We have over 500 parents in need of native language books in Spanish, Hmong, Vietnamese, Somali and Arabic. You can help parents teach their children by purchasing bi-lingual or native language books. Some bi-lingual titles can be found here.

 

[1] Minnesota Report Card, 2014

[2] The Importance of Literacy in the Home Language:The View From Australia, Susana A. Eisenchlas, Andrea C. Schalley, Diana Guillemin, 2013

[3] Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition, Ellen Bialystok, 2001

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What the Education Bill Promises the State’s Earliest Learners
What the Education Bill Promises the State’s Earliest Learners 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

After much debate, Governor Dayton and the Minnesota Legislature have passed the Education Bill with hopes of narrowing Minnesota’s achievement gap and ensuring all children receive the best education possible. The bill includes enacting free all-day Kindergarten, expanding access to early learning opportunities, and increasing funding for K-12 schools.

Though the final bill does not include universal pre-k, Governor Dayton and the Legislature agreed to invest an additional $100 million in early learning initiatives as well as an additional $48 million in early learning scholarships. The total funding for early learning scholarships for the FY 16-17 biennium is $104 million, nearly doubling to allow more children to access high quality early education and care.

The additional funding for early learning scholarships will provide an estimated 20,000 children four-years-old and younger the opportunity to attend high quality early learning programs. Furthermore, the Legislature will continue to invest in the Parent Aware initiative, which will allow the Quality Rating System to continue to add providers.

Art Rolnick, former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and a current senior fellow at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, writes, “The current scholarship-based approach targets limited state funding to low-income children, because they are the most likely to start kindergarten behind and fall into the K-12 achievement gap. Research I and others have conducted clearly shows that investing in helping low-income children access high-quality early education delivers by far the highest return-on-investment.”

For more details on the Education Bill, check out the 2015 Budget for a Better Minnesota | A State of Educational Excellence Fact Sheet.

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