>Children will go longer, start younger
Anonymous Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Wed May 25, 2011, 11:33 PM EDT
CUMBERLAND — Allegany County school officials are making a couple of changes to a three-year-old summer school program for at-risk children at Beall and John Humbird elementary schools.
This year they’re keeping the children longer — seven weeks instead of five.
And they’re starting the children younger — pre-pre-kindergarten instead of pre-kindergarten.
“For the first time we’re opening the program to children who are getting ready to enter pre-kindergarten, so they’ll come to school having routines already established,” said Dee Blank, supervisor of early childhood education for Allegany County Public Schools.
“We’re finding out that what we invest in early learning is just multiplied down the line,” Blank said.
The summer school program is one example of how public school officials here are trying to do a better job of preparing children for school, and data shows that Allegany County is doing something right.
According to a report by the Maryland State Department of Education’s Division of Early Childhood Development, 91 percent of kindergartners in Allegany County were “fully ready for school” in 2010-2011. That’s up from 89 percent last year, and 66 percent a decade ago, data shows.
To measure school readiness, trained kindergarten teachers consider a variety of areas, including social and personal skills, language and literacy, mathematical and scientific thinking, social studies, arts, physical development and health.
In Garrett County, 94 percent of kindergartners were school-ready in 2010-2011. Statewide, 81 percent of children were fully ready to enter school, up from 49 percent in 2002, the report said.
Over the last several years, Allegany County’s early childhood programs have grown, with more than 500 children enrolled in pre-kindergarten this year — the most ever, Blank said. Next year, pre-K will be available at all Allegany County elementary schools, including Mount Savage, which in the past has sent its students to other schools for pre-K.
In Maryland, full-day kindergarten is mandatory for all 5-year-olds. Pre-kindergarten is made available first to economically disadvantaged children, then to the wider public.
In Allegany County, the half-day program turns into a full day of school for many children because school officials work closely with Head Start, Blank said.
“A lot of our 4-year-olds are getting a daylong experience,” Blank said. “They have a morning Head Start and afternoon pre-K, or vice versa.”
Partnerships with other agencies, such as the YMCA and the Allegany County Library System, are also enhancing early childhood education opportunities. For example, the Cumberland YMCA Family Center recently received a $50,000 grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which includes funding for “literacy parties” at the Judy Center, an early childhood education center at Beall Elementary School.
And the Allegany County United Way recently launched an “Imagination Library,” which provides free, age-appropriate books once a month to children ages birth to 5 who qualify. The program is modeled after one founded by country musician Dolly Parton in 1996.
This year’s summer school program at Beall and John Humbird, funded through grants, will include reading and math exercises, hands-on science experiences, field trips, cooking and play, Blank said.
“We teach them games like Duck, Duck, Goose and Tag — things that kids don’t do in the neighborhoods anymore,” she said.
Last year, 50 students attended at Beall, and 25 students attended John Humbird’s program, which is also open to South Penn Elementary students.
“We know that over the summer students who are at risk run the risk of losing some of what we’ve taught them,” Blank said. “We do enriching things like you hope families would do during the summer.”
Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kbarkley@times-news.com
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