First class of preschoolers grows on readiness test

The state’s pilot pre-kindergarten program is in its third year, and the 4-year-olds’ test results are testament to why so many tout the power of early childhood education.

Each of the 11 collaboratives across the state increased its average score on a test measuring kindergarten readiness over the last school year, and all but three met or exceeded the target score of 498.

“That was our goal, to make sure our children were growing, especially with literacy development,” said Jill Dent, who oversees the collaboratives as the director of the office of early childhood at the state Education Department. “We went through a process of determining what we considered to be … on the national level of a child exiting pre-K that would’ve learned what they needed to learn, basically.”

McComb Community Collaborative for Early Learning Success, Petal Early Learning Collaborative and Picayune School District all fell short of the 498 goal, though each one grew between 50 to 100 points from the fall to the spring.

The partnerships were formed after the state passed its first pre-K law, the Early Learning Collaborative Act, in 2013. Many school districts had previously funded programs for 4-year-olds with federal money.

Many in each collaborative seem to share the same sentiment: that what really works is the collaboration between different sites — school districts, private providers, Head Start centers — and the communication among all teachers about the shared curriculum.

“The teachers meet every week … and take apart the standards and look at strategies for teaching the standards,” Lacia Donald, early learning coordinator for the Quitman School District, said of the Clarke County Early Learning Partnership.

The Clarke County collaborative showed the largest growth on the kindergarten readiness test. The average score for Clarke County’s 110 students increased 130 points from the fall to the spring of the last school year.

In the northern part of the state, the Tallahatchie Early Learning Alliance, where scores grew an average of 109 points, is made up of five sites at two elementary schools, two Head Start centers and one private provider. After the first year was spent training teachers and getting ready for students, the alliance is in its second year of teaching 4-year-olds.

“I think we’ll do even better this year,” said director Meghan Tooke. “Our teachers are comfortable with the new curriculum; they’ve had more time to adjust to the new standards that we’re asking them to use. And most of our teachers didn’t take the summer off, so they’ve taught over the summer, too.”

Jennifer Shipp, a mother of three in Corinth, has seen a major difference in her young daughter who attended pre-K compared to her older child who did not.

Shipp’s daughter Lynlee went to the pre-K program at Corinth Elementary School last year.

“I feel like she was so much more prepared than my other two at that age because kindergarten (for Lynlee) has been such a smooth adjustment, and I know that is credited to the 4-year-old program,” Shipp described. “They move along so much faster — they’re working on reading and things like that at the end of the year last year, and it got her so excited about school.”

Shipp said not only did the program advance her academically but also socially.

“She definitely developed a lot of independence. … She just learned to do little things that you don’t really realize they can do at that age. … She wanted to do all of it on her own because she knew she could,” she said.

Educators are hoping the Legislature will increase funding for the partnerships next year. State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright requested $9 million from lawmakers at the budget hearings, which Dent said would allow more partnerships to be added throughout the state.

“We really hope that’s the case so we can grow the program to serve more children within the state to get them ready for kindergarten,” she said.

Whether the program will continue is in the hands of the Legislature.

Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, is an author of the Early Learning Collaborative Act. Barker said he is excited about the potential for quality statewide pre-K programs, and the next step is to expand.

“Three million dollars for the last three years is a good start, but it’s time to scale up,” Barker said. “There are decades of data and literature that say this approach will work.”

Studies have shown children who attend quality preschool programs are more likely to graduate from high school and to own homes, according to the National Education Association.

Forty states and D.C. have state-funded pre-kindergarten programs, according to the 2014 National Institute for Early Education Research.

Forty-four percent of school districts provided classroom-based pre-k in the 2011 school year, according to a Mississippi First report, and 72 percent of those districts used Title I dollars to do so.

Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter. 

By the numbers

Point increase on kindergarten readiness test from fall to spring of 2014-2015:

Clarke County Early Learning Partnership: 130

Coahoma County Pre-K Collaborative Initiative: 115

Corinth-Alcorn Prentiss Early Learning Collaborative: 89

DeSoto County Early Learning Collaborative: 115

Gilmore Early Learning Initiative Collaborative: 101

Lamar County Early Learning Collaborative: 71

McComb Community Collaborative for Early Learning Success: 53 

Petal Early Learning Collaborative: 69

Picayune School District: 98

Sunflower County Early Learning Collaborative: 81

Tallahatchie Early Learning Alliance: 109

Statewide collaborative totals: 94