Table of Contents
Better Coordination of Resources
Produces Better Reading
State Center for Early Childhood Development reports findings to Texas Legislature
The first time a child realizes that he can decipher meaningful words from the letters on a page, his face lights up. He has just taken a giant step toward success in school - and in life.
Susan Landry, Ph.D., is leading
efforts to improve early childhood
education.
Photo by Morrison Wulffraat
A report given to the Texas Legislature Sept. 1 showed that coordinating resources for early education produced substantial gains in early literacy and language development for both English- and Spanishspeaking preschool children.
The report outlined findings from three pilot programs of the State Center for Early Childhood Development, which is located at the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE). Both the state center and CIRCLE are directed by Susan Landry, Ph.D., the Michael Matthew Knight Memorial Professor of Pediatrics and chief of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
The state center was charged by the 78th Texas Legislature with promoting school readiness for children in preschool settings.
"Children are this state's most precious resource," said Shirley J. Neeley, commissioner of education. "We need to work together to give them the best start possible. This new report spotlights the current status of early childhood education and offers suggestions for improvement."
The State Center for Early Childhood Development, in conjunction with its advisory committee, developed recommendations to better serve Texas' children in traditional preschool settings:
- Children should be served in integrated partnerships with all the relevant early care and early education service providers participating.
- Uniform schoolreadiness standards should be developed, taking into consideration adequate flexibility and support to m e e t t h o s e standards.
- Statutes and policies should be revised to facilitate child care coordination.
"We need much more understanding of how our children are developing and what they need prior to entering public school," Landry said. "Children have to be exposed to early reading. They need to recognize letters of the alphabet. They need to know that sentences are broken into words, words into syllables and syllables into letters. They have to have that stimulation and a large, rich vocabulary. Otherwise, they can slide back and get lost."
Through its first pilot project, the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM), the state center brought together, in half of the 11 sites selected for the program, the three primary sources of services for children in preschool settings - public pre-kindergarten, Head Start and child care centers.
In those sites, resources were combined among the three service providers using a research-based curriculum and teacher training. Children were instructed using the same methods, emphasizing such skills as vocabulary, letter recognition and basic math concepts. Periodically, the teachers evaluated their students' knowledge and changed their instruction to reflect the children's needs.
The children showed substantial improvements after only a two- or three-month period in the spring of 2004. Since August, all 11 sites are benefiting from this integrated model.
The second pilot involves the development of a framework for a quality rating system that focuses on whether children enter kindergarten with the necessary cognitive skills in early literacy, early math and social skills. The new system, named the Texas School Readiness System, is being tested this fall in four additional communities: Midland, Abilene, Odessa and Tyler.
The third pilot implemented by the center created a parent initiative to promote school readiness skills in the home. Focused on the parents of children in the TEEM classrooms, the parent initiative will be continued this year as a larger effort, including parents in 15 cities and towns in Texas. The project includes materials and activities for building language and math skills at home. It also includes developmental information and checklists for selecting a high quality early care environment.