Early Reading First
Back in September, Good Schools for All, an organization governed by a board of community stakeholders including local foundations, was awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. It was one of 32 granted nationally, and one of two given to NYS. They took that money and in collaboration with their Read To Succeed campaign, which involves a coalition of more than 50 local organizations that want to improve literacy in the City of Buffalo, started the Early Reading First program.
The program has been implemented at five Bethel Head Start centers and is meant to increase kindergarten readiness for children who have to overcome significant odds. 98% of the children involved in the program came from poverty and were developmentally behind in literacy skills as recently as January. In the five months that the program has had some 200 children aged three to four in it, significant headway has been made in their oral language and vocabulary skills.
The majority of the children are now on track to meet or exceed the Buffalo Public Schools’ Early Childhood kindergarten expectations. Now, 93% of four-year olds meet or exceed the U.S. Department of Education’s Early Reading First (ERF) standards in oral language and vocabulary skills. That number is up from 72%. Likewise as impressive is that at one time, only 47% of three-year old children in the program met the ERF standards for vocabulary and after a short five months, that figure has increased to 75%. Also, 72% of four-year olds can identify 18 or more upper case letters, up from 30%.
Considering that oral language and vocabulary skills are critical to learning to read, the results from the program are very encouraging. The children will continue to be evaluated as they move through the program and as they progress through the Buffalo Public Schools to evaluate the long-term success of the program. There is a tentative plan to try and encourage the Early Reading First families to enroll their children at Hamlin Park School (School 74) so that the children will get to stay together, making it easier to track their progress through third grade as well as giving the children the opportunity to keep the friendships they may have already developed.
If you would like to learn more about Good Schools for All, visit their website.
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pegger
One can hope that a longitudinal study will reveal significant impact. One thing that will help facilitate it is that an inordinate number of Buffalo's poor tend to not move out of the city making these kids easier to track over time. Studies have shown that children who participated in Head Start enter Kindergarten are ahead until about 2nd grade. In general, they more often than not fall behind. It's all very simple: the impact of poverty and all the barriers it creates to learning overcome the gains. Perhaps this intervention will help them maintain the edge they need.
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