Starting on Track to Starting on Track to Career and College Career and College

Readiness: Setting the Readiness: Setting the CourseCourse

Starting on Track to Starting on Track to Career and College Career and College

Readiness: Setting the Readiness: Setting the CourseCourse

NYS Association of Black and Puerto Rican NYS Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators 40Legislators 40thth Annual Association Weekend Annual Association Weekend

February 19, 2011February 19, 2011

Amanda Lester, Policy Analyst, Office of Amanda Lester, Policy Analyst, Office of Assemblywoman Barbara ClarkAssemblywoman Barbara Clark

Student Achievement Dilemmas in the News

• Only 34 percent of 4th graders, 30 percent of 8th graders, and 21 percent of seniors met at least the "proficient" level on the 2009 NAEP Science Exam.

• Statewide, only 40.8% of general education students demonstrated career and college readiness by graduation. The actual graduation rate of 76.8% for this group of students.

• In NYS, for every 100 students that enter the 9th Grade, only 19 will graduate with an associate’s degree in three years or a bachelor’s degree in six years.

• NYS offers the 2nd highest access to the GED, but the 2nd lowest pass rate.

Where Does the Struggle Begin?

“Children entering school ready to meet its academic, social and emotional demands are more likely to achieve success in academics and life. States that want to increase college readiness and success must intervene in the earliest years.”-Lee, J.M. and Rawls, A. (2010). The College Completion Agenda: 2010 Progress Report.

Where Does the Struggle Begin?

• High school graduation rates and student performance on benchmark tests demonstrate the problem after students have already fallen behind.

• For many students, warning signs of academic problems emerge in the early childhood and the elementary years.

• Early struggles with literacy, numeracy, inconsistent school attendance, behavioral problems, and low levels of resiliency are early indicators of emerging difficulties.

What happens when children start out already

behind?

What happens when children start out already

behind?“Access to preschool education can have a

direct effect on the ability for children to perform later in school.”

“Many of the educational disparities found in students later in their educational careers

can be linked back to preparation disparities in children when they enter

kindergarten.”

- Lee, J.M. and Rawls, A. (2010). The College Completion Agenda: 2010 Progress Report.

What happens when children start out already

behind?Child Poverty in NYS, November 2006

Source: Children’s Defense Fundhttp://www.cdfny.org/reports/May%202007/ChildPoverty_NY_Nov2006.pdf

Race/Ethnicity Total Children Poor Children Percent Poor

All Children 4,453,562 865,102 19.4%

White Children 2,412,321 260,502 10.7%

Black Children 728,517 245,690 33.7%

Latino Children

905,320 302,151 33.3%

Asian Children 274,129 53,512 19.5

What happens when children start out already

behind?As of 2006, almost one out of five children

in NYS lived in poverty.

Children living in poverty are …• 2 times as likely as children living above

poverty to repeat a grade• 3.5 times as likely as children living above

poverty to drop out of school• Half as likely to finish a four-year college.

• Living in poverty in early life has a life-long impact on schooling and employment.

What can we do to help children enter the

Education Pipeline ready to learn?

Invest in programs in the early years to address diversity in developmental rates among

children. This will improve school readiness and reduce the need to

invest in remedial programs in later grades.

Five Domains Attributed to School Readiness

1. Physical well-being (health, motor development)

2. Social-emotional development (social skills, emotion regulation)

3. Approaches to learning (ability and inclination to use skills)

4. Language development (verbal language, emerging literacy)

5. Cognition and general knowledge

-Stedron, J.M. and Berger, A (August 2010). NCSL Technical Report: State Approaches to School Readiness Assessment.

What Do We Know About How Young Children

Learn?• Children are natural knowledge seekers.• Children’s learning is often guided by their need

to know.• New knowledge and skills are constructed by

making connections with previously attained knowledge and skills.

• Children learn through play (applied learning).• Children build knowledge through repeated and

refined experiences with the same concepts, guided by their curiosity and desire to become “expert”.

• Learning opportunities provided to children must support the individual needs of the learner and social-emotional development.

What Do We Know About How Young Children Learn?

The human brain develops more in the first three years

than at any other subsequent period.

Child Development from Birth-8

• Birth- age 8 are the most important years in developing the mental capacity for life-long learning.

• There is a link between brain development and later cognitive ability.

• Children need to be exposed to language rich, cognitively stimulating environments in their earliest years.

The Grade 3 Imperative

• Failure to read proficiently by the end of Grade 3 is linked to higher rates of drop-out.

• The inability to read by the end of Grade 3 has a cumulative effect.

• The transition between Grades 3 and 4 include moving from learning to read to reading to learn.

• Failure to demonstrate reading proficiency by Grade 3 will then require remedial intervention.

The Grade 3 Imperative

Based on current trends, 6.6 million low-income children from birth-age 8 are at increased risk of dropping out of high

school or not graduating on time because they won’t be able to meet the NAEP proficient reading level by the end of Grade

3.

What is Prekindergarten?

Prekindergarten (Pre-K) can be defined as the first formal learning experience that a child has prior to entering Kindergarten.– Pre-K has typically focused on children ages 3-5

years– Pre-K occurs in a variety of settings, with varying

degrees of quality*– Children come to Pre-K with a range of

developmental diversity and prior experiences– Quality Pre-K experiences can help to reduce the

variation Kindergarten readiness

Is Traditional Pre-K Enough?Expanding the Pipeline to B-

16

Even with interventions beginning at the traditional Pre-K age, children with fewer language experiences by age 4* continue to lag behind their peers once they begin school.

*By age 4, children of professional parent had heard 48 million words, while children from lower income families had heard only 13 million words.

Often, parents and children in disadvantaged families need support beginning at the child’s birth to provide the developmental experiences necessary to achieve school readiness.

How does B-5 education empower student learning in

K-5?

High quality early learning experiences for children Birth-5…

• Promotes school readiness• Improves brain development, emotion

regulation and social skills• Improves language acquisition and literacy• Provides common experiences with core

knowledge• Increases family and parent involvement• Reduces likelihood of grade retention and

later remediation**B-5 experiences should be linked to K-5 through

transition and continued support.

Benefits of B-5 Education on Human Capital

Development

Each $1 of investment in preschool education yields

about an $11 return in benefits to society.

-Reynolds, A.J., White, B.A.B., and Robertson, D. (2011). Age 26 Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Child-Parent Center Early Education Program. Child Development, 82(1), 379-404.

Benefits of B-5 Education on Human Capital

Development The Child-Parent Center Early Education

Program…Followed students in preschool program beginning at age 3

until age 26, the entire program served students ages 3-9 years.

Over time, preschool program participants showed: – higher rates of college completion– completed more years of education– significantly lower rates of felony arrest – higher rates of insurance coverage– lower rates of depressive symptoms

Benefits of B-5 Education on Human Capital

Development

The Child-Parent Center Early Education Program…

Over time, K-12 outcomes included:– Significantly lower rates of grade retention– Lower rates of special education placement– Lower incidences of child maltreatment– Fewer out of home placements– Fewer juvenile arrests– Higher rates of attendance in 4 year colleges– Employment in higher-skilled jobs.

Summary• Providing support and educational opportunities

to parents and children beginning at birth can close the achievement gap by addressing variations in developmental diversity.

• Birth-8 are critical years to laying the cognitive foundation to lifelong learning and education-reliant opportunities.

• Early learning and prekindergarten programs are shown to improve success outcomes for children into adulthood.

• B-5 programs that include parent engagement strengthen parent-child connections and in turn improve educational and life success outcomes for children.