Pre-Kindergarten Exploration

1. Pre-Kindergarten Exploration West Hempstead School District Board of Education Presentation November 19, 2013

2. Strategic Plan 2011-2014

4. Educational Equity Action Plan • Examine the need and feasibility of a pre-school program • Visit programs • Investigate pre-school options • Research success of this early intervention in the literature

5. The Need • 34% of the current kindergarten students have no preschool experience (range from 31%-38% over the past four years) • The 2013 average incoming screening score (including motor, language and concepts): 51% for students without pre-school 77% for students with pre-school (51% higher than students without pre-school)

6. Visitations • Westbury • Freeport • Long Beach • Herricks • Oceanside • Lawrence • Franklin Square

7. Models • Funding: UPK, District, UPK/District, Parents Pay (scholarships available) • Providers: District staff or outside contractors (Harbor Day, St. Joseph’s College, SCOPE) • Length of Day: half day, full day, optional length of day

8. Classroom Set-up

9. Program Components: Group Time

10. Center Time

11. Literacy

12. Numeracy

13. Blocks

14. Dramatic Play

15. Movement

16. Music

17. Artistic Expression

18. Collaboration with Families

19. Benefits: • Exposure to the “Language” of School • Experience with the “Routines” of School • Expansion of Background Knowledge • Foundation in Academic Vocabulary • Initial Foundation in the Common Core Curriculum • Socialization and Learning through Play • Closing the Achievement Gap Through Early Intervention

20. Projected Costs • One-time Start up Costs: --development of space --classroom set-up ($8,000-$10,000 per classroom—4 classes/2 classrooms $16,000- $20,000) • Recurring Costs: --per-pupil cost can range from $2,700- $6,000 per student per year, --depending on the model selected (4 classes/64 students--$172,800-$384,000)

21. Next Steps • Decide whether to proceed with exploration • Continue to examine research • Choose a model and determine cost of program • Determine number of students to be served • Determine cost of developing space • Explore funding sources • Identify selection process • Develop curriculum

22. The Big Questions… Are we ready to open the door of opportunity for all students by building a strong pre-school foundation?

23. Do we believe that pre-school can help to close the equity gap?

24. How will we fund the program?

25. Do we fund Pre-K before we consider restoring/filling in what has been lost?

26. What does the research say? • Stanford University: the achievement gap starts as early as 18 months, by age five there can be a two-year gap. • Dickinson (Vanderbilt) and Snow (Harvard)—a child’s vocabulary score in kindergarten can predict reading comprehension scores in later grades. • Fernald and Weisleder (Stanford)—there is a wide discrepancy between the number of “child-directed” words heard per day by pre-schoolers (670 vs. 12,000). Children who hear more words have larger vocabularies by age two. There is a correlation between strength of vocabulary and literacy development in children.

27. Research continued…. • Pianta, University of Virginia—after receiving high-quality Pre-K, at risk students demonstrated the same achievement levels as their peers without risk factors. • Gormley, Georgetown University—Preschool education has considerable potential to improve educational outcomes for Hispanic children.

28. What does our data tell us? • Language and concept scores on the kindergarten screening indicate a significant discrepancy between the students who have attended pre-school and those who have not attended pre-school. • The number of letters and sounds that students can identify upon entering kindergarten is significantly different for the two groups of students. • Additional factors such as ELL and poverty exacerbate the discrepancy between the two groups of students.

29. Are we ready to launch a developmentally-appropriate pre-kindergarten option?