Early childhood education is important for establishing good brain development, and local educators are encouraging as many people as possible to attend.
According to the 2015 Kids Count data report compiled by the Indiana Youth Institute, only about 38 percent of Hoosier 3- and 4-year-olds attend a quality preschool program, which is lower than the national average of 46 percent. Preschool programs have become more available in southwest Indiana in the past few years as local school corporations expand their offerings, but the state provides very limited funding for the service. Parents must often pay a weekly fee to ensure their children get a head start on learning.
“Before we opened our preschool, I would say 10 to 15 percent (of corporation students) attended a preschool because they weren’t available. Now I would tell you we are up to about 50 percent,” said North Spencer Preschool Coordinator and Chrisney Elementary School Principal Julie Kemp who helped bring the program to the district during the 2012-13 school year. “I don’t believe that in Indiana, and honestly in North Spencer, we will get any higher than that until preschool and day care are affordable.”
The North Spencer preschool, which currently serves 130 students, breaks even by charging parents $35 per week per child.
There is some debate about how far the benefits of preschool reach. The Perry Preschool Study, conducted in the 1960s, is one of the most well-known examinations of the long-term effects of early childhood education. The study followed 123 children living in poverty, half of whom attended a high-quality preschool and the other half of whom did not. Years later, 77 percent of the preschool group graduated from high school compared to just 60 percent in the other group. Additionally, 60 percent of the preschool group earned more than $20,000 annually age 40 compared to just 40 percent of their counterparts. And 55 percent of the non-preschool group had been arrested more than five times by age 40, while only 36 percent of their more educated peers had the same run-ins with the law.
Still other studies maintain it is difficult to measure whether the benefits of preschool carry a student through high school, college and a career or whether the advantages fade in elementary school. A 2010 report from Head Start, for example, showed significant benefits in the short term for 3- and 4-year-olds, but those same children were not significantly different from their peers by the end of first grade. Kemp said local teachers are at least seeing marked growth in preschool children as they move forward to kindergarten, and she expects that to continue as the children grow older.
North Spencer educators assess kindergarten students for readiness skills, which include their recognition of letters, numbers and sounds. Their data has shown that those who attended any preschool, not just the North Spencer program, clearly outperform those who did not.
“We know that brain development is crucial between the ages of 3 to 5,” Kemp explained. “If we take that time and we give them high-quality interactions with hearing text read out loud and sorting things by color or by shape, we’re helping them to make connections in their brain.”
The preschool day includes playtime, and sometimes even naps, but staff has a vital job to do in preparing students for the rigor of elementary school. Denise Merkel, a preschool teacher at Dubois Elementary School, said it’s important to make learning fun. Children in her program are exposed to hard concepts like the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors, as well as soft skills such as sharing, friendship and teamwork.
“They learn how to socialize with their peers, get along with other children and how to become students. Besides all the academics, there are so many teachable moments throughout an ordinary day, helping children to deal with sharing, friendships and frustration,” Merkel said. “Children learn better when they enter kindergarten with good social and behavior-management skills.”
Northeast Dubois does not have a concrete method of tracking the preschool students’ abilities compared to others, but Merkel is confident those who have gone through the program enter kindergarten and the lower elementary grades ahead of their peers.
“I do feel children who attend preschool enter kindergarten knowing how to raise their hand, participate and sit in ‘circle time.’ I feel they know how to line up for the restroom and how to anticipate and follow a routine,” she said. “I feel the majority of these children enter kindergarten with better pre-reading skills, a larger vocabulary and more basic math skills.”
The Dubois Elementary preschool has about 72 students, which Merkel estimates comprise at least half of the eventual kindergarten population. Still, she worries about those young children coming from low-income families who cannot afford the $99 per month per child the preschool program must charge to keep operating.
“Sometimes, the kids who can’t afford to come are the ones who need to come the most,” Merkel said. “I have run into those situations. That is difficult.”
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