Sunday, February 10, 2008
First, educate the parents about its value
Elizabeth Strother
Recent columns
When Scott and Henrietta Luneau decided to move from her native Hungary to the Roanoke Valley last year, they went to the Web to start looking for a home. Their first stop was the Virginia Department of Education.
With two preschool-age children, they wanted to know about public school attendance zones.
"We found the schools that had a pre-K program," Scott Luneau said in a recent interview at the couple's home in Roanoke's Grandin Court neighborhood. "This one stood out. Grandin Court [Elementary] was accredited, it had good rankings from the state. We used that as the overriding factor in buying a house."
The Luneaus met at a university in Hungary, where he was graduated as a doctor of internal medicine and she earned a Ph.D. in theoretical medicine. They moved to Roanoke because Scott accepted a residency at Carilion.
They are well-educated consumers of education. They wanted their son, Patrik, who was 4 at the time, to be able to attend pre-K. "We knew kids in pre-K have a better outcome than kids who aren't in pre-K," Scott said. "We knew it'd be good for him."
What the Luneaus didn't know was that the Virginia Preschool Initiative is targeted to at-risk children who aren't served by the federal Head Start program. Patrik might not have been able to enroll.
The program is not constrained by Head Start's strict income guidelines, however. Localities define the risk factors to be considered and how to weight them. Schools then take the children at the greatest risk first. But as long as a pre-K class has an open space, no 4-year-old in a school's attendance zone in Roanoke will be turned away.
Patrik got in.
"His particular need was based in his being new to the country," said Andrea Micklem, Patrik's pre-K teacher last year at Grandin Court Elementary. "Though he was bilingual, he didn't have all the nuances of the language." And when she made her initial home visit, he hid.
In preschool, he thrived.
"He always came home and talked about what they did at school," his dad said. "He always enjoyed it. They'd send home a daily assessment of what he's doing, a weekly sheet of what they would be doing that week."
He was exposed to the idea of homework. "They made it fun. He gets upset if we don't read a book with him now, it's become such a ritual."
Understanding the value
Roanoke needs more parents to understand, as Patrik's do, the boost in confidence, social skills and the foundations of learning that pre-K offers to children. City schools did not fill all of their state-allotted Virginia Preschool Initiative slots this year, though 54 percent of the district's overall student population are poor enough to qualify for free lunches.
"We're convinced they're easily filled," Superintendent Rita Bishop said. "We have not done good outreach. The mind-set among parents is, you go to school when you're 6 or 5. In an urban situation, you can't assume they will come."
So Bishop said the district will be going to Wal-Mart, seeking public service spots, searching out every possible venue where it can connect with the people the schools need to reach to make the most difference in children's lives.
"I know we can fill our slots, and we have to fill our slots with the most needy," Bishop said.
Jaye Harvey, special education coordinator for Roanoke city schools, said city schools are well aware that preschool education is effective. But she cautioned, "A high-quality preschool program is not an inoculation, it does not reduce the impact of poverty. It doesn't fix everything else in a child's life."
"It's the key to establishing the foundation" for learning, said Donna Lee, the school district's preschool coordinator. "What's wonderful is we take the children where they are when they come in. The teacher and instructional assistant are able to adapt lessons to meet the needs of individual children, who can range from prereading to no experience with reading."
"It's less important they know their ABCs," Harvey added, "than that they can get along in a group, follow instructions, get along with their peers. And learn that school is a place where they can be successful."
Filling all the slots might take more than an aggressive public information campaign, much as that is needed.
"In the city there's a huge need for full-day services," Lee said. By full day, she means beyond the five hours that the district calls a full day of preschool, generally 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"We have a partnership with YMCA Magic Place to provide before- and after-school care for elementary-age children," Lee said. "Parents expressed a need for it for preschool, so we were able to establish two sites this school year, at Monterey and Fishburn Park."
Head Start, the federal preschool program open to families at or below federal poverty guidelines, has come up against the same need. It provides free part-day preschool during the school year, and full-day preschool from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. year-round for children whose parents work or are in school or job training. If these parents need to leave their children earlier or pick them up later, they can pay for wraparound services.
"There's a waiting list for our full-day slots," said Amy Hatheway, research and grants developer for TAP Head Start. "We don't have a waiting list for our part-day, which is much more analogous to what their school day is."
Harvey, of the city schools, said the district has times when the Virginia Preschool Initiative program is full on paper, but the classes aren't full when school starts. Parents apply for the program, but their children aren't enrolled until the schools get documentation of immunizations, a physical and a birth certificate.
"For some families," she said, "that can be a problem. They don't have the $12 to get a birth certificate."
And some parents, of course, just don't want to send their 4-year-olds to school.
A visit to a preschool class might ease some anxieties.
The preschool teachers and assistants at Grandin Court can talk at length about their purpose, their planning, their process of tracking individual skills for individual children. For the students, it's child's play. They're having fun.
They have a structured day of social time, quiet time, time when they work together as a group and time when they work independently and choose for themselves what they want to do. Teachers look for their strengths, to nurture them. "A lot of it is being intuitive and taking advantage of a teachable moment," Micklem said.
"Helping children learn how to interact with peers appropriately -- that's a big one," said Peggy Spyhalski. Grandin Court has two preschool classes for 4-year-olds. She is the other lead teacher. "Alongside social development and raising expectations as they meet milestones."
Every child has a special need
Alene Mendoza, whose daughter Samara is in Micklem's class, is pleased.
"I wasn't sure I was going to put her in school until someone told me it'd be good for her to go," Mendoza said. "She didn't know how to spell her name or count. Now she knows how to count, spell her name, she's got good manners."
"If you're wanting her to pick up her toys, she does. Before, she wouldn't do anything."
"My personal feeling," Micklem said, "is every child has a special need. There isn't one child who wouldn't benefit from preschool. In the old days, it'd be kindergarten where a child could gain his footing, get a lot of confidence for the transition" from home to school.
"By the time they're 5, there's a huge expectation of them to sit down and learn."
"VPI has leveled the playing field," said Terri Pritchard, the principal at Grandin Court. "We don't have to all be dependent on private preschool anymore. More parents are able to have that option. Typically, the children who have preschool experience, it gives them an edge. It really does. All children with pre-K experience have that advantage here."
