Ensuring Children Are Successful

Getting Preschoolers Ready to Learn

Have you ever watched a baby examine a set of measuring spoons, or held your ears while a toddler belted out her latest rendition of the alphabet song?

When you watch a child play, you might not realize how much is going on inside that tiny head – but in fact the human brain develops more rapidly during the first three years than at any other time in life. The foundation for future learning is established – or not.

When children don’t have the opportunity to attend preschool, they may have trouble when they start kindergarten and are expected to recognize letters, have basic counting skills, and even read or pretend to read.

That’s why helping kids gain the skills they need to enter kindergarten ready to learn is crucial – and why it yields such phenomenal results. Research shows that every dollar spent on quality early childhood programs returns up to $17 in long-term savings, since children in these programs will ultimately have higher paying jobs and will be less likely to commit crimes as adults.

What we’re doing: United Way is focusing on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by investing in quality early childhood programs and increasing the number of children who attend preschool.

Results: More than 4,000 children learned skills they’ll need in school by participating in one of seven quality early childhood education programs in central and northeastern Connecticut that received United Way Community Investment funds last year. And thanks to United Way support for the work of the New Britain Discovery Collaborative, in 2007 New Britain reached the state average of 75% of four year olds attending preschool. Five years ago, New Britain ranked last in the state with just 38% of children attending preschool.

Keeping Older Kids On Track and In School

 Helping children enter school ready to learn is only part of our challenge. We know that kids who are not on track in school when they’re in 4th grade are less likely to graduate from high school. And children who participate in after-school programs are 60% less likely to drop out of school.

What we’re doing: United Way is focusing on quality out-of-school programs that provide mentorship, tutoring, and help developing skills to succeed once they are out of school, like computer skills and how to develop a resume or interview for a job; and we’re investing in the Well-Managed Classroom (WMC) model for improving the learning environment in Hartford and New Britain schools, so kids spend more time learning and less time off-task.

Results: Last year, 35 programs from 23 partner agencies helped students improve academically. Eighty percent of children gained skills to improve academic success. In Hartford classrooms that consistently used WMC strategies, 9 of 10 students were academically engaged; on average, only one student was off-task every two minutes; and fewer students were suspended. In addition, 95% of students complied with teacher correction compared with 51% of students in classes where WMC was not used consistently.