Indicators of children鈥檚 readiness for school are useful only when there are advocates and educators who care enough to improve those measures over time, concludes a report released last week from a 17-state group.
The participating states banded together in 2001 to track measures that contribute to children鈥檚 success in school.
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After three years of work, the states also found that in order to be meaningful, indicators鈥攕uch as the percentage of children under 6 without health insurance, or the percentage of children recognizing basic shapes when they enter kindergarten鈥攏eed to be communicated to policymakers and the public.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so important that we take action well before a child enters kindergarten,鈥� Elizabeth Burke Bryant, the coordinator of the indicators project, said during a telephone news conference last week. 鈥淔ar too many young children enter school with deficits that could have been minimized through early intervention.鈥�
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Ms. Bryant, who is also the executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, a child-policy organization, added that the initiative was launched to remedy a 鈥渄ata gap鈥� between the infant years鈥攚hen information is readily available for such vital statistics as low birthweight鈥攁nd 4th grade, when reading scores are widely available.
The project, which Ms. Bryant hopes will eventually turn into a 50-state initiative, will help fill that void, she said.
During tight economic times, such information, she said, can also help state lawmakers set priorities for their spending when they see which issues in their states need the most attention.
Emerging Indicators
The indicators of readiness, which focus on birth through age 8 and represent the different facets of child development, are organized into six categories: children, families, communities, health services, early care and education services, and schools.
Partners in the project reviewed research and consulted child-development experts to develop the list of indicators.
鈥淚鈥檓 terribly impressed that 17 states could reach consensus,鈥� said Ross Thompson, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, who spoke at the news conference and has been involved in school-readiness work in his state that is not part of the initiative.
Five national organizations provided guidance for the project: the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Education Commission of the States, and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Also included in the report are 鈥渆merging鈥� indicators, such as the percentage of children growing up in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and the percentage of children who have hearing or vision problems when they enter school鈥攁 statistic that researchers believe may play an important role in children鈥檚 future success in school.
Lessons Learned
The information that鈥檚 collected, however, shouldn鈥檛 be used to 鈥済rade鈥� policymakers鈥� efforts to improve the targeted areas, the report says, because when indicators are used as scorecards they have little impact. Instead, legislators and other leaders should be included in developing indicators and setting the priorities, the authors recommend.
鈥淎nnual monitoring of key school-readiness indicators can signal if things are moving in the right direction鈥攁nd if they are not,鈥� the report says. 鈥淢easuring progress over time can lead to more informed decisions about programs, policies, and investments.鈥�
The partnership also learned other lessons, including the need for children entering school to have literacy as well as social and emotional skills, not just one or the other.
Surveys of kindergarten teachers helped influence the teams from each state when they were deciding what indicators to include, Mr. Thompson said. He added that teachers often list self-confidence, the ability to cooperate, and self-control among the skills needed to do well in kindergarten.
鈥淭hey talk about these factors much more than they talk about children knowing their letters and numbers,鈥� he said.
Three foundations, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos, Calif., the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., and the Ford Foundation in New York City, donated a total of about $2 million to support the initiative.
The states participating in the initiative are: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
