Goal 1: Kindergarten Readiness

GOAL 102 KINDERGARTEN READINESS

EVERY CHILD IS WELL , HEALTHY AND READY FOR SCHOOL

hildren who are ready for kindergarten are more likely to thrive throughout school and to meet grade-level goals in reading and math down the road. When we focus on getting our kids ready for school, what we are really doing is creating a foundation that prepares our children to best acquire the skills that they will need to equip them to face the challenges of the next century. C

Preparing our kids to be able to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by an education also ensures that our country will be able to draw upon everyone’s skills and capabilities. We all benefit when we do everything we can as a community to help our children show up to school ready to learn — ensuring that Alamance County will be better prepared for the future.

We believe that lifelong education begins at birth, not only when a child enters kindergarten. It takes strong community and family supports to build a child’s brain architecture and set the foundation for learning. The goal is to give all children access to the building blocks they need to be prepared for their first day of kindergarten. These building blocks include strong physical, social and emotional health, community-wide understanding of what is expected of

children at kindergarten entry, early exposure to literacy, and the opportunity to interact with other children in education-rich settings. Research shows strong correlations between early childhood health and educational progress, making early childhood a natural focus point for educational intervention.

If we fail to address barriers to access to learning opportunities, some areas of Alamance County will have access to education that equips them for the future and others will not. Our county cannot afford to limit its talent pool by having great differences in educational quality from place to place. We need to make sure that all students receive a fair share of educational resources, no matter where they live.

CORE INDICATORS One Core Indicator for Kindergarten Readiness will be the baseline results from the new Alamance-Burlington School System Kindergarten Screener that is being piloted in the 2018-19 school year and will be implemented system-wide in fall 2019. The screener measures progress toward the county-wide definition of “kindergarten readiness” developed by Alamance Achieves Kindergarten Readiness Action Network and ABSS Kindergarten teachers: Kindergarten readiness is a critical stage of early development in the areas of social, emotional, academic and motor skills that enable a child to engage in and be empowered by school-based learning experiences.

Child health and well-being is an important part of school readiness. Networks around this goal are currently identifying the best Core Indicator measure and goals for wellness to support Kindergarten Readiness.

CONTRIBUTING INDICATORS • Well-child visits • Access to high-quality pre-K and/or licensed and regulated childcare • Childcare subsidy wait list • Percent of children identified with special needs receiving early intervention or special education services • Birth outcomes and number of mothers who received timely prenatal care • Number of children, aged 0-5, enrolled in specialized programs

38% of entering ABSS kindergartners met developmental benchmarks in text comprehension in 2017*