A major donation will help Vancouver Public Schools support the district’s littlest learners and their families, district officials said this week.
The Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools this week announced it received its largest single donation ever pledged: $500,000 over four years. The money, given by an anonymous donor, will help the district expand free, short-term, after-school preschool sessions at its highest-need elementary schools.
“The generosity in this particular donation stands to impact not just the preschool program but the rest of the kids in the elementary school,” said Nada Wheelock, the foundation’s executive director.
The district’s Preschool Explorer program, currently in place at nine Vancouver Public Schools campuses, will expand to all 15 of the district’s Title 1 elementary schools because of the donation. Those campuses have a high percentage of low-income students and receive federal dollars to support all students.
Debra Hale, executive director of teaching and learning for the district, say the classes give students a taste of some of what they’ll be learning in kindergarten: letters, numbers, colors and shapes. It also gives students, perhaps more importantly, a feel for what their future schools look like and how to behave in a classroom.
“That’s the hard-to-quantify part,” Hale said. “(Students) walk in saying, ‘This is my school. I belong here.'”
The afternoon preschool programs look a little different at each campus depending on what families want and need, Hale said. At Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School, for example, one session is taught entirely in Spanish. That campus is home to the district’s Spanish-English dual language program, and has a large population of Spanish speakers. Some campuses’ preschool programs offer a free dinner for students as well as their parents.
“Cost can be prohibitive. Sometimes family’s schedules can be prohibitive,” Hale said. “What this has done has allowed us to have some flexibility.”
Lasting impacts
Research suggests that, apart from helping individual children and families, investment in preschool programs can have sweeping societal impacts.
According to the research from James Heckman, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and a Nobel Memorial Prize winner, communities see a 13 percent return on investment for every dollar invested into high-quality early childhood education programs for poor students. That return comes in the form of less money spent on social welfare, decreased crime rates and increased tax revenue.
Washington is tracking early childhood learning through its WaKIDS initiative, or the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills. The program promotes communication between kindergarten teachers and incoming families, as well as between preschools and area elementary schools. Kindergarten teachers must also track whether their students are starting schools with skills that indicate whether they’re ready to learn, ranging from basic understanding of numbers and letters, the ability to listen to instructions from their teachers, and play and share with their peers.
Locally, there’s still a long way to go toward preparing students for kindergarten. State data suggests only about half of all students in Clark County enter kindergarten with the foundational skills they need to be ready to learn. For students receiving free or reduced-price lunches — a barometer of family poverty — the number is much lower. Only 38.7 percent of low-income students enter kindergarten meeting the readiness standards.
Debbie Ham is the executive director of Support for Early Learning and Families, an organization advocating for improved access to early childhood education in Southwest Washington. The organization last year released its first “State of our Children and Families” report, with an updated version coming this year. The report, using WaKIDS data, pointed to the gaps in kindergarten readiness, noting that low-income children, English-language learners and some children of color are less likely to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
While she praised Vancouver Public Schools’ efforts, she called on that district and others to also refer families comprehensive preschools like Headstart and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program centers that are free for low-income families. She also called for improved investment in early childhood education in light of the fact that half of students are entering school without meeting readiness standards.
“I dream of the day when our community leaders start asking the early learning community what is wrong and how can we change that statistic?” Ham said. “I wonder when will we decide that we are no longer willing to accept that half of our children are starting school behind? When that day comes I know this community will take on the challenge and enact meaningful change.”
