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ACTION RESEARCH
Studies show that the learning gap begins before children even start school. Northwest Evaluation Association reported that the gap in both language and math achievement likely begin between birth and kindergarten (Fielding, 2006). In Kent, 69% of students are entering kindergarten with the literacy skills of children 2 to 4-year-olds. In math, 87% of students enter kindergarten with skill levels in that same range. Students entering kindergarten at Daniel, Pine Tree and Millennium elementary schools score among the lowest in Kent School District.
If these students are going to be successfully prepared for their futures, they need opportunities for school readiness prior to entering kindergarten. The Starting Early to Prepare All Children for Success project is designed to partner pre-school providers, parents and their K-12 counterparts to work collaboratively, assuring that all children are performing at their highest possible levels, before they enter kindergarten.
Workshops focusing on developmentally appropriate learning activities aligned to WaKids standards coupled with the implementation of Ready! for Kindergarten, and the intentional development of cross-sector partnerships between pre-school providers, parents, K-12 teachers, administrators and district-level leaders will be provided at Daniel, Pine Tree and Millennium Elementary Schools. The result will increase show an increase of 15% in the range of skills in literacy and math annually, as measured by WaKIDS TS-Gold. The lessons learned from this pilot project will be shared and implemented at other low-performing schools in the district.
Problem of Practice
Students entering Kindergarten at Daniel, Pine Tree, and Millennium Elementary Schools are performing below the average Range of Skills in literacy and mathematics as measured by WaKIDS TS-Gold. The whole child assessment, isn’t a test. Kindergarten teachers observe their students during classroom activities and score them using the TS-Gold observation tool. This helps teachers learn what children in the classroom know and what they are able to do when they enter kindergarten. This knowledge allows them to provide the instruction and support that each child needs to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.
Click the icon to see the Back-mapping plan.
WaKIDS
Students entering Kindergarten at Daniel, Pine Tree, and Millennium Elementary Schools are performing below the average Range of Skills in literacy and mathematics as measured by WaKIDS TS-Gold. The whole child assessment, isn’t a test. Kindergarten teachers observe their students during classroom activities and score them using the TS-Gold observation tool. This helps teachers learn what children in the classroom know and what they are able to do when they enter kindergarten. This knowledge allows them to provide the instruction and support that each child needs to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.
IRLA Reading
The Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA) is a unified standards-based framework for student assessment, text leveling, and curriculum and instruction. Kent School District has used this tool for the last two years
i-Ready Math
Built for the Common Core, i-Ready assessments combine a valid and reliable growth measure. A single K–12 adaptive Diagnostic for reading and mathematics that pinpoints student needs down to the sub-skill level, and ongoing progress monitoring shows whether students are on track to achieve end-of-year targets. These data show the growth of kindergarten students over the last two years.
ABSTRACT
THEORY OF CHANGE
DATA
ARP
Starting Early to Prepare All Children for Success
This action research project was completed by the Kent Team 1. My team-mates for this work were Brenda Arroyo, LySander Collins, Lisa Couch and Karen Harrington.
As we examined the data, and conferred with our cross-sector partners, we realized that as a district we need to provide opportunities that build relationships that support both parents and pre-school providers and help to identify and deliver developmentally appropriate learning activities for children from birth through Kindergarten. As we explored options, we decided to target families and feeder pre-school programs at three of our schools where the WaKIDs data indicates incoming kindergartners are least prepared.
This Action Research Project will build upon work that our district has begun in some of our schools to provide the Ready! for Kindergarten program to parents of 3-6 year-olds at Daniel, Millennium and Pine Tree Elementary Schools. Our team will also reach out to the feeder-preschools to connect them with parents, teachers, administrators, and K-12 curriculum coordinators from the district, to help them learn about best practices in teaching literacy and numeracy. These opportunities will give parents and pre-school partners insight into both effective teaching practices as well as curriculum alignment from pre-school to kindergarten and beyond.
Our plan is to learn and improve on these opportunities, and to share them with our UW-P3 Kent Team 2, so that when this project is completed we can work on ways to align our two projects next year.
Click the Word icon to view the entire proposal.
In creating this ARP, my team began by focusing on the P-3 work that is already being done in our district and the results to date. Much of the initial work that has been done in our district has been funded with Race to the Top (RTTT) dollars. One of our challenges around the work in this proposal has been to leverage what's left of our RTTT funds to support the work outlined in this APR, while determining how the work can continue next year when RTTT funds are completely gone.
Working with our cross-sector partners, we have been able to identify other resources that will allow us to continue our work. We have also carefully worked through the "Marshaling Resources/Sustainability Plan" documents as a guide to plan for sustainability. Please see the results of this work by clicking the Word icon to the right.
Sustainability
Feeder Patterns
Daniel Elementary: We identified 18 different pre-school programs that send students to Daniel, with most of the children coming from Covenant Kids Preschool, Montessori Plus Kent, and ECEAP (program unknown.)
Millennium Elementary: Seventeen different serve the preschoolers who enter Millennium Elementary School. Most preschoolers come from Kent Head Start ECEAP followed by the Kent-Meridian CoOp, and Covenant Kids Christian Preschool. Our research discovered that 32% of the children entering Millennium do not schare information about any preschool experiences.
Pine Tree Elementary: Children entering kindergarten at Pine Tree come from thirteen different programs. Three preschool programs are equally popular with parents. They are Busy Bee Preschool, KYFS Headstart at Birch Creek, and KYFS Headstart. At Pine Tree 33% of the children entering kindergarten reported they did not attend preschool.
To see this data, click on the document icons to the right of each school.
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