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Ken Smythe-LeisticoAssistant Director
University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Developmentwww.readyfreddy.org
Kindergarten Readiness:What Predicts Success in Elementary School?
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Bogs – N – Frogs
• Description of Successful Transition• Getting Kids “Ready”• Promising and Established Practices• Ready Freddy• Oh, Hoppy Day
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Predicting School Success
• What ‘factors’ of a child’s early life would predict how well they do in Kindergarten?
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Let’s go back further…
Factors that influence early success
• Tied to the experiences of early childhood
• Strong influence of income
• Protective factor of parent involvement
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AGE APPROPRIATE BOOKS IN HOME
0
50
100
150
200
High Income Middle Income Low Income
Differences in Opportunities
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Get Ready Freddy!
Helping parents find their role
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What’s a frog gotta do?
Hop, hop, hop!
Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!
Figure out those pesty flies!
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Hop, hop, hop!
Figure out those
Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!
pesty flies!
Talk, talk, talk!
Do things alone!
Notice, think, and
solve!
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How do you help kids learn more words?
Talk, talk, talk!
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Language • The more words a child knows at 3, the better
his reading is later• 3-year-olds whose parents went to college
know more than twice as many words as other kids
• By the time they are 4, low-income kids have heard about 32 million words less than high-income kids
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How else do you help kids learn more words?
Read, read, read!
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Number of Rare Words
0
20
40
60
80
Newspaper Children's Book Adult talking to 3-year old
Why read aloud?
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How do you help kids notice, think and solve?
Respond, respond, respond!
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• The strange thing about independence: Children do not learn to be independent without help
• Children who have the most responsive parents at 2 years old, have the highest achievement scores in elementary school
• “Responsive” means to recognize needs and support learning with help
Do things alone!
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Views on Transition
• National Center for Early Development and Learning
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Impact of Transition
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Path to School Success
Enrollment• Outreach• Community
Engagement
Quality Kindergarten Transition• Relationship
building• School visits• Prepare for new
roles
Successful Start• 1st Day Attendance• Teacher-family
partnership
Success in School• Engaged Parents• Ongoing
attendance• Academic Success
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Enrollment: Did you know?
• Every year, Schools struggles to ensure Kindergarten students are enrolled early enough to allow for transition opportunities.
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Quality Transition: Did you Know?
• Nationally, teachers report that 48% of children beginning kindergarten struggle with the transition to school.
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Quality Transition
• Kindergarten transition is a series of events and interactions that foster relationships between rising kindergarten families and school personnel while promoting comfort in the facility and reducing anxieties for all.
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Successful Start: Did you know?
• Being present the first day seems to matter
– Children who were PRESENT on the first day of Kindergarten missed an average of 9 days of Kindergarten
– Children who were ABSENT on the first day of Kindergarten missed an average of 18 days of Kindergarten
• PPS School A 2009-2010
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Success in School: Did you know?
• Nationally every year, 1 in 10 kindergarten students misses a month of school
• In low income areas this ratio of chronic absence is 1 in 4
• Of those chronically absent in Kindergarten, only 17% are reading at grade level in the 3rd grade.
• www.attendanceworks.org
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Longitudinally, kindergarten attendance is one of the strongest early predictors of high school drop out
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Problem Statement Review
• Nationally– Only 14 states mandate Kindergarten attendanceAs many as 50% of entering Kindergarten students
had not attended preschool
• Locally (Pennsylvania)– As few as 25% of Kindergarten students are
enrolled and attend the first day of school– School is NOT mandated until age 8
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Why a frog???
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Message is stronger…
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Parent voice
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Spread the word through print
• Displayed giant banner announcing the week
• Developed posters and flyers that were displayed in businesses and community agencies
• Had flyers put on every pizza box delivered by one local pizza shop
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And prepared for Welcome
• New Welcome Signs• Frog “footprints”
directing to the office
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Enrollment:Lessons learned
• Be visible• Be strategic• Be concrete• Be welcoming• Be simple
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Resources • Strategies, tools, and national literature
• Samples and full curricula
• Videos of events and parent voice
• Materials for families
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Keeping in TouchKen Smythe-Leistico
(412) 383-5385
www.readyfreddy.org
Facebook: Ready Freddy
Twitter: @pittreadyfreddy