United Way of Southern Cameron County Texas Community Campaign for School Readiness Sustainability Plan for

Success By 6 A. Project Overview

To affect sustainable positive education change in populations, our community took a systems change approach and developed a collaborative school-readiness plan targeted at both the neighborhood and institutional level. Over the past 2 years, United Way of Southern Cameron County and the Early Childhood Leadership Team focused school readiness efforts on identifying and responding to the communities’ early childhood needs by participating in the Texas Community Campaign for School Readiness. This included: 1.) conducting an early childhood needs assessment using the Early Development Instrument in southern Cameron County and disseminating the results to the community 2.) convening and managing an early childhood stakeholder group 3.) facilitating the creation of a community early childhood strategic plan 4.) ensuring the creation of a sustainability plan for the stakeholder group and its efforts. The project was implemented over a 24 month time period to conduct the Early Development Instrument (EDI) screenings within three school districts, the Brownsville Independent School District, Point Isabel Independent School District, Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District and IDEA Charter Schools. The assessments were completed by all Kindergarten teachers within these districts during the first 12 months of implementation. The following 12 months were used to analyze data, disseminate results, host listening sessions “Meriendas” and create a strategic plan to match proven school readiness strategies with the specific needs of the community.

Table 2. Percent of Schools and Number of Children Participating in the EDI by School District, 2012

Number of

Participating Schools1

Number of Schools in Districts2

Percent Participation

Number and Percent of EDI

Questionnaires Valid for Analysis1

Brownsville Independent School District

36 36 100% 3,425 (97%)

IDEA Public Schools 1 1 100% 110 (99%)

Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District

9 9 100% 635 (97%)

Point Isabel Independent School 1 1 100% 211 (98%)

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District

Total 47 47 100% 4,381 (97%)

1. The EDI Community Profile reflects data collected by participating kindergarten teachers during the 2011-2012 school year. In addition, data were combined from the prior two years for schools that exclusively participated in 2009-2010 or 2010-2011 but did not participate in 2011-2012. 2. As reported in the District Profile. B. United Way as a Community Mobilizer and Backbone Organization

United Way of Southern Cameron County is a nonprofit, community based organization with over fifty years of experience in mobilizing resources to address community issues. The organization is located on the southernmost tip of Texas directly across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico. For the past ten years United Way of Southern Cameron County has invested its resources heavily in three main areas: Education, Health and Income Development. Along with this investment strategy, United Way of Southern Cameron County has developed a number of powerful initiatives, including Success By 6. Through the Success By 6 initiative, United Way of Southern Cameron County has increased professional development for daycare providers; worked with the local workforce board to develop a quality rating system for daycares to ensure children are school ready; implemented the Texas Early Education Model in 180 pre-k classrooms; increased opportunities for stay at home moms and informal daycare providers to gain access to early learning materials, training opportunities and social networks; and has expanded the knowledge and awareness of community leaders about the importance of early learning and brain development. Success By 6 was developed to improve early literacy with the goal of improving the long term success of youth in school. Early literacy skills are critical to the long term academic success of our students. According to the 2007 Texas Pre Reading Inventory Assessment, 34% of Brownsville children entering kindergarten lack the fundamental early literacy skills crucial for educational success. To improve the education levels of the community, we must first strengthen the foundation for early learning by providing children with high quality early childhood centers, access to health services and protective factors to ensure their wellbeing and safety from abuse and neglect. For the last ten years United Way of Southern Cameron County and its partners have worked to increase professional development opportunities for daycare providers and to develop a quality rating system to ensure children develop early literacy skills before they enter school. This effort also includes initiatives to ensure parents and informal daycare providers have access to early learning resources and learning opportunities that promote literacy development, social and emotional competencies of children as well as the health and well-being of children. Success By 6 has implemented a variety of programs to ensure early learners have access to books. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library that has sent books to over 4,000 children on a monthly basis in the

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community to ensure they enter school with the necessary skills to succeed. The United Way Children’s Book Club reaches 600 children every month and puts books into the hands of kids and families in several communities in Southern Cameron County. United Way of Southern Cameron County is a leader in convening the community around issues and developing strategies to solve problems focused on education from cradle to career. The staff members were instrumental in the development of a comprehensive community plan called Imagine Brownsville that is now the United Brownsville plan. Even with a comprehensive community plan in place, early childhood development and education were not at the forefront of the plan. Early childhood entities, both public and private continued to work in silos and blindly used poverty as a proxy for any and all intervention. C. Can we continue to use poverty as a proxy for intervention? Results say NO!

Cameron County, which includes Brownsville, Los Fresnos, and Port Isabel as its larger metropolitan areas, has a large number of children entering kindergarten lacking basic school readiness skills. Research has shown that poverty in early childhood has long-lasting negative consequences for intelligence, cognitive and linguistic development, social and emotional maturation, achievement, and academic outcomes.2 Cameron County, according to the 2009 Census Bureau, has a per capita income of $13,474, and more than 33% of its families are below the poverty level, many with children under the age of five. Many children in southern Cameron County are considered “at risk” for school failure from the beginning. These children live in households that might have one or more of the characteristics that define children with educational disadvantages, such as poorly educated parents and caregivers (60 percent are high school graduates - US Census 2010), and limited English proficiency. There are over 36,000 children under 5 years of age in Cameron County, with more than half (51 percent living below poverty level US Census 2009) in southern Cameron County. In addition, race and ethnicity (86 percent of the population is Hispanic- US Census 2009) have an impact on obtaining the skills required to enter school. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that 61% of low-income families have no books for their children at home. As a result, access to books is extremely limited for these children, inhibiting their educational growth and development as well as their sense of creativity and imagination. Many parents and caregivers are not aware that children begin learning at birth. From birth, children begin learning basic social, spatial, emotional, rational, reading and verbal skills needed not only to be successful in school but to be successful in life. A child’s first five years of life are said to “hard-wire” their brain for future learning. Early childhood is a period of exceptional growth and development. Research informs us that 85% of all brain growth occurs before the

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age of 31 and that there are specific windows of opportunity during this period of growth when children are procuring the foundations of cognitive development.2 For example, according to Dr. Pam Schiller, the optimal window of opportunity for the development of early sounds is from 4 months old to 8 months old, and for thinking skills the optimal window is from birth to 48 months. The optimal window of opportunity for developing the brain connections wired toward healthy emotions is from birth to 24 months with the next best opportunity occurring from 2 years old to 5 years old. These foundations will provide the scaffolding for all learning, skill development, social interactions and ultimately life outcomes. Another impeding factor includes the high rate of abuse and neglect in Cameron County. In 2007, there were 3,641 investigated child abuse cases, and 1,174 confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect. Only 228 children were removed from their homes. Of abused and neglected children in Texas, 38% are age three and under. The socioeconomic characteristics of the household, restricted access to books, high rate of abuse and neglect, and the lack of knowledge of parents and caregivers about their child’s brain development leaves many of the 36,520 (Census, 2010) children in Cameron County in jeopardy of school failure even before they enter kindergarten. But where are these children? Is there one solution for every neighborhood and every child? While those statistics should not be taken lightly and do greatly affect the overall well-being of a child, what should we tackle as a community? Much effort had been spent on literacy and language and overall cognitive development. What about the social and emotional aspects that play into the overall well-being of a child and family? There were several pieces missing and we knew that collaboratively as a community we could create a coalition that would allow us to partner, evaluate and tackle issues together. The EDI results show us that only 23 percent of our children are considered “very ready” to enter school. They also show us that the neighborhoods we suspected were most vulnerable were not. Each area has their own different sets of issues, but the results did surprise the coalition and push the group in different and more targeted directions.

1 US Department of Health and Human Services (2010). Administration for Children and Families. Retrieved online 01/07/10 from http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/poptopics/brain.html 2 Schiller, Pam (1999). Start Smart. Building Brain Power in the Early Years. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House

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D. The Early Childhood Leadership Team

The Texas Community Campaign for School Readiness was the catalyst for creating a community coalition involving several public and private partners around the issue of early childhood and families. The Early Childhood Leadership Team (ECLT) was created two years ago and convened monthly to discuss issues, share information, implement the EDI within the school districts, analyze and disseminate data and continues to stay committed to ensuring children are entering school with the necessary skills to succeed. United Way of Southern Cameron County has a history of engaging community stakeholders in sharing ideas, expertise and solving problems. Before the project began, United Way of Southern Cameron County with the Cameron County Judge and local Workforce Development Board hosted Workforce Education and Training breakfast “Workforce 2021” to build community awareness about the importance of high-quality early childhood education and its role in creating the workforce of the future. This initial event, held over 2 years ago, helped spark The Education Stakeholder Coalition that became the Early Childhood Leadership Team that played a key role in interpreting the EDI data and developing a community response to the needs identified by the study. New partners are still being recruited to represent additional stakeholder groups as they are identified.

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With the community already rallying around the critical importance of early childhood and Workforce Solutions Cameron launching a major public relations campaign about the significance of the early years, “Workforce 2021,” and Success By 6’s early childhood initiative, the Texas Community Campaign for School Readiness was at the forefront of local education efforts to move the school readiness needle in the right direction. After 13 years of creating momentum around early childhood education through Success By 6, the community is at a point where data driven strategies need to be implemented and are accepted. While we understand that we may be falling short of meeting all the basic and developmental needs of our children, there is now sufficient data to point us in the right direction to ensure that the proven early childhood strategies that we are implementing are being targeted to the areas of greatest need. Because of this initiative and data the Early Childhood Leadership team is working toward deciding how to best align resources, strategies and specific, local interventions to meet these needs and leverage resources collaboratively. Results from the EDI and this concrete data have been used to target neighborhoods with the highest percentage of at-risk preschoolers where “Community Meriendas” or listening sessions have been held. After two years, key community players are still excited about the opportunity to participate and create early childhood system change by mobilizing effective community responses to the data. The Early Childhood Leadership Team is composed of members from the following organizations:

Brownsville Literacy Center Community Development Corporation of Brownsville

Moody Clinic IDEA Frontier Public Schools

Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District Valley Regional Medical Center

United Brownsville NINOS Head Start

The University of Texas at Brownsville Texas Migrant Council Head Start

UT Health Science Center Brownsville Chamber of Commerce

Brownsville Independent School District B.I.S.D. Texas Literacy Initiative

Wells Fargo Bank Children’s Learning Institute (Texas School Ready!)

Children's Museum of Brownsville Texas Southmost College

City of Brownsville Raul J. Guerra Early Childhood Center

City of San Benito Children's Learning Institute

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Their vision states the following: “We are committed to creating a community that fulfills the needs of children and inspires them to reach their full potential.” Monthly meetings were held to discuss ongoing community needs, gaps, intervention strategies and progress. Members signed a commitment letter to the project. Community Engagement United Way of Southern Cameron County and the Early Childhood Stakeholder Coalition have published and disseminated EDI findings to the community through various media outlets including both print, electronic and television to ensure parents, teachers and community advocates are aware of the current local situation. A website was created for early childhood professionals and advocates to access the data, as well. It will be ready during the summer of 2013 –www.schoolreadyrgv.org. The Coalition and all partners presented the data to the community through various avenues. Presentations were made to school board members, teachers, literacy specialist, elected officials, parents, daycare directors, HeadStarts, early childhood associations, members of the local university, pre-K teachers, Kindergarten teachers, middle school teachers in vulnerable neighborhoods, and parents through Community Meriendas. Every presentation was tailored to fit the specific audience and receive input from them as well. Coalition members that identified with those communities being targeted were in charge of conducting the listening sessions that are still ongoing at this time. The Coalition was looking to gather as much feedback from community individuals as possible so all presentations involved active participation. Business leaders were also engaged when they were invited to attend a follow-up to the initial “Workforce 2021” event held the prior year. There they were given the opportunity to sign up for a community they would like to participate in and be a part of the conversation.

Workforce Solutions Cameron Board

Lakeshore Learning

Southwest Key/ Child Care Management Services Little Mermaids I Day Care Center

Point Isabel I.S.D. City of Port Isabel

United Way Success By 6 Department of Family and Protective Services CPS

Cameron County United Way of Southern Cameron County

Cameron County Child Welfare Board

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E. EDI Implementation Plan - Nuts and Bolts

Target Geography

United Way of Southern Cameron County focused on screening all Kindergarten students enrolled in the southern Cameron County area including Brownsville, Los Fresnos and Port Isabel.

Participating Districts

United Way of Southern Cameron County partnered with all four school districts that serve children in southern Cameron County. They include Brownsville Independent School District (BISD), Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District (LFCISD), Point Isabel Independent School District (PIISD) and IDEA Public Schools. For several years United Way of Southern Cameron County has played an active role in education system change through partnerships with local school districts. BISD and United Way of Southern Cameron County have teamed together for a number of efforts over the past decade. BISD administrators and faculty are key members of the leadership team for Partners for Postsecondary Success. BISD and United Way of Southern Cameron County also collaborated to develop a Snack Pack program to provide children with food for the long winter break, collected school supplies for the beginning of school and clothing and shoes for students as part of our Hope for the Holidays project. In the Los Fresnos community, United Way of Southern Cameron County works with the public library and high school to provide free income tax assistance to the community to increase the amount of Earned Income Tax Credits accessed by low-income families and provide students with training and experience as certified tax preparers. Success By 6 has worked with all three districts to ensure children are entering school ready to succeed through programs such as Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the United Way Children’s Book Club, educational sessions with parent groups and advocacy work to ensure full day pre-k is accessible. It’s because of these relationships, that it was easy to bring all districts on board.

Key decision points, strategies and logistics

1. School and teacher recruitment strategy

Each local school district had already agreed to implement the EDI in their kindergarten classrooms. After speaking with superintendents, area administrators, curriculum specialists, early childhood specialists and teachers from the four districts, they collectively recognized the need for this level of neighborhood-specific data and the different information it will provide when compared to other assessments they conduct. They understood how the information would not only improve the manner in which public and private resources are invested, but how the data can dramatically improve the way schools plan for incoming kindergarten classes. Having administration, school and teacher buy-in provided a running start for school and teacher recruitment. Teachers and school administrators were included in the planning and implementation process over the two year project. They were also included in the Early

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Childhood Leadership Team. The goal was to have an 80 percent saturation rate over the two year period and we reached 86 percent saturation rate in Year 1. Collectively we saw the opportunity to not just create a snapshot of our community but a onetime portrait that we could use as a comparison over the next 5 to 10 years. As a coalition, we also knew this would save us money and allow us to use funds in other neighborhood work areas.

During Year 1 United Way worked with assigned district EDI coordinators and reached 100 percent teacher and student participation and completion in the first year.

2. Teacher incentive/compensation strategy/training dates

LFCISD, PIISD and IDEA Public Schools agreed to provide substitutes at the district’s expense for all teachers for the day required to screen the children. Every teacher and the district EDI Coordinator from PIISD received an educational Lakeshore Learning gift card or HEB gift card as compensation and was provided with either lunch or snacks during their EDI training. BISD allowed Kindergarten teachers to complete the EDI training and tool during the school day. Because of the TELC grant, we were able to provide substitute teachers for their classrooms as well as snacks. LFCISD trained all of their kindergarten teachers on January 10, 2012 during a regular in-service day. PIISD trained all of their teachers on February 23, 2012 and BISD trained all their kindergarten teachers on February 1 and 2, 2012. IDEA Public Schools trained their 4 kindergarten teachers on January 10, 2012.

3. Relevant local data and mapping partners

United Way of Southern Cameron County utilized data from the Texas Education Agency, primarily through the Academic Excellence Indicator Systems as well as through the PEIMS Coordinators from each district. Early childhood specialists and administration from curriculum and instruction departments from each district partnered for this initiative. Data partners include Workforce Solutions Cameron, the Planning Departments from the City of Brownsville, the City of San Benito, and the City of Port Isabel. Elected officials worked with local police departments to obtain crime data.

F. Stakeholder Group Sustainability Plan (Process, Outcomes and Measurement)

Timeline June 2013- August 2021

Currently the Stakeholder Group is transitioning from planning to action. While they have agreed to implement and follow five main goals, they understand that this is a “working plan” and will continue to meet monthly or as needed to monitor change and progress. When applying for grants or implementing new programs, they have agreed to make sure it aligns with the work and goals they set collectively to accomplish as a community. Within the last seven months, the coalition has been meeting in small groups to analyze the data, agree upon goals and set forth strategies for upcoming years. They realized much can be accomplished through communication and conversation. All conversations were accomplished around a cup of coffee or lunch.

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With United Way as the backbone organization, it will continue to serve as the convener and lead organization as well as primary funder of the coalition, Community Meriendas and ongoing meetings as well as various public relations campaigns and the website. Other entities and organizations have partnered to collaborate on projects that support the overall goals of the coalition. How will we know we have succeeded? In partnering with the BISD Texas Literacy Initiative Grant (TLI), the coalition decided to redistribute the EDI assessment in 2018 with the goal of increasing the number of very ready children from 23 percent to 38 percent by Year 5 of the plan, a 3 percent yearly increase. By 2021 we will have doubled the number of “very ready” children entering school with the necessary skills needed to succeed (46 percent). This will serve as an evaluation piece for the community as a whole as well as the Texas Literacy Initiative Grant. The EDI will also show the community whether the neighborhood level work has made a difference in reducing the number of highly vulnerable neighborhoods.

The coalition will also work to increase comprehension and fluency in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age children so that by Year 5 of the strategic plan 90% of children are successful as measured on the Early Reading Instruments (ELAP/CPALLS at End-of-Year (EOY) TPRI/Tejas LEE) assessment. They will track and monitor yearly progression of this assessment as well as the results received from individual child and quality facility assessments used by HeadStart programs, the Texas School Ready Program (TSR), the Texas Rising Stars Program (TRS) and school districts with an agreement in place to share information and data three times a year.

The coalition yearly, seeks to see a minimum 3% increase on the new standardized state 3rd Grade Reading assessment to ensure children are reading on grade level focusing on attendance and summer learning loss, and participate in the national Campaign for Grade Level Reading. While the initial goal is to improve school readiness, we understand as a community that we need to continue to look at attendance and summer learning loss from 1st through 3rd grade, as well. It is important to notify the community of the progress being made to ensure Success By 6. In Year 3, 5 and 7 of the plan, holding an Early Childhood Summit, “Workforce 2021,” to ensure accountability of the plan and report on progress. In 2021 we will reevaluate success of the plan and continue to move forward to ensure children and families are receiving the concrete resources for success.

Financial and Practical Sustainability Considerations

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United Way of Southern Cameron County is fully committed to utilizing the needs assessment data to inform planning and resource deployment. United Way of Southern Cameron County is supported by donations from employees of public and private businesses, corporate gifts and local foundations. This initiative has been supported by the Texas Early Learning Council, the Brownsville Foundation for Health and Education and United Way of Southern Cameron County. Currently, United Way of Southern Cameron County continues to be the lead and backbone organization for this initiative. United Way board members have committed to this initiative and will continue to fund staff, occupancy, supplies, meeting space, and Community Meriendas through various grant applications. The budget currently supports the following tasks for one year through a grant received from the Brownsville Foundation for Health and Education and in-kind services provided by United Way of Southern Cameron County. The Leadership Team and United Way will continue to apply for funding on a yearly basis to continue the coalition and collectively implement the plan. The stakeholder group is tasked with convening regularly to analyze and evaluate the data sets provided from the EDI. Each year, the stakeholder group will convene a minimum of 6 times to continue to monitor, track and share the progress from the information received from the EDI data and implementation of the strategic plan. United Way of Southern Cameron County in conjunction with Workforce Solutions Cameron will host a community awareness outreach event during Year 3, 5 and 7 of the implementation plan. Four quarterly Community Meriendas will be hosted during Year 1 in five neighborhoods where the community will be invited to continue their conversations. The budget also supports the development and upkeep of a data website and webpage to ensure the community and all partners have access to the findings of the EDI. Miscellaneous supplies and materials including postage, paper presentation material, brochures and stationary and mileage have also been included. The budget supports a public relations and awareness campaign to strengthen the message about the importance of early childhood education and the EDI data sets. Multiple media will be used to convey the message including but not limited to the municipal television channel and the BISD television channel as well the local newspapers. This is all in-kind donations. Budgeted funds also allow for a Community Report Card to be created and distributed during the fall of 2013.

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BFHE – EDI Revised Budget for 2013-2014 (Combined grant funds) Excluding in-kind services Timeline for usage of funds June 30, 2014 TOTAL: $32,500 Item Amount Web Design $2,900 Printing and Promotion $3,900 Stakeholder Meetings $2,400 Community Meriendas $2,000 Community Engagement $2,000 Staff Cost $14,100 Software $5,200 TOTAL: $32, 500

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Ready Families

Ready Educators

Ready Systems

Ready Communities

Children Ready for Sustained

School Success

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GOALS FOR SUCCESS BY 6

Ready Families

GOAL: Parents will be able to obtain the most current multi-lingual and culturally appropriate information they seek on child development, parenting, and school readiness

as well as community resources that help and support strengthening families.

Ready Educators

GOAL: Southern Cameron County will provide the community with a high quality early education and care system for all young children – 0 to school entry – in all settings: family childcare, private/community based centers, Head Start, etc., and through all school based

early education (staff, educators, and caregivers).

Ready Systems

GOAL: Healthcare, early intervention, and other systems that serve young children will succeed in earlier detection and targeted responses to barriers of child development and school readiness, including earlier detection of family and environmental conditions to

prevent damaging, lifelong impairments in young children.

Ready Communities

GOAL: The many sectors in our community will work together in partnership to ensure children’s school readiness becomes and remains a top priority.

Children Ready for Sustained School Success

GOAL: The Early Childhood Leadership Team and SB6 will track and report on the community’s progress and success in ensuring that all children enter school with the

necessary skills to succeed.

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These strategies include strengthening, expanding and coordinating existing work in the community. While all strategies may not be currently funded, the Leadership Team has chosen to include them as a road map for future success.

Ready Families: Parents will be able to obtain the most current multi-lingual and culturally appropriate information they seek on child development, parenting, and school

readiness as well as community resources that help and support strengthening families.

Strategy 1: Coordinate and integrate a new and existing public engagement campaign that provide parents, caregivers, and others who work with children the most up to date information about early childhood development, school readiness and parenting.

Strategy 2: Ensure affordable access to the community’s multiple cultural institutions for families and children with age-appropriate, family friendly programming that supports child development and strong families.

Strategy 3: Use Community Meriendas and existing parent groups to build early childhood development and school readiness information into their daily lives to ensure they receive the most useful, culturally appropriate information accessible in all public and educational settings.

Strategy 4: Use public and private organizations to ensure parents have information on basic needs: housing, health care, child care, workforce development, food security and other essential services.

Ready Educators

GOAL: Southern Cameron County will provide the community with a high quality early education and care system for all young children – 0 to school entry – in all settings: family childcare, private/community based centers, Head Start, etc., and through all school based

early education (staff, educators, and caregivers).

Strategy 1: Across all early child care settings, pursue higher quality accreditation.

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Strategy 2: Create a stronger collaboration between the types of early education and care settings to promote joint planning, sharing, and alignment of curriculum, standards, partnerships and assessments as children move from infant and toddler care to preschool to kindergarten.

Strategy 3: Enhance professional development for all early care providers and educators to ensure high quality teaching across all settings focusing primarily on implementing the new Infant and Toddler Guidelines and best practices to improve fluency and comprehension to promote early learning and healthy child development.

Strategy 4: Improve retention and compensation for early care providers and directors and opportunities for them to receive a postsecondary credential that provides them with a living wage.

Strategy 5: Continue to improve access to early child care and education for all children by decreasing financial barriers and allowing and ensuring an adequate supply of services to meet children and families at every stage of their development primarily in the neighborhoods considered “most vulnerable” in southern Cameron County. (EDI Data 2012)

Strategy 6: Create uniform progress checkpoints and assessments between all types of early education and care settings.

Ready Systems

GOAL: Healthcare, early intervention, and other systems that serve young children will succeed in earlier detection and targeted responses to barriers of child development and school readiness, including earlier detection of family and environmental conditions to

prevent damaging, lifelong impairments in young children.

Strategy 1: Use pediatric settings to:

• Conduct universal screenings for physical, behavioral, developmental and family risk factors including pre-parental developmental screenings of their own child

• Provide parents with information about child development and parenting • Offer coordination services to ensure families have access to help support

a child’s growth and development • Coordinate efforts to distribute “Newborn Packets” to all new parents

Strategy 2: Enhance the various systems of early intervention to expand and align eligibility for services and smooth transitions from infant and toddler settings into the next stages

Strategy 3: Focus on identifying and responding to social, emotional and behavioral issues

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Ready Communities

GOAL: The many sectors in our community will work together in partnership to ensure children’s school readiness becomes and remains a top priority.

Strategy 1: Create a system through the Early Childhood Leadership Team that tracks and analyzes all existing public and private funding streams for early childhood and use the comprehensive strategic plan to collectively approach funders to ensure long-term sustainability.

Strategy 2: Continue to use the coalition created, the Early Childhood Leadership Team and United Way of Southern Cameron County serving as the backbone organization, to ensure Success By 6 in the community through implementation and oversight of the community plan.

Strategy 3: Continue to host Community Meriendas within targeted “vulnerable neighborhoods” and parent advisory groups. Coordinate planning with existing neighborhood work and build capacity to empower them to make an impact in their own community.

Strategy 4: Align the work of various city and county departments that serve young children to collaborate with one another to support the goals of the strategic plan.

Strategy5: Link efforts to address broader community needs that impact the stability of families including abuse and neglect as well as economic security.

Children Ready for Sustained School Success

GOAL: The Early Childhood Leadership Team and SB6 will track and report on the community’s progress and success in ensuring that all children enter school with the

necessary skills to succeed.

Strategy 1: In 5 years reassess the neighborhood level data using the Early Development Instrument on Kindergarten age children in the community moving the current percentage of “very ready” children from 23% to 38% by Year 5, a 3 % increase yearly. By 2021 we will have doubled the number of children entering school “very ready” with the necessary skills to succeed (46%).

Strategy 2: Increase comprehension and fluency in pre-kindergarten kindergarten age children so that by Year 5 of the strategic plan 90% of children are successful as measured on all Early Reading Instruments. (ELAP/CPALLS at End-of-Year (EOY) TPRI/Tejas LEE) Track and monitor yearly progression.

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Strategy 3: Continue to track and monitor results received from individual child and quality facility assessments used by HeadStart, Texas School Ready Program (TSR), and the Texas Rising Stars program (TRS) and share information and data at least three times a year.

Strategy 4: Yearly, see a minimum 3% increase on meeting the standards on the state’s current 3rd grade reading assessment to ensure children are reading on grade level while focusing on attendance and summer learning loss yearly by continuing to participate in the national Campaign for Grade Level Reading.

Strategy 5: In Year 3, 5 and 7 of the plan, hold an Early Childhood Summit, “Workforce 2021,” to ensure accountability of the plan and report on progress.

Stakeholder Group’s Next Steps

During the Early Childhood Leadership Team’s Summer Retreat, next steps will be mapped out for each strategy. While the coalition has already moved from planning to action in some areas, it’s important to designate and share responsibility collectively. Below is a sample of the process the Leadership Team has already started for each strategy.

Conclusion

Serving one of the poorest communities in the country, United Way of Southern Cameron County and the Early Childhood Leadership Team are committed to ensuring children succeed and enter school ready and prepared for a life of learning. The data and information received from TEECS and the participation in the Texas Community Campaign for School Readiness provided the community with the information needed to match proven school ready strategies to the neighborhoods with the most need. The community is already invested in ensuring children

Ready Families-Strategy 1: Next Steps Responsible Party Time Frame Level of

Investment $

Coordinate and integrate a new and existing public engagement campaign that provides parents, caregivers, and who work with children the most up

to date information about early childhood development, school

readiness and parenting.

1. Convene all social service providers and additional stakeholders to collaborate and share information and resources

Backbone Organization Quarterly Modest/None

2. Continue to distribute information on developmental milestones (Bornlearning)

School Districts, HeadStarts, Parental Inv. Groups, Literacy Center,

Community orgs, Hospitals, Promotoras

Ongoing $

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succeed and continues to convene, plan, strategize and take action. Commitments have been secured with various partners to continue this effort and implement this strategic data driven needs based plan and the United Way of Southern Cameron County Board of Directors has shown they are committed to sustaining the initiative after the grant period ends. As a leader in education initiatives in the community and with a desire to serve as a catalyst for change, United Way of Southern Cameron County and the community is ready to move from planning to action and create the responsive systems that will impact children, families and the future workforce of our community by measuring and improving school readiness one neighborhood and child at a time.

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