Students who took part in a Henry County preschool program earned higher test scores than their peers, according to a report presented to the school board by Dr. Dawn Holley, elementary curriculum specialist.
Among 2007-08 kindergartners, 82 percent of those who participated in the state-funded Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) as 4-year-olds made the fall PALS kindergarten benchmark, Holley said.
Sixty-five percent of those who did not participate in the program made the benchmark. This figure includes Henry County kindergartners who may or may not have attended private preschools, Holley said.
The year before, 81 percent of VPI students made the kindergarten benchmark, versus 74.8 percent of those not in the program.
“We’ve always known qualitatively that our programs have an impact on children, but what we wanted was to put together quantitative data,” Holley told the board Thursday. “I think what we’re seeing are not only cognitive and academic benefits — we’re working with the whole child.”
The data are broken into minority subgroups, as well.
“Where this data becomes so dramatic is when you look at the subgroups, especially in the Hispanic subgroup. When they started preschool, a lot of these children didn’t even speak English,” Holley said.
Almost 61 percent of Hispanic 2007-08 kindergartners who took part in VPI made the benchmark, as opposed to 38 percent of the other Hispanic kindergartners, the report said.
The next major step will be examining SOL (Standard of Learning) scores for 2007-08 third-graders who attended VPI preschool to see if there is a correlation, Holley said.
“We’re on the cutting edge here,” Holley said. “No one is really collecting that data across the state, but there’s a push for it.”
VPI has received more state funding for the next school year, she added, allowing the program to expand. The program served 216 4-year-olds in the 2007-08 school year. Four additional classes will be added, serving a total of 256 children, in 2008-09.
The program serves the most at-risk 4-year-olds, Holley said. A committee reviews every application, screens children using the Brigance Preschool Screen and ranks them by a scale of risk factors.
For next year, 32 VPI slots still are available, Holley said, and she encourages parents to apply.
Other preschool programs in Henry County are Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) and Partners Preschool Program (PPP). All three programs use the High/Scope curriculum; provide transportation, nap time, breakfast, lunch and a snack daily; and offer 20 field trips per year, Holley said.
The Partners Preschool Program was new in 2007-08, offering preschool to Henry County children who did not qualify for VPI or special education, Holley said.
“This is basically ‘reverse inclusion,’” she said. “Partners students are typically developing children who are included in the special education classroom. This allows us to serve an additional 28 children who otherwise wouldn’t get served.”
Partners students serve as “peer models” in ECSE classrooms, Holley said. The cost of PPP is minimal because it does not require hiring additional teachers or finding extra classroom space.
“Partners students are developing academic and social skills, as well as empathy and understanding of individual differences,” Holley said.
Full text available at The Martinsville Bulletin.