Ready to Learn

Ready to Learn focuses on educating and supporting caregivers as the child’s first Teachers, providing parents with tools to assist in their child’s healthy development and encouraging successful, happy attachments. Ready to Learn encompasses such activities as parents education and family literacy to promote nurturing and positive emotional environments and early education experiences in activities such as kindergarten transition programs, parent participation workshops and family literacy and ESL classes that ensure children enter school ready to learn.

School Readiness

The purpose of the Commission's School Readiness programs are to improve the ability of families, schools and communities to prepare our children to enter the school system ready to learn and succeed. The School Readiness Initiative is funded by a dollar-for-dollar match consisting of state commission funds combined with locally leveraged resources. By mandate, we were required to focus our initial as well as maintenance efforts on schools that scored in the lowest three deciles of the Academic Performance Index (API) in 1999. The two school districts in Yolo County that met the criteria for participation include Washington Unified and Woodland Joint Unified. The school sites selected by the School Readiness Task Force for participation in the program include Elkhorn Village Elementary, Stonegate Elementary, Westfield Elementary and Prairie Elementary.

The School Readiness Programs in both communities are school linked and collaborate with multiple programs and service providers in an effort to provide a seamless system of services for families. These services include access to early care and education, family support programs and health and social services. The two districts serve approximately 1,275 children and families each year offering the following components:

• Family literacy (Raising a Reader, Latino Family Literacy, CBET collaboration)
• Home visitation (using the Parents as Teachers curriculum)
• Parent/Family Education workshops and training
• Kinder transition camps (four-week camps on each campus)
• Kinder orientation and transition to K activities and information

School Readiness Outcomes FY 07-08:

• Parenting workshops - 74 parent-education workshops were offered by the School Readiness program in three languages (English, Spanish and Russian). Over 170 parents attended the workshops at Prairie Elementary in Woodland and Evergreen Elementary, Stonegate Village Elementary and Westfield Elementary in West Sacramento. The topics were comprehensive and based on requests and feedback from parents and educators. Among the subject matter addressed were: family nutrition and healthy lifestyles, child safety, creative play, school readiness, active parenting, literacy and family arts and crafts. Childcare was provided with specific curriculum-based, school-readiness activities offered for children under 5 as well as activities and homework support for older children.
• Literacy - Family Stories addressed both literacy and ESL for parents and children using children's books and completing a family scrapbook in English. The Home Literacy Parties were coordinated by staff and a local 'hostess' who invited parents and children into her home to obtain information on early literacy and participate in group activities. In collaboration with the WJUSD ESl program, 139 parents received literacy support with a focus on working with their children in the academic setting as well as learning advocacy skills to support them.
• 129 families participated in Raising A Reader with these families increasing their use of local library services in both cities.
• Summer Transition Programs - five classes (English, bilingual English/Spanish): Kinder Camp Academy (WJUSD) and JumpStart (WUSD) were provided at qualifying schools for children with little or no preschool experience. 101 children completed the four-week program. Teachers met with parents to review children's progress and offer feedback on continuing activities in the home environment. Kindergarten teachers subsequently provided anecdotal information suggesting they have seen a noticeable difference among children who attended the summer transition programs as compared to those who did not.
• Home Visiting - This intervention, using the Parents as Teachers (PAT) home-visiting curriculum, has proven to be successful. Program staff completed 300 home visits in FY 07/08 serving over 45 English-, Spanish- and Russian-speaking families with one to two visits per month. 70 families were also screened and supported with health insurance, assistance with special needs issues, and other social service needs.

RISE, Inc., Universal Early Learning

The Universal Early Learning Program provides families in Western Yolo County with opportunities for early childhood education. Three- and four-year-olds participate in kinder-readiness preschool programs three times per week while infants and toddlers are involved in baby friendly activities with a parent or caregiver. While children learn at the kinder-readiness program, parents meet in an adjacent room to hear information, discuss ideas and support one another. In addition to the year-long workshops, each summer RISE hosts a Kinder Roundup for incoming kindergarteners to ride the bus to the local elementary school, receive a backpack loaded with supplies and spend a day in the kindergarten classroom with their new teacher.

Universal Early Learning Outcomes FY 07-08

• Children entering the kinder-readiness program were assessed for basic academic knowledge/skills using the DRDP to determine baseline levels. Children were assessed again at the end of the year to determine growth and acquisition of new skills. All 24 children in the kinder-readiness group showed significant measurable gains with from the pre to post performance level on the DRDP assessment.
• 74 children were enrolled in kinder readiness, with a total of 126 sessions held throughout the year.
• 217 uninsured children received outreach, education, enrollment and referral services for health insurance programs, including Healthy Families, Medi-Cal and Healthy Kids.
• 19 "encircled children" (those who have special needs or are identified by staff as being at risk for a difficult transition from pre-kinder to kindergarten) received intensive, ongoing, managed services during FY 07-08.
• End of year Environmental Rating Scale result was a 6.03 (out of 7), showing a 78% increase from pre rating 12 months earlier.