School Readiness

The purpose of the Commission's School Readiness Initiative is 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 must focus our initial 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, Evergreen 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 and Latino Family Literacy)
• Home visitation (using the Parents as Teachers curriculum)
• Kinder transition camps (four-week camps on each campus)
• Health and screening fairs

School Readiness Outcomes FY 05-06:

• Parenting workshops - 23 parent-education workshops were offered by the School Readiness program in three languages (English, Spanish and Russian). Over 400 parents attended the workshops at Prairie Elementary in Woodland and Evergreen Elementary, Elkhorn 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 (40 parent/child pairs) 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.
• Summer Transition Programs - five classes (three English, two bilingual English/Spanish): Kinder Camp Academy (WJUSD) and JumpStart (WUSD) were provided at qualifying schools for children with little or no preschool experience. Eighty-five 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 170 home visits in FY 05/06 serving over 45 English-, Spanish- and Hindi/Punjabi-speaking families with one to two visits per month.