Speaker:
Kate Dowling, Special Assistant to the Mayor of Oakland, California; Oakland 2000: Ready to Learn, Oakland, California
Moderator:
Pam Bailey, Volunteer Coordinator, Chapel Hill, Carboro City Schools, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Abstract:
The promotion of early reading development requires that children begin their formal education with a host of literacy-related skills. These skills include general verbal abilities, an awareness of the sounds of language, and familiarity with the basic purposes and mechanisms of reading. Children with hearing or language impairments, children with limited proficiency in English, children with cognitive deficiencies, and children whose parents had difficulty learning to read are particularly at risk of arriving at school with deficiencies in these areas. Steps to increase the number of children who arrive at school with adequate literacy-related knowledge would considerably reduce the number of children with reading difficulties.
The National Research Council report recommends that public and private organizations should educate the general public on the skills necessary for early literacy development. Marketing efforts should be undertaken to increase public awareness of the importance of providing stimulating language and literacy experiences in the lives of all young children. Parents and other caregivers should be instructed on opportunities for building language and literacy growth through everyday activities both at home and in group care settings. Participants will leave with an idea of what it takes to mobilize a community in order to improve young children’s literacy.
Notes
The Oakland 2000 Ready-To-Learn project, partially funded through the U. S. Department of Education, helps the City of Oakland reach very young children and their families to promote literacy.
The Oakland 2000 project began with a call from the Mayor's office to pull together the vast array of stakeholders and develop a coalition of organizations who would be mobilized to improve the lives of children at risk of later school failure. The project looks at the whole child--their physical health, safety, and language development.
The Partnership:
The Mayor's office pulled together the above coalition and then defined objectives:
Instead of creating new resources, the project tried to link existing ones. All of the project's activities reflect the objectives and try to draw in new partners. Some of the activities include:
Questions:
Q: Any special outreach to parents who have limited literacy?
A: Media campaign pulled together focus groups in transitional homes and the homes of the disenfranchised and asked participants, what do you need? Should we do this or not? The Americorps volunteers were trained to conduct the surveys.
Q: How do you get members?
A: We send out cards in the hospital kits
Recruit in early childhood and head start programs
Develop a strong network of day care providers
Media campaign
Mobile van that participates in health fairs
Q: How is higher education involved?
A: Work study students and Americorps volunteers participate in Reach Out and Read Sites. Universities help with evaluations and assessments--they tie to other initiatives to strengthen existing resources. Safe Passages program helps get children to and from places safely so they can participate in other programs.
Q: What kind of data are you collecting?
A: We are trying to study the effectiveness of early intervention. We developed a kindergarten checklist so that we know something about the condition of children entering kindergarten. We are looking at the variables--what are the factors involved--so that we can improve the baseline. We also have a parent survey. Americorps volunteers are helping to administer these surveys.
Q: Funding sources? Stability of funding? Do you have a grant? What happens when that expires?
A: We started in the "Healthy Cities" program and got $90,000 through corporate donations. We have tapped a collaborative around early childhood with three foundations. We also got money from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program through the Department of education which is a 3 year grant. We got money from the Kids First Initiative through Oakland and are always looking for federal initiatives like the empowerment zones that we can tap into. We are continually looking for state and federal initiatives. It is very important to keep the new mayor on board.
Q: What are helpful federal policies? What do you need?
A: Initially, the program was tied to Goals 2000. We linked with Oakland Readers and America's Promise. However, child care needs are the most important and that is what is needed in the next few years. How can we connect Head Start, the public school system, and other TANF efforts and get more child care?
Q: How do you keep all of your subcommittees going?
A: Make sure they are active and have a voice. Create stipends for the parents and find out what they need and how we can help them.
Q: In New Jersey all 3 and 4 year olds must be educated in some type of program. What do you do about staff development and facilities so that it doesn't turn into just day care?
A: Training for child care workers to help them improve language development. Looking to generate energy around the Parent University to develop continued training and to use and implement new information from research.
Q: Kindergarten checklist? What is it?
A: It was developed for us by the University of California (at Berkeley?) and contains questions around all aspects of a child's development, including things like:
Q: What happens when someone sends back the initial card they got in the Hospital Kit?
A: Their name goes into a data base and someone calls them. They also get a letter that says that certain things will happen when the child is 6 months old, and at other ages. The letter also gives them a phone line that they can call into so that people can call in for questions.
Q: In New York there is an absolute lack of books at home, in schools, and in libraries. What do you do about things like this?
A: Get support from Reach Out to Read; engage sports teams to bring in books for distribution and try to get other people from the community to donate books.
A: Here's how we are working on that problem in San Francisco. We are involving Scholastic Magazine--they donate books and work with volunteer groups. Also the organization First Book is very helpful. We go into low-income areas and get booksellers to give away books. Don't forget to work with Public Libraries.
A: First Books forms local advisory boards in and around communities to work with national partners, like the American Library Association, Barnes and Noble, and B. Dalton. Boards should include the local librarian. Distribution of books to at-risk children who are in after school programs. We give books to programs that are already up and running and have a literacy component. Are programs have 80 percent of their children at or below poverty level. We get remainder books, and books from Scholastic. This should be a collaborative community effort.
Q: What about writing? How do we get the word out that it is just as important to write as it is to read?
A: We need to educate parents on invented spelling, how it works and how children make the transition to conventional spelling. We try this through our parent awareness and education programs, but getting these messages out is a challenge.