Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children
The front page of yesterday’s Boston Globe carried a disturbing story about the high number of eighth graders in urban school districts across Massachusetts considered at risk of dropping out of school. It’s part of what Commissioner Mitchell Chester of the state’s Department of Elementary and Education calls an “early warning index.” As the Globe reports, “The earlier schools know who is at greatest risk of not earning a diploma, the sooner staff can intervene to get students back on track.”
The ideal early warning index would begin well before eighth grade. Children’s ability to read by the end of third grade strongly predicts their chances of success in school and beyond. Three-quarters of children who have trouble with reading in third grade will continue to struggle in school. These children are at great risk of not finishing high school.
This early warning index also includes children’s vocabulary in kindergarten. Research finds a high correlation between vocabulary in kindergarten and reading scores in 10th grade. Something as simple as playfully talking to babies and young children is part of our early warning index, too. The amount of playful talk that a child experiences before age 3 is a better predictor of her later school success than family income or race or social status.
This early warning index, along with decades of research, tells us that supporting family engagement, investing in high-quality early education and focusing the primary grades on early literacy are critical ingredients of any dropout prevention campaign. So are developmentally appropriate assessments before the third grade MCAS and language-rich curricula that emphasize reading comprehension as well as decoding.
All of this is not to say that later interventions are not also necessary, but policymakers should minimize the need for them by maximizing the chances of preventing problems in the first place.
(Correction: The article on STEM that I wrote about yesterday appeared in Mass High Tech.)
Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.
Thank you, Irene, for the range of topics and material you highlight in your blogs.
Clearly, there are red flags that have been well documented over the years. I think that we, in early childhood have consistently tried to identify the “profile” of a child that might exhibit the behaviors that are associated with the risks of school failure. Head Start, Early Head Start, some (but not all) early education programs, and EI programs have historically been able to approach children and families with a comprehensive and perspective. However, the resources to engage families and to provide continuity of care are lacking, especially when children enter public school and comprehensive service delivery, all too often, is lost in the maze of academic achievement. I have not seen much in the Core Standards to give me the hope that the gains that children and families make in high quality programs will be sustained for those most at risk.