Latest news with #EarlyChildhoodCenter
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Texas ranks 37th in fourth grade reading. It's time for bold action on literacy
The latest Nation's Report Card results paint a stark picture of literacy in Texas. Our average reading scores now rank 37th in the nation for fourth-graders and 44th for eighth-graders, both downgrades from the previous rankings in 2022. We are losing ground compared to other states that have taken bold, comprehensive action. As former principal of N.W. Harllee Early Childhood Center in the Dallas Independent School District, I saw firsthand how 3- and 4-year-olds attained early literacy skills such as recognizing letters, decoding words and even learning how to hold a book — foundational skills for future success that they might not have developed before entering our doors. While I knew how my campus was performing and the district had insight into early grade performance, there is a lack of transparency at the state level. Texas requires dyslexia screening for kindergarteners and first-graders, but this is often the only formal visibility we have into the student's literacy development. We lack reliable data for nearly 80,000 first- and second-graders in the 2023-24 school year. Let's imagine the experience of one of those students. At the end of pre-K, they are assessed as 'kindergarten ready.' In first and second grade, we don't track their literacy skills. If by third grade the student 'does not meet" state reading standards, we don't know which skills to target or how long they have struggled. This helps explain how less than half of Texas students are reading at grade level proficiency in third grade. Even more worrisome, only one out of every five students who did not meet grade level reading expectations in 2019 caught up by sixth grade. Successful learning acceleration is even less likely if they are experiencing economic disadvantage. High-impact tutoring and other evidence-based methods show promise for assisting struggling students, but we must address the root cause by providing interventions earlier. Data collection alone, however, isn't enough. Teachers must have the assessment literacy to act with confidence upon the insights that screeners provide. Otherwise, we risk ending up data rich yet information poor. Unfortunately, the number of uncertified and novice teachers in early elementary grades is on the rise across the state, resulting in a significant underdiagnosis of dyslexia, according to new research out of Texas Tech. Qualified teachers are trained to recognize early signs, administer screening instruments, and understand the importance of accurate and timely diagnoses. School districts must provide this training to our newest teachers as well — and will need increased support from the state to do so. Bolstering our progress monitoring should be paired with increased parental notification. Parents deserve information that allows them to make decisions quickly, well ahead of that critical third-grade milestone. In Texas, only some universal reading screeners are used, parents are not being notified and evidence-based interventions are not triggered. In contrast, peer states such as Louisiana and Mississippi are implementing these and have seen significant gains in student achievement in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. Texas lawmakers have recognized the urgent need for this additional transparency and support. House Bill 123 and SB 2252 provide targeted funding for evidence-based literacy interventions, informed by consistent literacy and numeracy screeners implemented in early grades, where we currently lack statewide visibility. Fully implementing universal reading screeners along with best practices such as transparent data reporting and robust parental notification is essential to addressing the lack of visibility we have into how students are progressing. This policy is popular: More than 90% of Texas voters support 'additional evidence-based support to students struggling to read,' and even more support "parents having more visibility into students' academic growth and foundational skills development between kindergarten and third grade," according to polling from Ragnar Research Partners. Both teachers and parents need to know where students stand at every step of their journey. This way, we can eliminate third grade surprises and give every Texas student the support needed to develop strong literacy skills, skills that are essential for continuing their education and finding success beyond. Amber Shields is the managing director of early learning at The Commit Partnership, a Texas nonprofit working to create systemic change in the education system in order to improve economic opportunity. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas needs bold action to reverse falling literacy rates | Opinion
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Modified New London school budget with $6.5M hike goes to vote
New London — The Board of Education on Monday is scheduled to discuss and possibly approve a 2025-26 $54.7 million school budget that, even with more than a half-million dollars in recent reductions, still calls for a $6.5 million, or 13.7%, increase from the current spending plan. The latest proposal, which Mayor Michael Passero has vowed to cut so there is no increase, is the result of a series of reductions this month that eliminates an administrator — no final decision has been made on which position will be cut — two teachers and an attendance motivator job. The board also approved trimming home tutoring, substitute custodial work and after-school programming for a total reduction of $548,162. The cuts were made to Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie's initial 'same services' budget that included the costs for all current staffing and programs based on contractual increases and inflation and carried a $7.8 million increase. Ritchie's total proposed budget comes to $87.1 million after $32.3 million in various state and federal grants are included. The $54.7 million taxpayer portion of the bill includes $22.9 million in state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) funding and $1.6 million from the district's non-lapsing account. The major reasons for the increase include an additional $2.3 million in employee raises; $709,000 more in health insurance costs; just over $1 million more in tuition for special education students; $44,000 in increased unemployment costs; and nearly $95,000 more in liability insurance due to construction at the Bennie Dover Jackson Multi-Magnet Middle School Campus. Another $2.3 million is allotted for the preschool operations at the Early Childhood Center at B.P. Mission. District officials are hoping state lawmakers will step in and help fund operations at the Shaw Street facility as they did last year. Ritchie, echoing board President Elaine Maynard-Adams, is referring to the spending plan as a 'community budget,' or one that funds programming beyond the classroom walls. 'For instance, we have 302 homeless students, the highest number we've ever had,' she said. 'The district is responsible for conducting home visits, food and transportation. And the state has cut our transportation funding for those students by half.' Passero said deep proposed cuts to New London's pool of state aid — more than $2 million — under Gov. Ned Lamont's biennial spending plan means he'll recommend not increasing school funding above the current year's $48.1 million figure. 'Since ECS funding is not increasing, the actual percentage increase to taxpayers that's being proposed is double the 13.7% they're announcing,' Passero said. 'We're already in a hole and will be making cuts the general government budget. I will be sending a letter to the district earlier than usual informing them we don't have the money for an increase.' Ritchie called a flat-funded budget a 'devastating' prospect, especially as past budgets have not been enough to keep up with inflation and contractual wage increases. 'The average asks for other school districts in the state is between 6.5 and 8.5% increase, so we're not alone here in New London,' she said. 'But we have the added challenge of not being a wealthy city. The board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at the district's Welcome Center, 3 Shaws Cove.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Too soon to panic': Funding sought for New London early childhood center
New London — Staring down another $2 million bill to keep the district's nationally-accredited B.P. Mission early childhood center running for another year, school board President Elaine Maynard-Adams said Thursday she's not too worried. Yet. 'It's too soon to panic, but it would break my heart if we had to close this preschool program, which is not mandated for us to offer,' she said. The funding issue revolves around the estimated $2.3 million the district says it will take to continue running preschool and other programming at the Early Childhood Center at B.P. Mission on Shaw Street. The expenditure is one of the big increases in Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie's $56 million 2025-26 budget proposal. Maynard-Adams said she and Ritchie have had several conversations with state legislators and department leaders on possible funding relief options. 'That's included things like revamping early childhood program financing,' she said, noting Gov. Ned Lamont has suggested offering more state funding for preschools, but not until next year. Lamont this month touted a proposal to deposit a portion of the state's anticipated surpluses over the next several years into a new 'Universal Preschool Endowment' fund. The endowment would be seeded by $300 million from the 2024-2025 surplus, and in the following years any unappropriated surpluses from the state's general fund will continue to be transferred into it. Lamont said the endowment would make preschool available for free to families earning up to $100,000 per year and create 20,000 new preschool slots by 2032. Seeking sustainable funding The center got an 11th-hour reprieve last year after state lawmakers, including state Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, lobbied for the use of $2 million in federal COVID-19 relief monies to close the funding gap. 'But we knew that just a Band-Aid and not a long-term answer,' Marx said on Thursday. 'That is one of my main priorities, to try and find more state funding to keep B.P. open. There's a lot of people at the table talking about this and I haven't given up.' The city and school district in the 2021-22 school year used $1.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to buy the B.P. Learned Mission building and transform it into a space for early childhood classes during the day and community programming at night. The center's magnet preschool program recently earned national accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Such recognitions are based on criteria that grades curriculum, teacher approaches, community relationships and student progress. The center currently has 80 pre-K students with a waiting list of about another 80 families. As a magnet school, the center receives approximately $9,200 in state grant money for each of the seven out-of-district students it enrolls, but nothing for its 73 students from New London. 'The center offers high-quality educational programming, taught by certified teachers and professional staff, and is free of charge for families,' Ritchie said in a Thursday email. 'Nutritious meals (breakfast and lunch) are served daily. Transportation is also provided.' Maynard-Adams said there have also been expansion conversations. 'If we had more space we could enroll more students and that means more state resources,' Maynard-Adams said. 'We've also had conversations about transitioning 4-year-old students into elementary school classrooms to free-up space at B.P.' Maynard-Adams said preschool programming has been shown to pay big student dividends, especially for those with special needs. 'Those students who take part in early childhood classes outperform those who don't,' she said. 'And it also enables those students with language or speech issues to get help early on and help quickly address those issues.' Maynard-Adams, who noted the state legislature's budget is still being crafted, said she's not sure the district budget can bear the cost of the center alone. 'I don't know if we can justify that cost — one that's not mandated — at the expense of something else,' she said. The center is accepting enrollment applications.
