Cruver, Amelia2018-04-122018-04-122012https://hdl.handle.net/11299/195508The Carlton County CHILD Network (Connected to Helping In Learning and Development) is a collaboration of professionals focused on improving services to young children and families throughout Carlton County. Jump Start 4 Kindergarten is a data collecting and system improvement initiative of the CHILD Network. Family background information is collected for each child enrolled in early childhood development programs supported by the CHILD Network along with the students’ Brigance Screen score, a measure of school readiness. Ultimately this data can be used to serve many important purposes: Teachers can use information about individual children’s strengths and weaknesses to target instruction and track progress towards school readiness Teachers can better help parents effectively work with their children at home to overcome specific challenges and build on strengths Schools and districts can use the information to improve preschool programs and track the overall level of school readiness in Carlton County. Longitudinal data collected over multiple years can show the impact early childhood programs have on school readiness, especially for disadvantaged children, and help make the case for continued public support of programs like the CHILD Network A preliminary database has been constructed with information for over 200 children currently enrolled in early childhood development programs in Carlton County. Brigance screen scores from the fall of the school year before starting kindergarten are included. This data was used to analyze the correlation between child and family characteristics and readiness for school. Important findings were: Nearly half of the students were not prepared for school—48% of children in the study scored below normal in the fall of the school year before starting kindergarten. Teachers face a wide gap in students’ abilities when they enter preschool, making lesson planning to meet students’ needs challenging—38.8% of students scored in the normal range for their age, while 28% of students scored low enough to be referred for intensive remediation. Low parental educational attainment was most consistently associated with below normal scores for children—positive correlation exists between higher parental education and being prepared for school. Results show a clear need for early childhood educational services in Carlton county, particularly for children of parents with a high school education or less. Teachers may also need support in differentiating instruction to meet the needs of children who are ready to start school and those that arrive at school with basic skill levels well below normal. As more children are added to the data base, and more data on how students progress through the early years of school, researchers will be able to analyze the impact early education has on children in Carlton County, and how effective preschool programs are at preparing disadvantaged children for school.enReport