Child-care quality, outcomes targeted in pilot project
At age 2, Jalea Kidd is counting to 10 in Swahili and learning American Sign Language. “It blew my mind because I took sign language in undergraduate. When she associates a word with the sign, it’s awesome,” said Janear Kidd, Jalea’s mother.
Jalea attends Leaps and Bounds Developmental Academy, one of eight child-care centers in the Jackson metro area participating in Mississippi Building Blocks, a four-year pilot program that aims to improve early childhood education in the state by boosting the quality of child-care centers.
The program has gone on for less than a year, but participating centers are showing progress, said Laurie Smith, executive director of Mississippi Building Blocks. The program, announced in December 2008, costs about $2 million a year, in public and private dollars.
Building Blocks programs aims to reach 3,500 children over next four years
Last year, 62 child-care centers in 15 counties across the state were chosen to participate in the program. Some of the child care centers will be in a control group and the others in a treatment group where they will receive $3,000 in materials for each participating classroom, as well as business advice, parenting classes, scholarships for the teachers and mentoring.
Mississippi Building Blocks should reach about 3,500 children over four years, but the goal is to eventually make it statewide. The children were tested before the program began and again recently. The data on their development should be available by late July or early August, Smith said.
Children in the control and intervention groups were tested – 189 and 133, respectively – and a surprisingly high number, roughly 8 percent, were recommended for further screening for potential special needs, Smith said. That’s good and bad, she said. The good thing is if the children do have developmental delays, they can be helped.
Concern is with those children who are not being reached
But there are children around the state who may have similar problems who are not being detected, she said. Research shows if problems are caught early, they’re easier to correct, Smith said. “My concern is there’s a whole population out there that’s not being checked,” she said.
There also has been significant turnover at the daycare centers, about 40 percent, because of the low wages and low education requirements, Smith said. Teachers at day-care centers “make basically minimum wage, so there’s not a lot of incentive for them to stay,” she said, adding the turnover impacts the children. About six weeks after initial mentoring at the centers, program leaders found 86 percent were maintaining the recommended changes, Smith said. There are stronger relationships between parents and teachers.
“I almost cried when I went in and saw the transformation” at one Jackson child care center, Smith said. The children were playing and had more space in a brightly colored room. There was lots of language being used, among other things, she said. Participating in the program has been “a big blessing,” said Cassandra Lenston, owner of Boyd’s Early Childhood Development in Jackson. Before, Lenston said she informally tracked her students. Now, the children will be tracked through the program.
With help from a business adviser, Lenston said she has learned to handle payroll and other tasks for her center electronically. She also received free help with her taxes, which usually is a $200 expense. Other changes include redecorating the classrooms, she said. “They love their room,” Lenston said. “So I think when I saw their reaction to it, that was wonderful.”
Child Care centers and Pre-schools want to be a part of the program
Lesia Kemp, co-owner of Funtime Pre-School in Clinton, said she wanted to participate in Mississippi Building Blocks because of the program’s potential impact. But she was a little disappointed that her center will be in the control group instead of the intervention group. The day care center still will benefit from participating, she said.
Funtime Pre-School was evaluated last week, with experts looking at everything from the children’s language skills to how teachers greet parents. Kemp said she can use the evaluation results to improve her center. Some of her classrooms may be added to the intervention group next year, she said.
Kemp said her initial intent was “a little selfish”: She was thinking about the 200 children at her center. “Then, as I began to understand the overall impact, the potential for impact that this program could have, it sinks in and you realize what it could mean for our state and … country,” she said. “Our state could be a leader in (early childhood education) instead of the one falling behind.”
Diversity in the child care setting is part of the State’s quality rating system
Christi Payton, owner of Leaps and Bounds, said she is working toward getting a five on the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System, a rating system for early childhood programs. The system includes an emphasis on diversity, so Payton changed the menu at her center to include more ethnic foods. She added more diversity to the curriculum, such as having the children learn to count in Swahili and learn American Sign Language.
Payton has had children’s parents bring in pictures of their families so children can see themselves and how families can be structured differently. She said she has learned about how the setup of a classroom can help a child. Now, the classrooms in her center have quiet and noisy areas, soft areas, reading areas and gathering space for the group.
Janear Kidd said she chose to send Jalea to Leaps and Bounds because she knew Payton from Jackson State University. “I know that it’s a continuous learning process that she’s (Jalea) going through. It makes my heart flutter,” Kidd said.
