Indianola Promise Community is celebrating noticeable improvement in the number of students who are entering kindergarten ready for success.
Last Thursday, the group celebrated the triumph that 51 percent of the students entering Lockard Elementary were already at grade level. That figure represents twice what it was when they first began the promise community work in 2013 and represents, “The results we all say we want to have,” said Josh Davis, vice president IPC external affairs.
Davis, who oversees the grants for both Indianola and Deer Creek, said he was really excited about what they’ve been able to accomplish and encouraged those in attendance to “Stay energized and stay engaged in this work.” According to material presented on Thursday, meeting or exceeding the 55th percentile is indicative of the student being at grade level and is also the predictive cut score for reading at grade-level by the end of third grade.
In an earlier press release, he called the achievement, “A significant accomplishment of the early childhood education community in Indianola.” Incoming students were tested using a literacy test approved for all public schools in the state.
Roshunda Sample, Project Director, Early Head Start Childcare Partnership, talked about Kindergarten Readiness alignment, which affiliates early childhood learning with K-12, she called it essential because without it, the gains made often fade or disappear completely.
Sample also touched on the process and programs used to reach this milestone and acknowledged the organizations and groups IPC is partnering with to accomplish its goals.
Lockard principal Daphne Heflin spoke on the marked improvement seen as a result of students attending summer school and various other summer programs. Heflin said Lockard has 413 students enrolled with 170 in kindergarten, and she shared data that reflects 64 percent of the kindergartners are meeting or exceeding the 40th percentile versus only 25 percent when the IPC started four years ago.
Heflin remarked, “We have a great number of our children who are now ready for kindergarten because of all of the collaborative efforts with IPC.”
Cheryl Pickney, Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation, Delta Health Alliance, also addressed the group and provided more detail on the information presented earlier, including insight into the standardized assessments and legislative directives used to validate the data.
Pickney extolled the methodology used by DHA, saying they target leading indicators,.
“You just can’t look at test scores and say why Johnny can’t read,” Pickney said.
She said you have to look at the processes as well. Pickney encouraged those in attendance to look at the data provided to determine what it is telling them and where they need to go from this point.
She then called for remarks and questions from the audience noting that their opinions and ideas mattered. Mary Ann Griffin, library director, said early intervention makes a difference, “The earlier you do something with your children the more impact you have,” Griffin said. Mayor Steve Rosenthal said multiple sources working with the students makes a difference. “Every child learns differently, so I believe trying to continue with multiple partners is real important,” he said.
Robin Rosenthal then asked if kindergarten would ever become mandatory and if that was desirable. Betty Petty, chairperson of the Sunflower County United for Children, mentioned the importance of making sure parents understand how to read the data, so they will know what they need to help their children with at home. She said the numbers need to be explained, otherwise they don’t mean anything to parents.
Dr. Valerie Simpson said that as a community, while the numbers are improving, they need to talk about the importance of kindergarten and let parents of incoming kindergarteners know this is the beginning. She said it’s getting harder to meet the enrollment numbers and they need to help parents make the connection between the promise school and the third-grade gate test.
The community partners involved in the kindergarten readiness project include the Sunflower County Consolidated School District, Head Start Association, Indianola Promise Community, Children’s Defense Fund, Save the Children, Sunflower County United for Children, the city of Indianola and its Excel by 5 program, and participating child care centers in Indianola.
