Early Childhood Education

March/April 2009

State-funded preschool providers are being asked this year to craft strategies for finding and enrolling hard-to-reach youngsters—children whose family or life circumstances put them at the highest risk of academic failure. Serving the hard-to-reach is front and center on the state’s preschool agenda.

	Order
Reaching into the home Debra Williams Sometimes, getting children into preschool requires an early start. Take the Carole Robertson Center for Learning's Parent-Child Home Program, which works with low-income children as young as 15 months. The program, modeled on a national initiative launched in the 1960s, sends home visitors out twice a week to read to children and play with them using carefully chosen books and toys that the children get to keep. The visits show parents the best ways to play with and talk to their children in order to enhance their development. The immediate goal is to raise children's pre-literacy... preschool > Read More
Going beyond home care Debra Williams A program that started out serving hard-to-reach preschoolers in the Austin neighborhood has since spread to suburbs south and west of the city. The program brings at-risk children in home-based day care to nearby child care centers for part of the day, to give them the benefit of an early-education curriculum taught by certified teachers. The goal is to serve youngsters who are in need of preschool but are being cared for by relatives, friends or in other home settings. Since its launch five years ago, the Community Connections Model has grown from four centers serving 160... preschool > Read More
Working families face preschool dilemma Debra Williams When Myles Jones turned 3 in March, his mother began looking around for preschools because he was so bright. “When he wasn’t quite 1, he could spell his name and he knew his birthday,” says Myles’ mom, Cherese McGee. She chose Toddler Town Day Care in Evanston, a private child care center with a Preschool for All program, because it offered instruction in the arts, science and reading. Plus, the program was a full day—a must for McGee, who is a single working mom. McGee, however, says she struggles to make ends meet, citing monthly rent of $850, plus a car payment,... preschool > Read More
Hitting the streets Debra Williams Three years ago, Marquita Booker stood outside her home in the Edward Willis Homes, a predominantly black housing development in south suburban Robbins. A petite, young white woman walked up and asked her: “How old are your children?” Booker eyed her suspiciously. Her son, 3-year-old Jaquari, was at her side, and baby Jaylin, almost 1, in her arms. She thought, “Who are you to be asking me about my children?” Nevertheless, Booker answered. The young woman, Julie Anderson, then told Booker about the advantages of early learning and encouraged her to enroll Jaquari in... preschool > Read More
In and out of preschool Debra Williams In the last two years, 5-year-old Kymarria Gibbs has moved five times. She and her family lived with a relative in Indiana, moved to their own apartment while they were there, then landed at another relative’s home in Chicago. When that didn’t work out, they ended up at a homeless shelter on the South Side. Finally, in late February, the family got a subsidized apartment in Waukegan. The frequent moves kept Kymarria out of preschool for the most part, although she was enrolled for a time in a Head Start in Indiana and a home-based child care center that serves homeless children.... preschool > Read More
Serving newcomers Phuong Ly When Krishna Rimal left a refugee camp in the South Asian nation of Bhutan for Chicago, he dreamed of a better education for his two children. After the family arrived in December, Rimal’s son was quickly enrolled in 1st grade. But his daughter, Anisha, who turned 5 after Sept. 1, has been unable to get into preschool. She is not eligible to enroll in kindergarten until next year. Social workers at Heartland Alliance, a refugee resettlement agency that is helping the family with English classes and job training, told Rimal that free preschool is available, but they don’t... preschool > Read More
More than just a welcome mat Debra Williams Finding children who need preschool the most sometimes takes more than just putting out the welcome mat. That reality is at the heart of an agenda set by the Illinois Early Learning Council, the advisory body for the state’s free universal preschool program. The goal of the agenda: Find and enroll children who are the most at-risk of academic failure and who need preschool the most, but whose families are not aware of, or are not taking advantage of, free preschool. “The idea of ‘If you build it, they will come,’ doesn’t always work,” says Elliot Regenstein, a co-chair of the... preschool > Read More

Letter From the Editor

Knocking down barriers to free preschool

By: Veronica Anderson

It took years, some would say decades, to get universal preschool off the ground in Illinois. So when Preschool for All got a green light three years ago, it was cause for celebration, especially among early childhood education advocates who had worked assiduously behind the scenes and on the frontlines to make it happen.

But then, a curious thing happened. In some places, shiny new preschool classrooms set up shop, and nobody came.

It took years, some would say decades, to get universal preschool off the ground in Illinois. So when Preschool for All got a green light three years ago, it was cause for celebration, especially...

Departments

Catalyst In Depth
Catalyst Notebook
Opinions
In Focus

catalyst-chicago.org

Our Network

Search

Catalyst Extras

Follow catalyst-chicago.org on:

Primary links