Making the transition from preschool to kindergarten can be a daunting experience for any child. This past month, 38 preschoolers who attend our United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education Demonstration School, showed they were ready to make the big leap – all earning certificates of achievement and a pass to kindergarten.
On hand for the end-of-the-year ceremonies were the School’s four preschool teachers, 38 little learners and a throng of family and friends. The program featured children singing songs, videos and a look back at the milestones the children achieved.
One of twenty-one Educare Learning Network Schools across the country, the School participates in ongoing research that tracks the program’s quality and the children’s success. Research tells us that helping children get off to the very best possible start in life is the most important investment we can make. And an Educare Implementation Study, conducted by University of Miami and Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that:
- Educare students, including dual-language learners, outperform low-income peers on vocabulary assessments
- Children who enter Educare at younger ages have higher levels of receptive vocabulary skills at kindergarten entry than children who start Educare later.
- Dual-language learners benefit even more from earlier entry and longer involvement in Educare, demonstrating stronger gains in English language ability.
To early care and education professionals, language development is vital to human development and a key indicator of a students’ success in school and in life.
For a firsthand look at how a child’s early experiences can impact their later development, let’s catch up with our School’s alumni and see how they’re doing.