COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Sixty-five percent of kindergarten-age children in Franklin County do not have a basic grasp of letters and numbers, prompting Ohio to say they’re not ready for kindergarten.
Experts said not being ready now can have an impact later on graduation and incarceration rates.
More than a year ago, NBC4 Investigates began tracking the spending and progress of a new program funded by Columbus City Council to turn these numbers around, and the results have the nonprofit ecstatic.
Future Ready Five hoped for a 20%-40% improvement in children’s literacy scores, which matches a national average of improvements post-intervention program. Instead, the nonprofit saw double that and said teacher trainings and individualized child support are the key.
“If this continues to work like we think it will, we believe we have lightning in a bottle,” Future Ready Five CEO Mario Basora said.
Again, 65% of children in Franklin County are not ready for kindergarten. For African American children, that number is around 78%; 85% of Latinx children are not ready. Now, Future Ready Five believes they have a solution.
“We double down on professional development for teachers and families and parents to help them support them in terms of literacy and give them the best training and the best resources to help children be ready for kindergarten,” Basora said.
The Franklin County program started with 13 centers and 160 kids. Now it has expanded to 500 kids across 35 centers. One of those is Little Incredibles.
“They are growing in leaps and bounds,” Little Incredibles Early Learning Center Director Rae Stewart said. “I mean, the things that they can do now that they couldn’t do before, which even includes identifying letters, rhyming words, syllables.”
Future Ready Five tests the children three times during the school year. One round is happening right now, but the results from the previous round are in. In three months, students in this program saw a 76.6% increase in literacy scores.
“Under normal circumstances, what you would see over a year-long period of an intervention that’s really effective in literacy, you’d see a 20 to 40% gain in literacy scores,” Basora said.
“Even their stamina to just sit and learn has improved tremendously,” Stewart said.
There was a 286% increase in children scoring advanced on the comprehensive kindergarten readiness assessment.
“I have no doubt that when our children leave here, they are going to be ready for kindergarten,” Stewart said.
The tests include questions like spell your name, where do you live, what is this letter, teaching valuable skills children need for the next step.
“We think we have something that ultimately will make all the difference for kids as we move towards the future,” Basora said.
Future Ready Five has seen a 100% return rate from participating childcare providers and centers. Now, they are working to get funding to expand once again, growing from 500 students to 1,500.
The organization’s goal is to have 100 percent of children in Franklin County ready for kindergarten in the next five years, believing it can help with other areas of learning if these results continue.
Child care centers interested in applying can do so here.
