Very Important Preschoolers

Children who come from poverty find their success in school enhanced by their experiences in a high-quality public preschool program.

Does preschool make a difference? Is early intervention more cost effective than later remediation? Is it possible to establish high-quality public preschools? Will families burdened with poverty get involved in their children's education?

South Bay Union School District, in Imperial Beach, California, answers these questions with a resounding "Yes!" South Bay has its own preschool campus, the VIP (Very Important Preschoolers') Village. In a cluster of 16 brightly painted portable buildings, the district provides classes for 525 of its youngest students. The campus includes classrooms, a large family center, kitchen, office, and ample playground space. Two rose gardens and a wishing well grace the grounds, which provide a warm and inviting atmosphere for young children and their families.

The families of the district fall into the lowest socio-economic quartile in the state. Over 90 percent of VIP Village families live below the poverty level. Approximately 8,000 of the district's 10,000 students represent an ethnic minority group, and 6,200 are Hispanic (68 percent of VIP students). Approximately 60 percent of all the district's students come from Spanish-speaking backgrounds, and more than 35 percent speak little or no English.

Families at School

Despite the obstacles of poverty and language difference, family participation is one of the secrets to the success of the VIP Village. We have discovered creative ways to ensure parent involvement—a key to any high-quality preschool program. We conduct widely attended parent education programs, based on a needs assessment and individual parent interviews. Popular topics include Volunteer Training, Nutritious Snacks, Positive Discipline, Computer Literacy, Activities That Promote Learning at Home, and Language and Literature. We offer morning and afternoon classes, in both English and Spanish, to accommodate as many parents as possible.

Parents are much more willing to participate at school if they feel welcome, they feel important, they are doing something they like to do, and they feel like their presence makes a difference. Using a parent interest survey, we plan the volunteer schedule. And if the parent cannot read, he or she is not assigned to the library corner. The parent who cooks for a 10-member extended family is not given lunch duty. Rather, parents help in areas in which they feel comfortable and where they have fun.

We may ask parents to share a special skill or talent, supervise a multicultural cooking activity, take a nature walk, or help in the school's garden. Other parents assist at special events, conduct fund-raisers, serve on the Parent Advisory Committee, or work at home on teacher-specified projects. If parents have a work schedule that limits their participation, we invite them to have lunch with their children. Some parents have arranged with employers to work a longer day for four days a week and leave work early on the fifth day to spend time in their child's classroom. We send formal thank-you notes to these employers, who often express their willingness to stay flexible.

A Multidimensional Program

In 1987, when South Bay students achieved in the lowest quartile in the state, the district began a systematic look at the improvement of student achievement, beginning with its youngest students. At that time, the district served only about 150 low-income students and families in fragmented programs. As a result of new leadership and a new focus on high-quality early childhood education, the district established VIP Village in 1992. The school now includes 24 preschool classrooms, including 18 state-funded classes for low-income students, 2 classes supported by the school district, and 4 special education programs.

Administrative support. Without the involvement of district administration, VIP Village would not have become a reality, the parents and community would be unaware of its services, and certainly the tracking of student achievement would not occur. This program began because of a 1987 directive to include preschools in staff development, parent education, and other programs.
Planned staff development. Preschool teachers had formerly not participated in inservice programs on assessment (and its connection to curriculum), quality program standards, early literacy, and technology. Previous staff development for preschool staff had focused on teacher-made materials for children to use.
Parent involvement and parent education programs. In 1994, the award of a federal Title VII Special Populations Grant ("VIPisimo") from the U.S. Department of Education enabled us to hire two family service liaisons. Since then, parent and community participation in the classroom has tripled.
Community partnerships. South Bay decided long ago to establish close ties to health and social service agencies throughout the community. For example, the local health clinic conducts preschool physicals in the VIP Village Family Center. The United Way, San Diego Gas and Electric, the Imperial Beach Optimist Club, and several local businesses also contribute to the program. The district's "Reachout to Families" center works with the preschool to refer families with domestic violence issues and with job training, counseling, clothing, and housing needs. A large district interagency committee also serves the needs of preschoolers and their families. The school district has supported the preschool from the beginning.
Curriculum and assessment alignment. Beginning with a Primary Articulation Committee, representatives from preschool through grade 3 met and developed grade-level standards and assessment procedures to ensure continuity of instruction and evaluation. The committee paid special attention to ensuring developmentally appropiriate practices, based on sound principles of early childhood education. Knowing what teachers emphasize at various grade levels proves valuable. We place student record cards in each preschool child's file, so the receiving school's kindergarten teacher can immediately identify areas of strength and need. A portfolio also follows each preschooler, including anecdotal records of preschoolers at play—their work. Any special educational or health needs, areas of strength, successful interventions, and family information are also included.
Long-term follow-up. Since 1988, the district has assigned identification numbers to its preschoolers to initiate a longitudinal study of student achievement.

Sound Achievemnet, Solid Results

Students' levels of achievement are the prime focus of long-term studies; and we have made comparisons of the elementary school performance of district, Title I, and preschool graduates. The results have exceeded even the high expectations of the district. Using the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills-Form 4 (CTBS/4) scores each year, preschool graduates have outscored both comparison groups and, in many cases, have doubled the scores of Title I students (see fig. 1). This is especially significant because the state-funded preschool students face the same socioeconomic barriers as Title I students. Even better news is that the academic success of VIP graduates has followed them through their elementary school careers, giving South Bay clear evidence that the district's emphasis on preschool education has made a difference.

Figure 1. South Bay Union School District Total Battery-CTBS/4-1996–97 Test Scores

In addition, the same Title VII grant that funds the family liaisons also supports a three-year study of VIP Village students taught in the "VIPisimo" primary language classrooms. Based on research that supports the instruction of preschoolers in their primary language, the Village offers nine classes taught only in Spanish. We thus provide a solid foundation in children's native language before they begin bilingual instruction in kindergarten. Students who speak little or no English will be tracked from preschool through the time of their successful transition to English in later grades. The study is expected to yield invaluable data on the effectiveness of primary language instruction at the preschool level.

The district has recently implemented an assessment of students' reading and writing stages, as well as portfolios for kindergarten and grade 1. This move away from standardized testing has made a comparison of current students more challenging, but preliminary results indicate that there are more VIP Village graduates performing in the higher stages of reading and writing.

Success Story

South Bay's successful preschool program didn't happen overnight. And it didn't begin until educators and policymakers recognized that a high-quality preschool does make a difference. The VIP Village preschool not only enjoys strong administrative and school board support, active parent involvement, committed teachers and staff, community partnerships, and effective articulation and assessment, but it has all these elements within a coherent, seamless program, housed in a physical site that is the envy of other districts in San Diego and across the United States. Since state funding is not mandated to serve all preschoolers, we usually have a waiting list of 200 children. Long-term tracking has found that our students consistently outperform their non-VIP Village counterparts in grades K–6.