Eight Week Intervention Program for Preschool Children Prior to Kindergarten Entry Board of Early Education and Care December 8, 2009

Context and Proposal Need: In order to eliminate the achievement gap in kindergarten through grade twelve, efforts must be made to address the school readiness gap; the difference in academic performance and social skills of children entering kindergarten. Proposal: EEC proposes investing XX of ARRA funds to support an intensive 8- week kindergarten preparation program during the summers of 2010 and 2011 for preschool children entering kindergarten who have not previously had access to high quality early education and care. Funds will be made available to high quality programs in the mixed-delivery system of Head Start, private center-based programs, public and private school programs, and independent and system-affiliated family child care providers meeting the criteria of the intensive intervention. To aid in the management of vouchers due to the influx of funding for the summer program, EEC will allocate $XX to provide XX hours temporary assistance to CCR&Rs. 2

Eligible Applicants, Program Quality and Target Population Eligible Applicants EEC contracted programs and family child care systems Must meet QRIS level 3 requirements (inclusive of levels 1 and 2) Target Population Four and five year old children on EECs income eligible waiting list, which is estimated at 1,100 children EEC will conduct outreach to communities to determine if and how many 4 and 5 year olds are income eligible but are not currently on the waiting list and will use this information to establish how many additional children can be served 3

Program Requirements for Participation Full day services 8 weeks, 5 days per week, 10 hours per day Public school partnership Alignment, transitions, engagement of families Class size children per classroom Teacher qualifications Classrooms must have 2 teachers (at least one Bachelors degree teacher preferred) FCC providers may have CDA if supervised by staff with Bachelors degree or higher (masters preferred) Support for English language learners (ELL) must be evident in having a staff person available who speaks the native language of all ELLs 4

Program Requirements for Participation, Continued Supervision Teachers/providers must be supervised by staff with a Bachelors degree or higher (Masters level preferred) Program staff must be able to illustrate how they will provide reflective and ongoing supervision to educators Intentionality Programs must be able to outline a plan of how they intend to use the 8 week program as an intensive intervention Particular focus must be given to engagement of families, curricula, assessment and alignment with the local public school system Assessment and Evaluation Programs must use an EEC-approved child assessment system to assess childrens developmental progress during the intervention and use data to inform and individualize instruction Programs must agree to administer whole child assessments (specific battery to be determined) for the purpose of providing aggregate-level data to EEC and informing implementation of a statewide assessment measure 5

Proposal for Consideration Allocation of up to $XX of ARRA funding to support an intensive 8-week kindergarten preparation program during the summers of 2010 and 2011 for preschool children entering kindergarten who have not previously had access to high quality early education and care. 6