Year-End Report Shows PA Pre-K Counts Helps Young Children Learn to Succeed

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The commonwealth’s continuing investment in early childhood education is providing a strong foundation for young children to start school ready to learn and boosting the academic success of at-risk children, according to the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts year-end report.

Issued by the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, the report highlights the accomplishments of the 153 grantees and 165 partners who provide early learning services through Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts funding.

In 2009-10, an investment of $86.4 million to Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts early learning programs provided high-quality pre-kindergarten services to nearly 12,000 at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds through school districts, Head Start providers, child care centers and nursery schools.

According to the report:

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is serving our most vulnerable children. In 2009-10, the program served children in 62 counties and 402 school districts. Approximately 5.3 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in the rural/rural-mix counties were served and 3.7 percent of the 3- and 4-year-olds in the urban/urban-mix counties were served in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts.

Enrollment for Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts targets children affected by risk factors that can harm their development and chance for school success. Participating children lived in families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, and about half (49.9 percent) of children enrolled were also impacted by at least one other risk factor, such as learning English as a second language, having special needs, or living with a parent or guardian with less than a high school education, making them more likely to struggle in school.

Children have made excellent progress in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and are entering kindergarten ready to learn. Nearly every child (more than 98 percent) showed age-appropriate or emerging age-appropriate proficiency in literacy, numeracy, and social skills after attending a Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts early learning program in 2009-1010. Schools report that graduates of Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts continue to perform on par with or better than their peers in kindergarten and first grade.

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts teachers and classrooms are high quality. Approximately 84 percent of teachers have bachelor’s degrees and two-thirds have obtained Early Childhood Education (ECE) teacher certification. Approximately 25 percent more teachers are ECE-certified this year than in 2008-2009. Well-qualified teachers keep parents engaged, promote positive development, address concerns, and work with parents to create learning experiences both in school and at home.

In addition to high-quality certified teachers, Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts classrooms offer small class sizes, curriculum aligned with Pennsylvania Early Learning standards, regular assessment progress and performance reports. These high expectations ensure that the children receive a high-quality early learning experience.

Parents are highly satisfied with Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts. In a recent survey, 95 percent of about 3,200 parents with children enrolled in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts reported that teachers provided them with new ideas on how to support their child’s development at home, and that information on their child’s performance motivated them to change how they taught their child at home.

Thousands of parents are demanding quality early education for their children. At the end of the 2009-10 school year, approximately 4,500 children were already on waiting lists to participate in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts for 2010-11.

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