Word of mouth was the only advertisement needed when the Springdale School District added seats to a prekindergarten program this fall.
There will be 980 classroom spots for children ages 3 and 4 this fall, said Darlene Fleeman, Springdale prekindergarten director and principal. Late Thursday morning, there were 41 seats left. Six parents came in to enroll students just before noon, she said. She's applied for an extension that would add 60 more children, Fleeman said.
At A Glance
Ready For School
Kindergarten readiness is defined by the Arkansas Department of Human Services, in part, as a child who:
• Knows first and last name, his or her own age and parents’ names.
• Counts from 1 to 10 in correct order.
• Matches a letter with the beginning sound of a word.
• Matches two pictures that are alike.
• Recognizes and names at least five colors.
• Adds and subtracts familiar objects such as cookies.
• Makes simple predictions and comments about a story being read.
• Recognizes rhyming words. such as cat and hat.
• Runs, jumps, hops, throws, catches and bounces a ball.
• Retells a simple story.
• Adjusts to new situations without his or her parents.
Source: Kindergarten Readiness List
Springdale schools have one of the largest prekindergarten programs in Northwest Arkansas.
"Our families totally embrace it," Fleeman said.
Rogers School District nearly lost two prekindergarten classrooms after a federal grant that paid for them ended this year. A private grant from the Care Foundation was awarded last month and opened both classrooms.
Educators tried to prepare families by hosting a readiness workshop in June, said Robin Wilkerson, principal at Eastside Elementary School in Rogers where one of the prekindergarten classrooms is housed. They sent home a prekindergarten kit with letters and numbers, and if a child had an older brother or sister, they got a tutorial on how to use it.
Children who don't get instruction from parents or from a program before they enter school arrive at kindergarten unprepared, Wilkerson said.
"We start reading in kindergarten now, and we're writing in kindergarten," she said.
Kindergarten is changing, according to a January 2014 EdPolicy Works paper from the University of Virginia. Only 31 percent of kindergarten teachers surveyed in 1998 thought children should learn to read in kindergarten. That changed in 2006 to 65 percent. From 1998 to 2006, there was a shift toward full-day kindergarten, and teachers began spending more time teaching vocabulary, spelling, writing sentences and composing stories and less time allowing children to pick their own activities.
The 340 seats in the Rogers program are mostly filled, staff members said Friday.
Even if Springdale gets 60 more seats, there will be a waiting list, Fleeman said. Kindergarten enrollment is about 1,700 in Springdale, she said. She estimates she could place 1,300 students in her prekindergarten program who qualify under poverty guidelines.
State grants are available for programs that serve 3- and 4-year-old children with family incomes under 200 percent of the poverty level. A family of four would qualify with an annual income of $47,700 under 2014 federal guidelines.
Prekindergarten attendance isn't mandatory in Arkansas. Schools aren't automatically awarded money for prekindergarten programs, but apply for grants through the state, along with those from private programs.
There were 24,294 children in Arkansas Better Chance and Arkansas Better Chance for School Success Programs last year, said Amy Webb, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Of those, 2,415 were in programs in Benton and Washington counties. Nearly half the programs in Washington County were private entities.
About 10,000 children are enrolled in child care assistance programs paid for through the Child Care Development Fund, Webb said. That program pays for prekindergarten but can encompass infants to 12 years of age, she said.
The National Institute for Early Education Research gave Arkansas high marks in its State of Preschool 2013 report. The state scored a 9 out of 10 on quality standards, ranked 12th in state spending and 14th in availability.
The report estimated 51 percent of 4-year-old children in Arkansas were enrolled in either state-backed programs run by public and private entities, special education or federal Head Start programs, compared with a national average of 41 percent. Ten states had no program. Arkansas was one of 11 states with a full school day program.
The seven-hour program in Springdale serves breakfast, lunch and a snack, Fleeman said. The teacher reads books to the children. They have nap time and outdoor recess.
"It's not all pencil and paper," she said.
The learning centers around a prekindergarten classroom look like a chance for children to play, but center time is all about learning, Fleeman said. The children choose their own activity, promoting independence. They work together with other children, learning to share and show empathy. They have to clean after themselves before they can change stations. If a child wants to practice writing his name, he can.
During center time, the teacher can work on goals with individual children. A game of letter or number bingo can be a building block for reading, she said.
"It's the delivery that I think makes it so powerful," Fleeman said.
National support for prekindergarten programs has been promised, but it will be based on grants.
The Department of Education and Department of Heath and Human Services announced earlier this year a $250 million Race to the Top grant cycle aimed at early childhood programs. The announcement said it will target a mixed-delivery system that involves nonprofit organizations and faith-based institutions. States will be able to apply for the federal money, but there's no application yet. Federal awards will be decided by December.
Arkansas prioritizes prekindergarten seats for districts where children are considered at risk of low academic performance. Springdale qualifies under this category. Fayetteville also gets money from the state but isn't as high risk of low performance as Springdale students.
More than 600 of Springdale's seats come from the Arkansas Better Chance programs. The rest of the money comes from a patchwork of other agencies. There is federal Child Care Development Fund money; five classes are paid for with a grant from the Care Foundation, two from Race to the Top money and one from a 21st Century Community Learning Centers federal program.
Rogers classrooms are paid for with private grants, Arkansas Better Chance programs and federal money.
School districts also use federal Title I money and school poverty money, Webb said.
There's only one prekindergarten classroom at Eastside, but Wilkerson is glad she has it.
"The thought of losing it is really scary. We don't want to let go of something that is working," she said.
NW News on 08/09/2014