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Strategies

Support Early Healthy Development
Strategies Success Stories

Maryland

Readiness for school at the beginning of kindergarten is recognized as an important milestone in ensuring that students have grade-level reading and math proficiency in subsequent grades.[1] Over the last 11 years, Maryland has succeeded in increasing the number of young children who are fully ready for school when they start kindergarten from 49% in 2001 to 82% in 2012.[2] Maryland has successfully narrowed the learning opportunity gaps; rates of school readiness have risen even faster among children of color and English language learners.[3] Maryland has achieved this success by enacting a range of policy measures promoting improved developmental health and educational opportunities in early childhood.

  •  The Maryland State Department of Education School and Community Nutrition Programs Branch collaborated with the regional USDA office to create improved child care nutrition guidelines for infants and toddlers.[4]
  • Early mental health has been integrated into early care and education through the state’s Early Childhood Mental Health project. Consultants provide children with mental and behavioral health concerns access to needed supports and help early care and education teachers improve their classroom environments to support children as they learn and prevent behavioral issues.[5]
  • The Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR) provides a curricular framework for early care and education providers and includes an assessment – the Work Sampling System (WSS) - to determine whether children are fully ready, approaching or still developing readiness for kindergarten[6].
  • The Maryland Early Childhood Data System (ECDS) is used to track data about the state’s kindergarteners including the type of early care and education they have received and is disaggregated to provide data by gender, race/ethnicity, and special learning needs.[7]
  • The state’s Judy P. Hoyer Care and Education Centers (Judy Centers) provide centralized access to early care and education and support services in Title I school districts (areas with high percentages of low-income families) to promote the developmental health of children and the well-being of their families[8].

[1] Le, V.-N., Kirby, S. N., Barney, H., Setodji, C. M., & Gershwin, D. (2006). School Readiness, Full-Day Kindergarten, and Student Achievement: An empirical investigation. Santa Monica, California: RAND Education. Available online.

[2]Maryland State Department of Education. (2012). Children Entering School Ready to Learn: Maryland Model for School Readiness 2012-2013. Available online.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Maryland State Department of Education School and Community Nutrition Programs Branch (2009). ABC Childcare Nutrition Guidelines. Available online.

[5] University of Maryland School of Medicine (2011). Maryland’s Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Evaluation.

[6] Maryland State Department of Education (2012). Children Entering School Ready to Learn: Maryland Model for School Readiness 2012-2013.  Available online.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Maryland State Department of Education (2009). An analysis of influence of Judy Center services on the Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMRS). Available online.