Success Stories
North Carolina’s Smart Start, More at 4 and Ready Schools
Beginning at the beginning.
In 1993, the Governor of North Carolina announced a bold new early childhood initiative, later known as
Smart Start,
which was authorized by the legislature.
An
evaluation
of the program described it as “more than the sum of its parts. Smart Start is a leading example of ‘reinventing government’ by returning decision making about family services to local communities, asking all parts of the community to work together in a partnership to improve the lives of children and families…” Smart Start focuses on children from birth to 3 year olds and their families, providing quality early care and education, access to health services and family support.
Over 15 years Smart Start has demonstrated
results
in the following areas:
·
Children have the skills and abilities deemed important for school success.
·
Children have more options to receive a high quality child care experience.
·
Children are accessing health care.
·
Child care teachers have improved access to educational opportunities.
·
Children with special needs are receiving a higher quality child care experience.
·
Families benefit from Smart Start.
·
Smart Start improves collaboration and coordination of services.
Then came More at 4.
Building on the success of the early childhood initiative, in 2001 the incoming Governor expanded the work to include high quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten programs. The vision was a program that would be targeted to most at-risk 4year olds who are not prepared for success in school. The program, which came to be known as
More at 4,
built on North Carolina’s existing service delivery system, with services provided in diverse settings, including public and private schools, Head Start Centers, and community-based child care centers and preschools.
In 2008 the documented child
outcomes
included:
·
Substantial gains across all domains: language and literacy, math, general knowledge.
·
For Spanish-speaking children, growth occurred on all skills assessed in English and most in Spanish, with similar amounts of gain during pre-K and kindergarten.
·
Children with greater needs experienced greater benefits from pre-K through Kindergarten.
Now, it’s time for Ready Schools.
In 2007, the State Board of Education:
·
Adopted the “ Definition and Pathways ” of a Ready School.
·
Endorsed the “ Power of K” position paper as a Ready School foundational support.
·
Supported the recommendation that elementary schools develop a “ready school plan.”
This has resulted in over three dozen counties working collaboratively on
Ready Schools.