More than $5 million has been collected in sales taxes for a Denver preschool program that officials say is needed to boost flagging student achievement in the upper grades.
The program should be partially rolled out in September and fully up and running by January.
Education officials say the preschool funding is needed now more than ever.
Results of the 2007 Colorado Student Assessment Program released July 31 showed Denver students scoring well below state averages in reading, writing and math over all grades – a phenomenon that educators hope to halt, in part, through early childhood education.
For the first time, the state revealed individual student achievement data compiled over three years that show that most students who scored unsatisfactory in reading as third-graders in 2005 did not improve as fifth-graders.
“This reinforces why we need to start early,” said Alex Medler, vice president of research and analysis for the Colorado Children’s Campaign – a nonprofit advocacy group for children.
“Once they fall behind, we almost never catch them up,” Medler said.
Early-learning advocates hope the city’s new tax-supported preschool program will solve that problem.
Voters in November narrowly approved the sales-tax increase of 1.2 cents on every $10 purchase to pay for the program, which is expected to generate $10.6 million by year’s end.
Denver County residents with 4-year-olds may apply for the money to attend preapproved preschools that meet specific standards, said Adele Phelan, director of the program.
Grants will range from $900 to $9,000 – based on need – for a 6 1/2-hour-a-day in a nine-month program, Phelan said.
Phelan hopes to unveil details about how and when people can apply for the money in a few weeks. She expects the program will serve about 2,000 children.
Early childhood education is a key component of the reform being imposed by Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet.
“There is no question that the better prepared they are when they start kindergarten, the better they do,” Bennet said.
“Our objective would be, over time, to get as many kids as we can in full-day early childhood and full-day kindergarten.”
Money from the Denver Preschool Program may help the district pay for more full-time classes, said Cheryl Caldwell, DPS’s director of early education.
About 6,500 kids in Denver are in preschool, making up about two-thirds of the 10,500 4-year-olds who live in the city, according to the U.S. census.
“For the low-income kids, it makes the biggest difference to get the preschool experience,” said Caldwell.
Children from low-income homes tend to enter school already behind, according to research. Many have 8,000 fewer words in their vocabularies than their middle-class peers, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Research also shows that quality preschool programs can improve those abilities.
Kids learn word sounds, rhyming patterns and the mechanics of reading, preparing them to become readers when they enter kindergarten, Caldwell said.
Reading is thought to be the cornerstone to learning, and educators are concerned that roughly half of Denver’s students are below reading proficiency.
Statewide, about 70 percent of students are proficient readers, according to CSAP results.
“All of us need to step back and ask what is going on,” said Virginia Maloney, dean of the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver.
“I’m a huge advocate of early childhood education and very intense intervention,” she said.
“If you don’t have kids who are fluent readers, you will have trouble.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
