SEATTLE (AP) — Anacortes and Sedro-Woolley are among several school districts benefiting from $2 million in grants awarded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The awards, which will be distributed over two years, aim to help districts work with preschools to better prepare children for kindergarten.

The foundation says only half of kids enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school. The gap is wider in the lowest-income classrooms. The foundation believes high quality preschool programs can help close that gap and insure children succeed in school.

Other districts benefiting from the grants are Nooksack, Olympia and South Bend. They will be expanding the work they are already doing in the area of preschool-elementary school academic alignment.

The Gates Foundation also is involved in demonstration projects for high quality preschool in East Yakima and the White Center neighborhood south of Seattle.
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