by Jack Darnton
The good news: The Anacortes School District has received a $533,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The better news: The two-year grant provides money to help kids ages birth to 5 be better prepared for school, and it provides money for the district to reach beyond its own programs and partner with private preschools and childcare centers on Fidalgo Island.
More money isn’t the solution to every educational problem, and other Gates grants have had disappointing outcomes at times. But this grant certainly focuses on an area where it seems there should be a tremendous bang for the buck. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so is an ounce of preparation.
Too many kids here, and everywhere else, don’t start kindergarten really ready to learn. And predictably, many of those kids who start behind fall further behind as the achievement gap widens.
The district has been tackling this problem with new programs emerging through Whitney Early Childhood Education Center, and now it’s poised to do even more. Expectations surrounding this grant are high, for research has shown high-quality prekindergarten programs can make a lasting impact.
One well-known study found children who participated in an early intervention program had higher cognitive test scores from the toddler years to age 21 and their academic achievement in both reading and math was higher from the primary grades through young adulthood. They completed more years of education and were more likely to attend a four-year college.
With more academic success comes more success in life. Another well-known study found disadvantaged students in a good program earned much more money than students in the control group, were much more likely to graduate from high school and own their own homes and were much less likely to require special education services, receive welfare or be arrested for a crime.
Early education is definitely the place to put scarce resources to best use.
The challenge for our educators is clear: Make the most of this opportunity and build a sustainable program that will keep helping every student get a start in school and truly be ready to learn long after the $533,000 is gone.
