Beverly Sweeney Presentation - Transition to Kindergarten by Smart Beginnings Shenandoah Valley

Planning the Transition to Kindergarten: Building Connections for Success Beverly Sweeney, Ph.D.

Kindergarten Transition: Community Perspectives

Goals for Today •  Explore a comprehensive model for transition planning •  Review why transition experiences matter for early childhood development and school success •  Review current transition planning resources •  Begin transition planning with a focus on schoolschool and community-school connections

Introductions •  In the next few minutes: •  Introduce yourself to the person next to you •  Identify what your role is related to this work •  Share one recent transition you experienced –  Examples: recent marriage, job change, having children

•  Talk about what challenges you had during this transition and what helped you cope with those challenges

Transitions Across the Lifespan •  Becoming a new parent •  Going to (or back to) college •  Moving to a new town •  Starting a new job •  Experiencing an empty nest •  Retirement from a career •  Getting married

How do we cope with these changes?

Elements to Foster Successful Adjustment •  Information •  Relationships •  Alignment

Successful Adjustment

How Successfully are Children Entering Kindergarten? Difficult 16%

Some Problems 32% Successful 52% Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta & Cox, 2000

Setting Changes 40% 35% 30% 25%

Pre-K K

20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Free Individual Choice/Centers

Sm Group

Wh Group

LaParo et al., 2009

School Readiness and Transition: A Child-focused View Pre-K

Kindergarten

Child

School Readiness and Transition: When Connections are the Focus Early Experiences Teachers

Kindergarten

Peers

Teachers

Child Community

Peers

Child Family

Community

Family

Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000

WHY ARE WE CONCERNED ABOUT TRANSITIONS?

Transition Experience Matters •  In the NCEDL project, more transition activities were associated with all of the following child outcomes at the beginning of kindergarten: –  Greater frustration tolerance –  Better social skills –  Fewer conduct problems –  Fewer learning problems –  More positive approaches to learning •  Transition activities were most helpful for children from disadvantaged families. LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2008

Effect of Transition Practices •  Early Childhood Longitudinal Study –  17,212 children, 992 schools

Fall K Transition Practices

Spring K Academic Skills

Even more for children from disadvantaged families Schulting, Malone & Dodge, 2005

HOW DO WE BUILD SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION EXPERIENCES?

Successful Transition: Guiding Principles •  It s a process, not a program •  Supportive relationships are resources for children •  Different sets of relationships fit different needs – some are supportive, some informational •  Connections serve as a bridge for child, family, and school across time and contexts

Transition Connections • Child-school connections • Family-school connections • School-school connections • Community-school connections

Transition Tools Ready Set Go – Kindergarten Transition Videos

RSG HOME

http://www.readysetk.org/index.html

RSG VIDEOS

RSG PREVIEWS

TEAM RSG

BUY NOW

Welcome to Ready, Set, Go! where you'll find everything you need to help children and families transition to kindergarten! Unlike programs that focus on a single event, Ready, Set, Go! provides support at every stage of transition and is appropriate for families, caregivers, and teachers of young children birth through age five. Ready, Set, Go! was collaboratively developed by CharlotteMecklenburg Schools, Child Care Resources Inc., and NC Department of Public Instruction. Presented in English and Spanish, the series includes 3 DVDs, a bonus music video, and a CD-ROM of resources to customize and print. Whether you're watching the videos at home, using them with your program or school, or embarking on a community-wide transition campaign, you'll find what you need to help every child be his or her own best ready for kindergarten.

Smart Beginnings Transition Tools

1 of 1

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School-School Connections •  GOAL: To provide children with stable high quality classroom experiences across time –  Increase consistency for children across contexts through alignment of: •  Routines •  Curricula •  Learning standards •  Assessments

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What is school readiness?

School to School Example: Early Childhood Professionals Working Together •  •

Kindergarten, Head Start, and preschool teachers Meet four times a year focusing on aligning experiences for children

•

Outcomes: –  Increased participation in transition opportunities like K camp •  Children, families, and teachers more prepared –  Increased consistency between settings related to routines and expectations •  Pre-k teachers felt their knowledge of children and families was valued •  K teachers felt children more socially and academically prepared –  Increased awareness of the community needs for more spaces for children •  An additional preschool class is being considered to be added to the elementary school Smart Beginnings, 2011

Outcomes of Successful School-School Connections •  Improved communication between pre-k and kindergarten teachers •  Increased sharing of resources •  Facilitation of other connections

Community-School Connections •  Goal: To facilitate the transition process within the community –  Getting the word out –  Providing resources where they are needed

Community in Action

Preparing the Community

Preparation for Parents •  A public service announcement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grZc0lcliTQ

Public Service Announcements Creating a PSA is easier than you may think.

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Also, many radio stations put PSA info on an index card that is added into a mix of community announcement index cards that the on-air staff flip through and use for things to talk about before they go from programming into a commercial block. Just be sure they don’t take longer than 60 seconds to recite. Be sure that your written PSA script has a start date and an end date. 4. Follow up again. After a few days, call your media contact again to make sure they’ve had a chance to review the information and ask if they would like any more information or if they have any questions. Example PSAs #1 Child: Look, Mommy – a school bus! I’ll ride one of those when I go to kindergarten, won’t I?

STEPS TO SUCCESS

Six Steps to Transition Planning 1. Assess your partnership: Who is involved? 2. Identify the goals of the team around transition and alignment 3. Assess what is happening now 4. Identify data that you have to support these practices 5.  Plan and Prioritize: Reevaluate goals, choose steps to take, assign roles, set deadlines, anticipate barriers 6.  Implement and Evaluate

1. Assessing Your Partnership •  Who is involved? –  Teachers (pre-k and kindergarten) –  School leaders (pre-k and kindergarten) –  Family representative(s) –  Community leaders

Assessing Your Partnership: Who is Involved? –  Teachers from multiple school districts –  Teachers from multiple pre-k programs –  School leaders –  Community representatives (Smart Beginnings and JMU)

2. Identifying the Goals of the Team •  Choose several goals that fit your program s needs •  Examples: –  Support children being ready for school –  Help families know more about what they can do at home to help children be ready for school –  Get community more involved with children

3. Assessing What is Happening Now •  Sort what you are currently doing into categories –  What is fostering child-school connections? –  What is fostering family-school connections? –  What is fostering school-school connections? –  What is fostering community-school connections?

4. Examining Data You Have •  Is what you are currently doing working? How do you know? –  Are children adjusting to kindergarten better because their preschool teacher is reading books about kindergarten before they enter? –  Are more families registering early for kindergarten because of community efforts to disseminate information? –  Are kindergarten teachers better informed about students because of school-school collaboration?

5. Planning and Prioritizing •

What are the next steps to take? –

Reevaluate goals and formulate new ones

–

Plan steps to address new goals

•

Who is responsible for tasks? –

•

When should tasks be implemented? –

•

Assign roles within the transition team

Set deadlines for tasks and create a timeline

Anticipate barriers and make plans to overcome them

6. Implementing and Evaluating •  Implement the plan you have created •  Evaluate: Is what you are doing working? How do you know? –  Examine data on newly implemented practices – do you see changes? –  Modify practices as needed and define new goals

National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning For more Information Contact us at: ncqtl@uw.edu or 877-731-0764

This document was prepared under Grant #90HC0002 for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, by the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning. Â