DESE official says preschool programs 'not in good shape'; area educators say space is biggest challenge

Of all the numbers in early childhood education, perhaps the two most telling are these: 3 and 85.

Reams of research show 85 percent of the core structures of the brain are formed by age 3. Yet a fraction of public education dollars is marked for the nation's youngest learners. With Missouri lawmakers toiling to fill a half-billion budget shortfall and Congress gearing up for deep spending cuts, early childhood funding looks to be on the chopping block again.

While maintaining funding for preschool programs, Southeast Missouri school districts, like public school systems across the state, have sustained deep funding cuts in their Parents as Teachers program, considered the building-block program for early childhood development.

But one state education official says Missouri's varied preschool system has had a troubling effect on academic achievement.

Kathy Thornburg, assistant commissioner for the Office of Early and Extended Learning at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said funding restraints aside, the state has yet to effectively regulate and monitor the thousands of preschools serving Missouri's 158,000 3-to-5 year-olds. She said there are no guarantees a child attending a preschool in the state will receive even a mediocre early education.

"When you look at the number of program requirements, or lack thereof, that we have for teachers, I think we're not in too good of shape," said Thornburg, considered one of the nation's leading authorities on childhood education.

DESE oversees about 15 percent of preschool programs in the state, and the federal Head Start program accounts for another 12 percent. Those programs are licensed through the state and are subject to stricter guidelines and standards than those that are legally exempt from licensure, such as faith-based preschools, Thornburg said. That's not to say there aren't many quality programs outside the state-licensed system, Thornburg said, but some schools are operating under the state's minimum standards and there's little monitoring.

"We don't keep very good tabs on where our children are and the quality of the programs they are in," Thornburg said. "For those programs that are licensed, the requirement for a head teacher ... for toddlers and preschoolers is they have to be 18, they have to have a tuberculin test, and no record of child abuse in their background."

Thornburg and others say failure to adequately fund early childhood programs and improve standards and monitoring will further widen the growing achievement gap in Missouri's schools.

Her recent report to the Missouri State Board of Education, titled "The State of Young Children in Missouri," shows 88 percent of children who have difficulty reading at the end of first grade have similar difficulties at the end of fourth grade, and 75 percent of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school. In Missouri, 64 percent of fourth-grade public school students were not proficient in reading, according to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation's report card. Four out of five fourth-graders from low-income families didn't hit the proficiency mark.

Research indicates, however, that early intervention can correct reading deficiencies in all but 3 to 5 percent of children, the report says.

Space constraints

In the Cape Girardeau School District, educators say the problem is not the efficacy of the preschool program, it's the availability. The district operates three preschool classrooms, one at Blanchard Elementary School and two at Jefferson Elementary, serving 100 children. The program has a waiting list of more than 40 children, said Deena Ring, the district's director of special services.

"That doesn't count those who have given up," she said. "I actually feel there would be more if there would be more opportunity."

Opportunity, at least in space, is coming thanks to voter support of the district's $40 million bond issue. The funding will pay for the construction of a preschool at Clippard Elementary, with a goal of preschool additions at all of the elementary buildings, when programming dollars become available.

The preschool program's budget this year is $120,695, which includes three teachers, and class sizes are typically between 15 and 20 children, Ring said. A special-education teacher assists special-needs students.

Ring said the effects of budget cuts to Parents as Teachers will be felt in early childhood development. The educational support program for families of young children saw its budget fall from $33 million to $13 million. More cuts could be on the way.

"It's sad. We always talk about early intervention, the sooner we're able to start the better," Ring said. "Parents as Teachers is one of the first programs to receive cuts."

The Jackson School District's early childhood program has experienced growing pains in recent years, too. This year, 292 students are participating in the district's programming, from the tuition-based Little Indians preschool to the Title I preschool for children experiencing some learning delays and the early childhood special education program. The total budget between the three tops $1.1 million this year, much of that in federal funding.

"Our biggest challenge is space," said Beth Emmendorfer, the district's associate superintendent of Student Services.

Preschool classes are held at South Elementary School and at leased space in New McKendree United Methodist Church's South Campus.

Stephanie Bledsoe, a Title I teacher at New McKendree, said cramped quarters can lead to more behavioral problems and greater distractions in the early childhood program. The student-to-teacher ratio, Bledsoe said, is typically one teacher and two aides for every 20 students.

"I think the needs of the students we have are so great," she said. "The program is wonderful, but honestly you cannot have enough hands in there."

Class size is a critical factor in the success of early childhood education, researchers say. The smaller the class, generally speaking, the better the outcome.

For grades kindergarten to second, DESE's minimum standard is 25 students per class, while the desirable number is 20.

Alma Schrader Elementary School, according to district figures, is well within the desirable threshold. Clippard, Franklin and Jefferson elementary schools have no more than 22 students in each of their kindergarten classrooms.

Blanchard Elementary, however, has two classes of 26 students, and another with 23, according to the district. The number reportedly was higher in recent weeks. Notably, Blanchard has been designated a school in need of improvement for failing to hit No Child Left Behind targets.

Blanchard principal Barbara Kohlfeld said smaller class sizes are always more desirable but that she is confident in her staff and grateful for the technology and other resources available in the kindergarten classrooms.

"In the perfect world we would have a class size of 15 children, but you have to do the best with what you've got," she said.

Bekki Cook, a volunteer coordinator for a Blanchard reading program, said that given the district's funding restraints, it's up to the community to step in and help.

"We owe these children the opportunity to fulfill their potential," she said. "With these kinds of [classroom] numbers, it's very hard to accomplish that."

In Jackson, class size is between 19 at Millersville Elementary and 24 at Orchard, Emmendorfer said.

'A big order'

In challenging economic times, educators like Thornburg know targeting more funding for early childhood programs -- or anything, for that matter -- will be a tough sell. But reaching students earlier creates an economic and social ripple effect, leading to lower dropout and crime rates, and increasing the potential for financial and social success, Thornburg said.

Meanwhile, state and federal lawmakers have stepped up the rhetoric about improving education.

On Saturday, Gov. Jay Nixon led a panel discussion among fellow governors on education issues in Washington, D.C.

Nixon, who trimmed millions of dollars out of Missouri's Parents as Teachers budget, said no investment will have a greater effect on the nation's future than the one made in education today.

"Education is the key to an individual's earning power and success in life, and it is the single most important factor in the success of a state, and a nation," he told the gathering.

Nixon's proposed budget calls for effectively flat education funding in the 2012 fiscal year.

The effects of the recession have hit early childhood education hard, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. The organization estimated that nearly $250 million was trimmed from 16 state-funded pre-K programs in fiscal year 2010, and it expects another $100 million in 2011.

Still, Thornburg said, the goal is that over the next decade 90 percent of Missouri children 3 to 5 will be in a high-quality preschool program, either sponsored or paid for by DESE or by local communities.

"It's a big order, and we have a long way to go," Thornburg said. "But I think we need to raise the priority for children."

mittle@semissourian.com

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