Early Steps to School Success, Save the Children

Candice struggles as a single mom of three young children living in Union, South Carolina, a textile town that has seen better times. As jobs vanished and teen pregnancies rose, more of Union’s children fell into poverty. Candice knows that most of them will start kindergarten already behind children from middle-class homes and ill equipped to catch up. She learned about the “achievement gap” from Early Steps for School Success, but she also found out how she could give her own children a better chance. Through home visits by the program’s Early Childhood Coordinator, she gained new insights about how to use play to get her kids talking, thinking and exploring.

When her oldest child comes home from kindergarten now, Candice sits at the kitchen table with her and the two younger ones. All of them do “homework” together. Daughter Nevea, age 4, pretends to be a princess and a teacher. “She will just grab a book and try to read a story to me,” says Candice. “Even though she’s not really reading, she thinks she is. She is so ready to go!”

Outside the mainstream

Early Steps to School Success (ESSS) is Save the Children’s language-development and pre-literacy program that works in poor, isolated rural communities where there are few early childhood supports. The program serves families in resource-poor areas in Appalachia, the Gulf States, Navajo country in Arizona, California’s Central Valley and the Pacific Northwest, including a Native American tribe in Washington State. Each area has a distinct culture with traditions, languages and beliefs about parenting and families that differ from each other and from the American mainstream.

Typically, children are considered at risk for school failure when they face three or more risk factors like poverty or parents who are unemployed and lacking formal education themselves. Children born into urban poverty in America average about three risks; Early Steps children average 4.8.

Putting research into practice

Research shows that success in school is closely tied to rich and stimulating home and early childhood environments. Early Steps puts that research into practice, working with children and families, from pregnancy until the child enters kindergarten, through home visits, parent/child groups, strong school connections and a culturally appropriate book exchange.

ESSS recruits and trains Coordinators from the community who understand the local culture. Twice a month, Coordinators conduct home visits with families that have young children or in which the mother is pregnant. Through modeling play, planning and conversation, the Coordinator helps parents understand child development and how to build a strong foundation of learning in the home. At each visit, the Coordinator also brings a book bag to leave with the family.

As children age, ESSS families meet, usually at local schools, for play groups and story hours. The group meetings help parents and children connect with school staff as well as each other. The Coordinator also refers families to community health and social services as needed, and works with families on transitions to pre-school and kindergarten.

Unexpectedly good outcomes

Early Steps uses the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a strong predictor of school success, to measure participants’ vocabulary acquisition. Recent testing showed 84 percent of Early Steps children score normal with an average score of 97.5 on the PPVT (100 is the national norm). “We would have predicted that these high risk kids would have scored much lower,” notes ESSS program evaluator Deb Brown. “The fact that Early Steps kids are at the norm is remarkable and a testament to the effectiveness of the intervention.” PPVT assessments further show that children who have been involved with ESSS between 2.5 and 3 years have the highest scores. “The longer a family is in the program, the more often they read to their child,” observes Save the Children’s Judith Jerald. “And the more often they read to their children, the higher the PPVT score is.”

Building baby bibliophiles

One ESSS mom tells how her son used to be uninterested in stories she read to him. During home visits, the Early Childhood Coordinator showed her how to use different voices and suggested that she let the child touch the book and even put it in his mouth. The Coordinator came with a bag of books with different textures and books that made noises. “Now he is holding the books and turning the pages,” the mom says. “I have a basket of books on the floor, and he can get them out and look at them all by himself.”