Goal #1 – Children enter kindergarten school ready.

More than half of the achievement gap between poor and non-poor children is already present in Kindergarten. By supporting school readiness in the earliest years, the community can save money on expensive interventions, while insuring more children are prepared to be college and career ready.

• Texas has the fastest growing child population in the country1, and the Central Texas child population (0-5) is growing at twice the state rate2.
• The Central Texas economically disadvantaged student population is also growing 2 times the state rate3 and Central Texas will soon have a majority economically disadvantaged student population.
• Children who are not ready for Kindergarten are at high risk of staying behind. The costs include higher rates grade retention, intervention, remediation and special education4.
• Every $1.00 invested in quality early care and education saves taxpayers up to $13.00 in future costs.5
  

Prevention is less costly than intervention.

 

Draft Blueprint Objective:

• 70% of children enter kindergarten school ready by 2015.
• 95% of children enter kindergarten school ready by 2020.

Action Strategies

Indicators*

Build the capacity of the informal systems (e.g. not licensed childcare or district programs) to enable more infants and toddlers to thrive. Expand capacity for high quality center-based care to enable more infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers to thrive. Promote access and quality in public and private pre-K programs. Define and promote appropriate school-readiness standards to assess and support the school readiness of our children.

Early Childhood Programs participating in Quality Improvement and Accreditation programs to 70% Licensed Child Care in Travis County Licensed Child Care in CTX Region    Public Pre-K Campuses in CTX Region Eligible 4 year olds enrolled in Public Pre-K to 70% CTX Region Children Entering Kindergarten School Ready to 70% Overall Social Emotional   Language and Communication     Emerging Literacy Mathematics

*The baseline data will include some variations in academic calendar years. For further details about specific calculations please see www.theblueprintforeducationalchange.org/build/Media/2011_bfec_faq_technical_notes.pdf.

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