Pre-kindergarten program is increasing readiness: Harrison County Schools / West Virginia.

Harrison County Schools in Clarksburg, W.Va., was named the state's winner in the 2008 National Civic Star Award competition for its pre-kindergarten program, a collaborative effort designed to better prepare all the district's children for kindergarten.

The partnership includes the school district, Head Start, local child-care facilities and parents. Parents apply for their child's placement in their home school, at a child-care center or through Head Start. Children ages 3-5 with special needs are evaluated and placed in the program based on special education eligibility.

The goal is to prepare four-year-olds for success in kindergarten and to lay the foundation for life-long learning.

The collaboration with child-care facilities and Head Start programs was established to reduce the number of settings in a child's early developmental years so the child could receive high-quality pre-kindergarten education without moving back and forth between facilities.

Before the collaboration some Head Start teachers had no college education. Now every site has a highly qualified, board-employed teacher who works collegially with Head Start staff members to meet the needs of each child.

All teachers and aides are jointly trained in Creative Curriculum (CC), and each site is evaluated using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R). Creative Curriculum is intended to build self-esteem, promote socialization and teach cognitive skills, while ECERS-R ensures a safe environment for the children. Character education is also integrated into the curriculum and encourages such behaviors as responsibility, caring, citizenship, respect, trustworthiness and fairness. Aspects of good citizenship are evident in each classroom and are implicitly and explicitly taught and demonstrated by teachers in their daily interaction with the children.

By using multiple funding sources available from each participating agency, the program offers blended classes that include children with special needs and low socioeconomic status that are given the same experiences as typically developing pre-kindergarten four-year-old students. Children attend blended classes with related services such as speech, physical therapy and occupational therapy.

Program reviewers found that in all cases children with special needs were receiving services that exceeded the requirements of their Individualized Education Program.

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Ninety-four percent of students, including the 23 percent with special needs, showed cognitive gains as measured by Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum from ages 3 to 5. The social-emotional gains were ranked at 89 percent, the physical developmental gains were recorded at 86 percent, and the language development gains were 90 percent.

In the three years the collaboration has been in place, the results have continued to improve, and gains are expected to continue as the program is refined through outcome analysis to meet the needs of all Harrison County students.

For more information, contact Superintendent Carl H. Friebel at Harrison County Schools, 408 E.B. Saunders Way, Clarksburg, WV26302, or call [phone]. Friebel's e-mail address is [e-mail].