May 2005

Civic leaders and early education experts unveiled a plan to double in five years the percentage of Baltimore children who enter school ready to learn.  The ambitious and comprehensive plan includes 44 specific recommendations to ensure that all kindergartners in Baltimore City have the skills needed for success in school.

The five-year action plan was developed by the Baltimore Leadership in Action Program (B-LAP) launched by the Reason to Believe Enterprise and Family League of Baltimore City, in collaboration with the Annie E. Case Foundation and the Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service at New York University.  It was presented to Reason to Believe Enterprise co-chairs.  They are Baltimore City Mayor Martin O’Malley, Annie E. Casey Foundation President Doug Nelson, and Brown Capital Management President Eddie C. Brown. 

Fifty community leaders, public officials, parents and early childhood care and education providers identified as most able to affect school readiness were invited to participate in B-LAP.  They were spurred by data showing that Baltimore City children lag behind their peers statewide in every area of learning measured by the sate.  Statewide, 55 percent of entering kindergartners are assessed as ready to learn; in Baltimore 27 percent are ready to learn.  Baltimore City children are farthest behind the rest of the state in the areas of social studies, scientific and mathematical thinking, and language and literacy.

“With the implementation of the strategies laid out in this plan, our goal over the next five years is to see an increase in the percentage of Baltimore City kindergartners assessed as fully ready for success in school from the totally unacceptable 2003-04 mark of 27 percent, to 52 percent or better,” says the report authors.  “This represents a steady five percentage point gain each year for the next five years – a difficult but achievable goal.”

To reach that goal, B-LAP recommends numerous policy, funding and practice strategies related to seven goals essential to achieving school readiness:

• All children, birth through age 5, will have access to quality early care and education programs that meet the needs of families, including full-day options.
• Parents of young children will succeed in their role as their child’s first teacher.
• Children, birth through age 5, and their families will receive necessary income support benefits and health and mental health care to ensure they arrive at school with healthy minds and bodies.
• All early care and education staff will be appropriately trained in promoting and understanding school readiness.
• All Baltimore citizens will understand the value of quality early care and education as the means to achieve school readiness.
• Baltimore will have an infrastructure that promotes, sufficiently funds and holds accountable its school readiness efforts.
• Baltimore City schools are prepared to receive children.

Some of the recommended strategies can be achieved by B-LAP acting as a group; others can be achieved by B-LAP member agencies and other organizations, acting individually or in collaborations.  Several recommendations require action by policymakers to increase public support for school readiness interventions.  

For example, under the goal of ensuring access to quality early care and education programs, B-LAP recommends expanding programs such as Early Head Start and Family Support Centers (which offer a wide range of services to parents and children to promote nurturing and school readiness).  Action steps for this strategy include identifying 1) neighborhoods in greatest need of these programs, 2) partners who could operate them, and 3) facilities to house them.  This research effort would then support the policy and fiscal work to secure additional money to fund 500 new Early Head Start slots and two new Family Support Centers in Baltimore.

B-LAP also noted the importance of having strategies guided by sound data, and of holding all stakeholders accountable for their efforts.  It recommends the creation of a School Readiness STAT, similar to Mayor O’Malley’s CitiSTAT program, a performance measurement tool to improve operational efficiency and staff accountability throughout local government.  The School Readiness STAT process would regularly monitor data that measures progress in meeting school readiness goals. 

Another recommendation is to raise the educational requirement and compensation of childcare providers.  Raising wages for early childhood education staff is a “necessary step to achieving the high level of quality programs that Baltimore City families deserve,” according to the report

The report concludes:  “The relationship between school readiness and school success is clear.  The relationship between early literacy and a promising future is well documented and undeniable.  If Baltimore City is to have an informed, nurturing, economically self-sufficient citizenry, it must invest in its parents and their babies.”

The complete report, Baltimore’s Five Year Action Plan for Achieving School Readiness, can be found by clicking here.