‘Stretch to Kindergarten’ Program Gets High Marks

Data presented at Thursday night’s meeting of the Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD) Board of Education indicated that the district’s “Stretch to Kindergarten” (STK) program helps to close the educational gap between students from low-income families and their average- to high-income peers.

Started in MVWSD in 2009, STK–a six-week intensive program for income-eligible children–assists between 60 to 80 local families with a child enrolled in kindergarten in MVWSD for the following year, with priority given to those who have not had a quality preschool experience.

The program aims to prepare them for kindergarten and beyond, and gets them up-to-speed on basic skills. The program also helps parents–over half of which typically have less than a high school education–with valuable parenting skills, nutrition and discipline education, information on local community resources, and more.

Through a grant from the education foundation, the district used the services of the American Institutes for Research to study the effectiveness of the program and how families feel about the program in terms of its results. AIR researcher, Karen Manship, presented its findings at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

Overall, Manship explained, the program appears to be doing "very well," with three different areas they measured scoring high—classroom organization, emotional support and instructional support.

"I think it's really good news that the results are [this] strong," Manship said.

Manship said one of the most important things her firm's study set out to find was what element of the program seemed to influence the students’ "educational outcomes" in the biggest way.

Manship said, through several observations of each class and through surveying the students’ parents, it was clear that "the interactions between children and teachers are really the biggest thing that drives children's learning, and are related to later academic outcomes for children."

Board president Stephen Olson said, in particular, "We all thought it would be hugely exciting to see how the students did one and two years down the line."

Manship said, in addition to the observation and study of the 2011 STK class, researchers also sought out the children who had participated in the program in 2009 and 2010, now in first and second grades, to see how they continued to perform.

Manship said, the results looked positive.

In comparison to other "demographically matched" children across the nation, Manship said, "a greater number of STK kids are at an average to intermediate level than their peers."

When compared to similar demographic data across the nation and despite being only three years old, STK scored high marks—an indication the program has made a difference for low-income Mountain View children.

"STK consistently outperformed state-funded preschools nationwide in many areas, and the program is also strong [in areas] where other schools are strong," she explained.

In particular, according to both observations of the students and surveys of STK parents, the program scored high in the areas of teacher sensitivity, in its creation of a "positive climate," and in classroom productivity that is, a majority of the time children spent in class they fully engaged in learning.

In other feedback from parents, Manship shared, overall, 79 percent of parents participated in the program with their children, both as volunteers in the classroom and in parent education. In total, 100 percent of parents showed up for their parent-teacher conferences.

Data also showed that the program made a difference at home with the families. It encouraged parents to read to their children and engaged them in conversations about what they read more often. Nearly 60 percent of parents reported reading to their children at least five times a week after participating in the STK program.

"Parents also reported feeling welcomed in the classroom and comfortable talking with teachers,” said Manship.

Overall, the board appeared very happy with the data American Institutes for Research and Manship presented to them, and how the STK program is faring in the district.

"This data was hugely helpful," Trustee Fiona Walter said.

For more information on the district’s Stretch to Kindergarten program, visit http://www.stretchtokindergarten.org/.