WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — According to the Early Learning Coalition (ELC) of West Palm Beach, only half of Palm Beach County pre-K students are not at kindergarten readiness.
Aruna Gilbert with ELC says the organization is working hard to help children prepare for success when starting school.
The ELC says one of the reasons why we are seeing students not performing at grade level is the lack of resources at home and the pandemic.
"We saw really skilled teachers leave and now we have new, inexperienced teachers," Gilbert said.
To enhance reading comprehension skills, more than 8,000 students in Palm Beach County schools are using a program called My Reading Academy through Age of Learning. The digital program is designed to make learning fun by using quality screen time. The program has been in use for two years now, and during that time educators are seeing positive results.
"Using it just 20 minutes a day we saw that children's readiness for school was 45 points higher than children who did not use it" Gilbert says.
According to recent research from My Reading Academy, 79% of students who used the program finished the school year with a 707 or above, the Kindergarten-ready score that is defined by the Department of Education.
Teachers are now able to track how their students are doing by assessing them when they enter pre-K, in the middle of the semester and when they finish the program. This allows teachers to see the growth, and focus on areas where a student is excelling or having challenges.
Education advocates are encouraging parents to enroll their students in pre-K so students can build the foundation they need to keep moving on to the next grade level.
Erin Gallagher says parents can do simple things at home to help kids. Activities like reading and counting together can make huge strides in the classroom.
