Educare:
Early Ed Leaves Daycare in its Dust
SPONSORED BY:
#EarlyEdNat
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PRODUCED WITH:
50%
Nearly
of students from
low-income communities
are not ready for school
by age 5.
The Challenge:
By the time children from low-income families enter kindergarten, they are typically 12
to 14 months below national norms in language and pre-reading skills. Almost half of low
income children are not ready for school when they enter their first classroom.
A Solution:
The Educare curriculum places family involvement at the center of its development
strategy for at-risk children. Research shows that children who enroll in Educare as infants
or toddlers enter kindergarten at the same achievement level as their middle-income peers.
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Brookings Institution
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STORY
Educare shows promise in prepping
kids for school
By Sevil Omer, NBCNews.com
OMAHA, Neb. – Just shy of his third birthday,
Dominic Chiarello had a vocabulary that was just “yes,”
“no” and “potty.”
After a year in preschool in the Educare Center of
Omaha, the 4-year-old Nebraska boy wants to be an
astronaut and blast off into space. “I want to shoot up
into the sky like a firework,” says Dominic, thrusting
his fist into the air.
“He’s exploding,” says his mother, Audra Chiarello, of
Omaha. “He’s constantly telling me all the new words
he has learned at school. Just the other day, he said,
‘Mom, my hair looks atrocious.’ He’s using so many big
words and has become a talking encyclopedia. I can’t
keep up.”
The Educare Center, part of a nationwide program
begun in 2000 in Chicago, aims to help the city’s poorest
preschoolers close the achievement gap with richer
children through all-day, year-round care and education.
The goal is that when economically disadvantaged kids
reach kindergarten, they’ll be able to keep up with their
middle-class peers.
Educare relies on the belief that when children receive
quality education early on, they’re more likely to achieve
academic success, graduate high school and go on to
college or seek career training. The curriculum aims to
develop language, literacy, mathematical and social
skills.
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The program has gained support
from
philanthropists,
including
The Buffett Early Childhood Fund,
run by Susan A. Buffett, daughter
of
Omaha-based
billionaire
investor Warren Buffett.
Omaha has two Educare
centers, next to the Indian Hill
and Kellom elementary schools.
Children are enrolled as early as
6 weeks old. Classrooms are small:
For example, the class size for toddlers
(birth to age 3) is three teachers to
eight children.
Results have been promising, says Gladys
Haynes, executive director of the Educare
Center of Omaha.
Data from Educare programs in six cities – Chicago,
Denver, Milwaukee, Omaha, Seattle and Tulsa
– show positive results in preparing at-risk children from birth to 5 for later academic achievement,
according to researchers at the Frank Porter Graham
Child Development Institute at the University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill. They found that children
entering kindergarten who had started at Educare
before age 2 scored 98.2 on school readiness tests - the
same as the national average.
STORY
‘A Promise’
Educare centers have popped up across the country -- in
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Maine, Washington and Wisconsin. Nationwide,
Educare enrolls at least 2,000 children, from birth to 5
years old, and employs 700 teachers and staff, according
to Educare officials.
The first Educare was opened in Chicago in 2000 by the
Ounce of Prevention Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit
that advocates early childhood programs and policies.
The Ounce relies on private donations to develop
programs and then leverages public funding to expand
the programs to serve more children, Educare officials
say.
“We never planned to have the number of programs we
have nationwide,” says Portia Kennel, executive director
of Educare Learning Network of Chicago, a partnership
between the Ounce, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund,
and other national philanthropies. “We were just trying
to keep a promise to a distressed community in Chicago
that we would work tirelessly to make sure their
children would be prepared for kindergarten and have
an opportunity to have a good education.”
In Nebraska, the cause’s champion in Susie Buffett, who
has focused her personal philanthropy in improving
early childhood education. Her foundation is part of a
collaborative effort with Omaha Public Schools and the
local Head Start to fund the Educare Center of Omaha.
“There are too many poor kids in really horrible child
care situations for the first five years of their lives,”
Susie Buffett said in an interview with TODAY’s
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correspondent Jenna Bush Hager. “So we went around
the country looking for who was doing the best work
and we found the Ounce of Prevention people … So we
just copied them – and partnered with them.”
Statistics show up to 11 million children under the
age of 5 in the U.S. are in some type of child care
arrangement, according to The National Association of
Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, a nonprofit
that works to improve quality and availability of child
care services nationwide. The association also reported
that 40 percent of infant programs were of poor quality.
Buffett’s foundation and the Ounce of Prevention
Fund are working with partners to build more Educare
centers across the nation.
“It is a model of what’s working,” said Adele Robinson,
deputy executive director for the nonprofit National
Association for the Education of Young Children in
Washington, D.C. The association serves as an adviser
to policymakers and advocates for literacy and early
childhood education. But Robinson says there’s a big
hurdle.
“Many places are trying programs like this, and everyone
is troubled by the same problem and that’s funding,”
she said.
Operations like Educare are expensive,
and states keep making drastic
cuts to preschool programs.
STORY
‘Be Patient’
Wendy Moreno, a 19-year-old single mom from Omaha,
says Educare has helped her sons learn to read and
count.
“My boys are learning so much and I know they are
going to have a brighter future,” said Moreno, whose
sons, Anthony, 2, and Jonathan, 3, attend the Educare
Center at Indian Hill Elementary School. “I don’t have
to worry about who is taking care of them. I know they
are in school learning.”
She said teachers have worked hard to strengthen bonds
between parents and their children.
Parental involvement is the key component in Educare’s
curriculum. Before school starts, teachers make home
visits to meet the child’s parents, siblings and family
members.
“At first, parents are reluctant,” said Reyna Barrales, a
teaching assistant at Educare. “Some want to be involved,
but don’t know how to, while others think it’s the
teacher’s job to teach and that’s it. What we try to
explain to them is that it’s up to everyone. Some of these
families have so little, and they still want to give us
something when we go to the home. One time we got
bananas.”
Barrales, born and raised in Mexico City, is bilingual
and is also helping coach her colleagues to speak
conversational Spanish.
“The biggest thing parents need to know is to be patient,”
Barrales said, adding, “A child is not going to learn
overnight, especially for those 3 and 4 years old.”
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At school, teachers give updates to parents on their
child’s learning progress at the end of each day. Parents
are encouraged to share issues or concerns with their
child.
“The program has made me a better parent,” said
LaChar Perkins, a single mother of two, Raheem, 8, and
Ilana, 4. Ilana is enrolled in the program and Raheem
graduated a few years ago and is now in third grade.
“I can’t say enough positive things about the school, its
program and its teachers. The teachers are open and
honest.”
Like her children, Perkins said she is studying hard.
She is enrolled at the Metro Community College,
studying to be a nurse. When she’s not with her
children or at school, she’s working as a nail
technician. She said she earns $10,000 a
year.
“I didn’t want my children to
struggle,” she said. “I wanted
to give them a good education
so they can succeed in
life, and with Educare I
believe they have a solid
foundation to do just that.”
“This program has
made me a
better parent.”
–LaChar Perkins, Educare Parent
Funders of this program include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which is also a
sponsor of the 2012 Education Nation summit.
TIMELINE
1982
1995
2000
2000
The Ounce of Prevention Fund
is created in Chicago to ensure
that all children, especially
at-risk children, have the quality
early childhood experiences
essential for success in life.
Research by University of
Kansas child psychologists Betty
Hart and Todd Risley shows that
the number of words and
richness of vocabulary heard by
children during the first three
years of life affect a child’s
intelligence and language
development.
The National Research Council and
Institute of Medicine of the National
Academy of Sciences reports its latest
findings on brain science in “From
Neurons to Neighborhoods: The
Science of Early Childhood Development.” The report details how a
child’s lack of a loving and consistent
caregiver severely affects the brain,
resulting in long-lasting developmental issues.
The Ounce of Prevention Fund
opens the first Educare school,
Educare of Chicago, serving 149
children and their families.
2003
2005
The Ounce of Prevention Fund and The
Buffett Early Childhood Fund team up
to create the Educare Learning Network.
The network expands the Educare
program to low-income communities
nationwide. The first Educare school in
Omaha, at Kellom Elementary, opens,
serving 183 children and their families.
Researchers at the Frank Porter
Graham Child Development
Institute at the University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill
begin tracking the outcomes
at Educare schools. Educare of
Milwaukee opens, serving 150
children and their families.
2005
The Buffett Early Childhood
Fund is established by Susan
Buffett, daughter of billionaire
investor Warren Buffett.
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TIMELINE
2006
First Educare of Tulsa site opens
at Kendall-Whittier. Includes
an on-site clinic and serves 200
children and their families.
2007
Diana Mendley Rauner joins the
Ounce of Prevention Fund as its
chief executive, having served as
a board member for five years.
2008
Educare Miami-Dade opens,
serving 120 children and their
families. Educare of Denver
opens, serving 112 children and
their families.
Educare Miami-Dade joins
the Educare Learning
Network.
2009
Educare of Omaha at Indian
Hill opens, serving 191 children
and their families. Educare of
Oklahoma City opens, serving
200 children and their families.
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2010
Rauner is elected president of the Ounce of
Prevention Fund, succeeding Harriet Meyer, who
has served as president of the Ounce for two decades.
Rauner is credited with overseeing the expansion of
the Ounce’s Early Head Start program and advocacy
work in helping secure Illinois’ funding for early
childhood programs.
TIMELINE
February 2010
June 2010
August 2010
September 2011
Educare Seattle site opens,
serving 134 children and their
families. Educare of Tulsa at
Hawthorne opens, serving 164
children and families.
Educare of Kansas City opens
and begins serving 132 children
and their families.
Educare Central Maine opens
as the first Educare School in
a rural community. The school
serves 108 children and their
families.
Educare of Arizona opens and
serves 191 children and their
families.
2012
A groundbreaking and traditional native blessing is performed at the
site of a $10-million Educare facility on the Winnebago Tribe
reservation in Nebraska, the first Educare center on an American
Indian reservation. The Buffett Early Childhood Fund and the
Winnebago Tribal Council will each contribute $5 million for
construction of the building, a 31,000-square-foot center slated to
open in January 2014. Educare officials say the Winnebago center
will serve 191 children and their families.
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June 2012
Educare of West DuPage
opens as the first school in the
network to be built in a
suburban community.
July 2012
August 2012
Educare of Washington, D.C.,
opens and serves 157 children
and their families.
Educare of Tulsa at Hawthorne is
scheduled to open, becoming the
third Educare school in Tulsa.
RESULTS
The following scales are used to assess
the preparedness of children entering
kindergarten.
The Bracken Basic Concepts Scale is a comprehensive assessment that helps teachers evaluate a child’s
language skills, cognitive development, and school
readiness for kindergarten. For example, children are
measured on whether they can identify shapes, sizes
and colors.
The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test has become
one of the most popular standardized tests to assess
a child’s verbal intelligence. Children are assessed on
whether they can identify a series of black-and-white
pictures. The test also is used to indentify children
with special needs. The test has been revised many
times since it was launched in 1959.
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RESULTS
Results 2010 - 2011
School Readiness
Vocabulary Performance
School Readiness Score
(Bracken Basic Concepts Scale)
100
National
Mean=100
98.5 98.1
96.8 94.7
94.5
95.2 91.3
100
93.6
97.8
88.5
Vocabulary Performance
(Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test)
91.9
84.4
80
80
60
60
40
40
20
20
0
0
All Age
Average
Age 1
Age 2
Age 3
Age 4
Age 5
English
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98.2
95.0
95.1
96.8
95.4
90.5
82.5
All Age
Average
Age 1
National
Mean=100
Age 2
Dual Language Learners
94.0
86.0
Age 3
81.5
Age 4
PEOPLE
Educare Organization Chart
Diana Rauner
Jessie Rasmussen
President, Ounce of Prevention Fund
President, Buffet Early Childhood Fund
Educare Learning
Network
17 Schools
Program
Implementation
Team
Partnership
Development Team
Gladys Haynes
Executive Director, Educare of Omaha
Deb Winkelmann
Site Director
Speech Language
Pathologists
Master Teachers
Classroom Teachers
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Eva Rivera
Family Support Supervisor
Family Enrichment
Specialists
Mental Health
Consultants
PEOPLE
Diana Rauner
Jessie Rasmussen
Diana Rauner and Jessie Rasmussen work in a partnership
to oversee the strategic direction of the Educare
Learning Network.
Rasmussen also supervises the Buffett Early Childhood
Fund’s grants to the Educare Replication Pool,
in which Buffett and other national philanthropies
annually award more than $1 million in capital grants
to encourage communities nationwide to build Educare
schools.
Ounce of Prevention Fund
Rauner also supervises staff at the Ounce, focusing their
efforts on Educare initiatives.
Gladys Haynes
Executive director for Educare of Omaha
Gladys Haynes is responsible for overseeing overall
administration functions, including fiscal operations,
human resources, self assessment and monitoring,
strategic and program planning and Board relations.
Eva Rivera
Family Support Supervisor
Eva Rivera leads a team of four family enrichment team members, each working
to help strengthen ties with families in and out of the classroom. She speaks
Spanish and helps in translations, conferences and activities for families who
have limited English-speaking skills.
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President, Buffett Early Childhood Fund
Laura Sanchez &
M. Diva Wilson
Family Enrichment Specialists
The specialists work directly with parents, helping
strengthen relationships between parents and teachers.
They spend an hour a week to help teachers carve out
schedules and lessons plans for parents.
Sanchez: “I get to see the children grow and learn and to
see that their parent(s) are right alongside them, growing
and learning as well. Then we know that that child
will have someone by their side supporting them in
becoming successful in life.”
Wilson: “When working with families at Educare, I am
excited to help families succeed. I am excited when I
see children ask their parents for help with schoolwork.
I am excited to realize that children are the number one
teacher for their parents.”
PEOPLE
Liz DeGraw Renna &
Nicole Looper
Master Teachers
Liz DeGraw Renna and Nicole Looper are among the eight master teachers who work
alongside classroom teachers, providing mentoring, coaching and support. Master
teachers have earned advanced degrees in early childhood education and received special training in infancy for birth-to-age-three classrooms.
DeGraw Renna: “One thing I especially enjoy is being a witness to those positive outcomes which are supported by the dedicated efforts of our outstanding staff as well as
by the committed participation of our families.”
Looper: “What I love about working for Educare is an opportunity to see the process
of learning happening within my eyes. I enjoy watching the knowledge unfold with
children and teachers.”
Speech Language Pathologists
Kari Johnson and Chris Fowler provide extra support for teachers who seek guidance
in boosting a child’s language skills. The pathologists visit classrooms and participate in
small group activities to encourage language development.
Johnson: “I love going to work each day knowing that I am giving the children at Educare opportunities for learning that they may not be able to experience at other places.”
Fowler: “Tracking the children’s speech and language development is very exciting. The
growth that is made in this area is amazing. There are times when you get a little concerned and then there’s this explosion of growth.”
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Classroom Teachers
In each classroom, there’s a lead teacher, an assistant teacher and a teacher’s aide. Lead
teachers are required to have earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education;
assistant teachers, an associate’s degree in early childhood education; and teacher aide,
a high school diploma/GED and courses or credential in child development.
Brandy Pierson, lead teacher: “One of the most rewarding moments of teaching:
Seeing a child begin to understand concepts, grasp what you are teaching. When school
first starts, I feel so bad when children are crying because they miss their parents. But
as the days go on, they end of crying when they have to go home. I love that because to
me it means they love being here.”
Katie Larson, lead teacher: “I am able to stay with the same children for three years.
I love that I started with the children as infants and am able to watch them learn and
grow in so many ways.”
CHALLENGES
The first three years of children’s lives are the most
critical for shaping their long-term academic success,
say officials at Educare.
That’s why there is so much focus on early childhood education and why helping those facing the largest roadblocks
-- such as poverty, crime and violence -- is critical.
grow?’ It is just as dependent on big programs, such as
Head States, Early Head Start and it will have to find the
funding -- and not every community has a Susie Buffett.”
While early childhood programs are costly, they also
hold the most promise for success of the next generation,
experts argue. But finding money to sustain such programs
is getting harder.
In the last decade, states across the country have slashed
funding for public preschool programs. Spending on
state pre-kindergarten programs has plunged by more
than $700 per child in the last 10 years, according to
a report from the National Institute of Early Education
Research. The cuts come at a time when enrollment
numbers in pre-K programs are increasing. For example,
up to 80,000 children could lose access to Head Start if
Congress is forced to make cuts to the federal budget in
January 2013, according to the National Education
Association. Head Start funding currently stands at
$7.9 billion and the program serves 962,000 childrenonly about half of eligible preschoolers-acording to Health
and Human Services.
Costs to run operations like Educare’s program are high.
Construction for each center costs up to $12 million. Each
school, enrolling up to 200 children, has an operating
budget from $2.8 million to $3.4 million. Head Start covers
50 to 60 percent of the operating costs.
Educare has gained financial backing from
philanthropists, including The Buffett Early Childhood
Fund, headed by Susan A. Buffett, daughter of Omahabased billionaire investor Warren Buffett. She has
committed her philanthropy to expanding Educare
programs nationwide.
“We would love to see replications of Educare centers
nationwide,” said Adele Robinson, deputy executive
director for the nonprofit National Association for the
Education of Young Children, based in Washington,
D.C. The association serves as an adviser to policymakers
and advocates for literacy and early childhood education.
“The question becomes, ‘How can Educare sustain and
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CHALLENGES
President Barack Obama has urged Congress to increase
the federal commitment to states for early childhood education. In 2011, the Obama administration introduced the
$500 million Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge,
which provides grants to nine states for improving quality.
But the challenge is only a start, educators say.
“We are going to be working hard to move the needle in
our country so that our nation knows that every child in
America who needs this kind of quality early learning experience can get it,” said Portia Kennel, executive director
of Educare Learning Network of Chicago, a partnership
between The Ounce of Prevention Fund, the Buffett Early
Childhood Fund, and other national philanthropies.
The first Educare was opened in Chicago in 2000 by the
Ounce of Prevention Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that
champions early childhood programs and policies. The
Ounce uses private dollars to develop high-quality early
childhood programs and then leverages public funding
streams to expand the programs to serve more children.
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FUNDING
Funding Structure
Ounce of Prevention Fund-Buffett
Early Childhood Partnership
Operating Expenses
10%
Average Operating Expenses for
Educare Schools
Program Funding Sources
8%
Administration
Administrative,
Overhead
6%
Contractual
90%
15%
Programmatic
Activities
Fringe
6%
Miscellaneous
5%
Other Program
Costs
60%
Salary
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52%
Head Start/Early Head
6%
Other
24%
State & Local
Funding
11%
“Quality Gap”
Private Sector
7%
Child Care
FUNDING
5%
$275,00
<1%
Other Program
Costs
$12,000
1%
7%
$364,471
Administration
Facilities
$59,850
11%
Supplies, Utilities*
$572,752
Other Funding
44%
9%
$2,359,897
$500,000
Federal Head Start,
Early Head Start
Private sector
contributions
8%
1.5%
$81,000
Contractual
11.5%
$617,641
Fringe Benefits
$415,000
Child Care
Subsidies
29%
74%
$1,563,506
$4,001,193
Education State and Local
Salaries
*Utilities are provided as an in-kind
contribution from Omaha Public Schools
Revenues
Total = $5,411,155
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Expenses
Total = $5,411,155
NEXT STEPS
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The Buffett Early Childhood Fund
Educare
Investing heavily in the first five years of a child’s life, the
foundation focuses on development through practice, policy
and knowledge to instill learning during crucial years.
Educare aims to help the city’s poorest preschoolers close
the achievement gap with richer children so that when
they reach kindergarten they will be able to keep up with
middle-class peers.
Website:
Website:
http://www.buffettearlychildhoodfund.org/
http://www.educareschools.org/home/index.php
National Head Start Association
Early Head Start National Resource
Since 1973, the association has partnered with commercial
and nonprofit organizations to provide programs that help
Head Start support healthy development and learning.
The program focuses on early learning, family relationships,
health, safety and nutrition for infants, toddlers, and
pregnant women from low-income families.
Website:
Website:
http://www.nhsa.org/
www.educationnation.com/EarlyEd
http://www.ehsnrc.org
NEXT STEPS
Ounce of Prevention Fund
Funds programs that establish learning habits, narrow the
achievement gap, and support healthy growth for low-income
children in their early years.
Provides financial help for low-income families who are
working or enrolled in school by subsidizing child care
services.
Website:
Website:
http://www.ounceofprevention.org/home/index.php
Child Care and Development Block
The grant provides federal funding so that working parents
can afford quality child care centers and after-school
programs, giving all families access to adequate child care.
Website:
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U.S. Administration for Children and Families:
Child Care and Development Fund
https://www.cfda.gov/index?s=program&mode=form&
tab=core&id=fb8dc72bd8e3e33d34167860aa2eb13f
www.educationnation.com/EarlyEd
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ/ccdf/
index.htm
U.S. Administration for Children and Families:
Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center
The center makes information readily available and is a
quick and efficient way to engage with the Head Start and
Early Head start communities.
Website:
http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc