A Private Infusion of Cash for Two Early Learning Programs in Washington State

In August, the Gates Foundation and Thrive by Five announced grants totaling $8 million for two early learning programs in the state of Washington. The White Center Early Learning Initiative and East Yakima’s Ready by Five program will each receive $4 million over the next year to continue supporting children and their families as they prepare for kindergarten.

This is a second round of funding for these initiatives; last year White Center received $11.7 million and Ready by Five received $5 million.

It’s reassuring to see programs like these receiving funding, especially as the economic crisis forces some states to cut back investments in early childhood programs. It also shows that the state of Washington is establishing itself as a strong player in early education reform. Earlier this month, Washington’s SeaTac area was the site of the national Starting Strong conference. And as we described in July, some promising outcomes related to the PreK-3^rd approach are emerging from Bremerton, Wash.

In the case of the two programs receiving new funding this month, each takes a slightly different approach to helping children enter school ready to learn. It’s worth taking a minute to look a little more closely at what they do.

The White Center Early Learning Initiative (WCELI) is made up of a combination of services for child care providers, families, and children in western Washington. For example, in March, WCELI began to roll out a revised version of the state’s planned Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), which was cut from the state budget in December 2008 before being implemented. As of spring 2009, 33 providers had signed on to participate in the QRIS pilot, attended an orientation session and begun requesting funding for professional development. The pilot is scheduled to end in December 2009.

WCELI also has trained “outreach doulas” — a group of women who provide in-home support to Latina and Somali women and their families, starting during pregnancy and ending up to two years after the child is born. The organization will continue to support these recent graduates while also training more women. WCELI is also undertaking the construction of an Educare Center in White Center’s Greenbridge community, which will offer child care and early learning opportunities for children from birth to age five, as well as family support and parent education services.

The Yakima Ready by Five (RbF) program is also designed to promote high quality early learning opportunities. As in White Center, it has begun employing a revised version of the state’s QRIS to evaluate and improve early learning centers in the area. In 2008, 50 providers had signed on to participate. In addition, RbF has started a program called “Creative Families,” in which staff members in 2008 taught parents in 104 families how to engage in creative learning activities with their children. RbF has also started a Kindergarten Transition Program with the Yakima school district, bringing 294 new kindergarten students into classrooms for two weeks of half-days before the school year starts. Children spend this time in their classrooms with their teachers, building relationships and preparing to start the school year with a basic understanding of what school will be like, how their day will unfold and what will be expected of them.

We’ll be watching as the programs mature to see how what their experiences can teach us how to improve early learning on a broad scale.

Full disclosure: Some parts of New America’s education policy program that are unrelated to Early Ed Watch and the Early Education Initiative receive funding from the Gates Foundation.