'Don't miss this opportunity'

Terri Middagh, Helena, full-time kindergarten teacher, testimony before Senate Education Committee in January 2007:

Mr. Chairman and Members of the committee,

My name is Terri Middagh. I reside in Helena and began teaching at Bryant School in 1996. I spent the first four years as a Special Education Teacher, followed by four years as a half time Kindergarten and Reading Recovery teacher, and most recently, three years in the Full Time Kindergarten Program at our school.

After having the opportunity to experience both Kindergarten models, I am a proponent of Senate Bill 123, Full Time Kindergarten, for several reasons.

I would like to start with some historical background to help provide a greater understanding of the significant need for Full Time Kindergarten programs. Bryant School is recognized as having the greatest number of students that qualify for free or reduced cost breakfast and lunches in the Helena School District.

In 1996, when I first started working at the school, 47% of the students qualified for free or reduced cost breakfast and lunch. Over the years, this statistic has steadily crept higher and higher. Today 73% of our school's student population receives free or reduced cost meals. Due to the low socio-economic status of our students many are considered to be "at risk" for academic, behavioral and social failure.

In the fall of 1996, the Office of Public Instruction put Bryant school on academic probation for low reading test scores. As a result, the Bryant staff decided to shift the intervention focus from students that were performing below grade level to early intervention strategies and programs. For the first three years interventions were focused on the primary grades with some success, but the gains were not significant.

Therefore, in the spring of 2000 it was decided to continue with the early intervention strategies, but to change the focus to beginning readers-First Grade students. At that time Kari Wald and I were trained and certified in Reading Recovery, which is an intensive reading intervention program for the lowest performing First Grade readers. This program made a significant impact on reading scores for First Grade students.

However, we continued to have unresolved problems in academic areas and difficulty with behavioral challenges. A more in-depth look revealed that Kindergarten students were entering the school setting without the basic academic, behavioral and social skills necessary for success.

The problems were a symptom of four major factors.

First, Kindergarten student attendance was not consistent, often times due to child care and transportation issues.

Second, students did not have access to a stimulating home environment with age appropriate materials that promoted academic readiness skills for core subject areas.

Third, many students had not acquired the necessary behavioral and social skills required to be successful in a large group setting.

And lastly, teachers had significant difficulty meeting each student's individualized learning needs given the varying academic and social skill differences between the students from the lower socio-economic group and the rest of the student population. Therefore, the staff determined the greatest problem was that a half-day Kindergarten program did not provide adequate time to prepare students for First Grade and a successful school career.

In order to fund a Full Time Kindergarten program, a decision was made to use Title 1 dollars, which had previously been dispersed equally among the entire population of students with learning deficits. These Title 1 monetary resources were used to add the equivalent of one full time teaching salary, thus allowing us to fund a Full Time Kindergarten program at our school.

The rewards from this effort have been positive in all aspects for Kindergarten students. Three significant impacts of the new program were obvious in the first year. First and foremost, multiple transitions and unreliable childcare were no longer issues for parents, which increased attendance dramatically, providing students with the opportunity to learn.

Secondly, increased time in a Full Time program allowed for individualized and self-directed student activities. It also increased opportunities for teacher observations, assessments and effective interventions, which helped increase student success. The Kindergarten student's academic scores and readiness skills have increased in all areas. Since implementation of the Full Time model, Bryant Kindergarten students perform as well as their peers in the district, thus leveling the academic playing field for First Grade.

Finally, this increased time allows students more opportunities to observe and role-play appropriate behavioral and social skills, which increased academic success and are critical for a successful life outside the classroom. All of these benefits have lead to a decrease in remedial programs, a decrease in behavioral problems, and a decrease in special education referrals at our school.

We have come a long way in the last eleven years at Bryant School. We are no longer on academic probation. In 2001 we were recognized as a National Distinguished Title 1 School and last year we were identified as a National Blue Ribbon School.

All of these successes came about as a result of a hardworking, dedicated and caring staff committed to program changes based on research and effective models designed to maximize student learning. At Bryant School no child is left behind. All children should have the opportunity to benefit from the positive effects of a Full Time Program and it should not be at the expense of re-allocating funds to the detriment of other learners.

To conclude, recent brain and learning research shows that the critical time and development years for laying the foundation of neural connections, which determines learning success, occurs between birth and age eight.

Dr. Michael Phelps, who co-invented the brain-imaging technique called the PET scan, said, "The development years are not just a chance to educate, they're actually your obligation to form a brain and if you miss these opportunities then, you've missed them-forever." Let us not miss one more opportunity in Montana.

[Ghosts from the Nursery Tracing the Roots of Violence, Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley, p. 32.]