The St. Louis city chapter of the NAACP is participating in a new Early Childhood Literacy Initiative along with chapters in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Lexington, Ky.
The St. Louis NAACP’s local partners in the pilot project are St. Louis Public Schools, Earl Nance Sr. Elementary School, New Northside Child Development Center, American Federation of Teachers Local 420 and committed community members.
Through community support, the initiative’s goal is to ensure that pre-K parents, educators and students have the fundamentals they need to make smooth transitions into kindergarten.
In December, local partnership leaders held a public transition training session at New Northside Child Development Center attended by about 20 educators, school volunteers and community members. Everyone who attended received two helpful tools: a SLPS Kindergarten Transition Plan booklet and a research and development guide tailored for transition-to-school teams.
At the training session, Sheryl Davenport, executive director of Early Childhood Education for SLPS, expressed concern that the social and emotional needs of pre-K students are overlooked during the transition process from home to school settings. She hopes that the new initiative addresses this issue.
“Because if children aren’t emotionally ready to glean what goes on in kindergarten, then we’ve wasted our time,” Davenport said.
Paula Knight, associate superintendent for SLPS, said Davenport understands literacy development, family partnerships and the need for high-quality teachers in the classrooms and is a key player in the new initiative.
Min. Evans Moore Jr., manager of the National NAACP Education Department, is also working locally with Walle Amusa, chairman of the Missouri NAACP Education Committee, and Adolphus Pruitt, president of the NAACP St. Louis chapter.
Pruitt said it was auspicious for St. Louis to be chosen as a pilot city for the initiative because last year the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the expansion of early childhood education throughout the state’s public schools.
Amusa – an experienced organizer and longtime advocate for improved educational outcomes for African-American youth – wrote a proposal for a $5,000 grant through the TIDES Foundation to help financially support the initiative. TIDES, he said, is a nonprofit organization that the NAACP uses to generate private-sector funds to support its initiatives.
“Children come into this world with the ability to learn, adapt and excel or fail, based on how well they have adapted,” Amusa said.
Research shows that when children lack basic fundamentals by the time they have reached third or fourth grades, their chances of academic success in higher grade levels dramatically decreases. This snowball effect leads to increased drop-out and incarceration rates.
Because the initiative is a community effort, its success greatly depends on what and how children are learning at home, Min. Moore said. He advises that parents “read to your child every day.”
“We need to level the playing field,” Min. Moore said. “We need to be able to demand a little bit more for our children who are being left out in the cold when it comes to being literate when they come into the classroom.”
For more information about the Early Childhood Literacy Initiative or to attend the next public meeting in January, contact Walle Amusa at wa2005@att.net.