School starts Monday. Are your kids ready?
This has more to do with if they have their new shoes, outfit, or backpack stocked with supplies.
Are they ready for school, especially the kindergartners who will be in a classroom setting for the first time.
Are they ready to achieve at the level of their classmates?
In past years in Osceola County, the answer to that question has generally been, “No.” Stats from the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County showed that, of incoming kindergartners who did not participate in Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) – offered free by the state of Florida through many day cares and such – only 13% had the reading skills to be considered school-ready. Of those in a VPK program, that number was 45% in Osceola.
Statewide, those figures were 37% of those not enrolled in VPK, and 62% for those enrolled.
That does not mean it is too late. Enter the ELC and one of its achievement programs, Osceola Reads. It debuted in 2014, and had an immediate impact thanks to an app called Footsteps2Brilliance, which harnessed the power of teaching through devices like phones and tablets.
The impact was tangible. Over this last decade, Osceola Reads has sponsored contests like the Summer Reading Challenge, which has resulted in over 50,000 documented minutes read, and offered prizes like tablets to the top readers. In 2023, those rates of kindergarten readiness were 37% for those not in VPK and 62 percent for those in it.
“I would love to see more kids in VPK,” ELC CEO Amanda Kelkenberg said. “Third grade is too late to see them catch up, by that point you’re not seeing a lot of increases.
Osceola County Commissioner Ricky Booth, who was an Osceola School Board member from 2014-2020, echoed that at Monday’s commission meeting, where Kelkenberg and Osceola Reads made a presentation.
“Nothing is more important than early learning,” Booth said. “We tend to overlook the 3- and 4-year-olds, but we have to have them ready to start school. Those who aren’t ready are the ones who don’t pass the third grade assessment tests, and then they don’t pass the 10th grade assessments, and then they don’t graduate.
The pandemic in 2020-21, which closed schools early in 2020 and sent most people home, had the effect of “promoting all kinds of reading,” and the program took hold. But by the end of the summer, with some children returning to school via virtual means, many were getting “screened out”.
Osceola Reads’ focus then shifted to promoting all kinds of reading, and teaching and targeting to all ages, including adults and those learning English as a second language.
“Our Osceola Library system is rich with material and reading resources,” Kelkenberg said. “The goal is to find out how we can support busy families to connect to the services we offer. That has pushed us into the community, and Osceola Reads has done a great job with that.”
The new initiative from the ELC and Osceola Reads incorporates making reading an activity in places where children might not be otherwise engaged. “Early LearnHub” spaces, filled with books and activities designed to foster early childhood development, prepare them for school success.
The learning hubs were paid for through a state grant, which includes money to replace books, so children can take home titles they enjoy.
The hubs can be founds at 1 Clean Laundry and Nutrition Zone in St. Cloud, Hope Partnership and White Rose Books in downtown Kissimmee, the Kissimmee and Poinciana WIC offices. HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital and The Dwelling Place Church on West U.S. 192.
New locations coming soon include at Kissimmee’s Hart Memorial Library, the Osceola History Museum, and a multi-room setup at Solid Rock Community Church on Michigan Avenue in Kissimmee; the ribbon cutting for that is scheduled for Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Kelkenberg said the ELC hopes to open five more in the next year.
Businesses or organizations interested in hosting their own Early LearnHub spaces can go to www.elcosceola.org/earlylearnhub and join the ELC’s interest list.
