Challenges and Opportunities for Fostering School Success

Three realities emerging from recent research indicate that we need to focus our attention on low-income children before they enter school: (a) poverty among young children is intensifying; (b) poverty coupled with other risk factors, such as chronic neighborhood violence and the high stress of urban life, places young children at high risk for negative outcomes; and (c) early intervention with children and their families can mitigate the effects of poverty and other risk factors and can improve learning-related outcomes.

Much of the intervention research focuses on preschool-age children, but a new generation of research focused on infants and toddlers indicates that intensive child development and early education interventions that begin in infancy can lead to academic and performance outcomes. significantly improved development. In addition, research evidence indicates that the strongest interventions include comprehensive frameworks that focus on both the child and the family, combined with efforts aimed at changing community risk factors. Unfortunately, access to such programs is limited, especially the quality programs available to low-income families.

In fact, even within program type, there is wide variation from state to state in the specifics of the supported program, eligibility criteria, and access to training. Single-strategy approaches (parental education, child-only care, pre-K programs without a family component) are giving way to more complex, interrelated, and comprehensive efforts designed to meet both child-centered and community-centered needs. family.

The common perception of inner cities is that they are communities without resources, deteriorated by poverty and neglect. However, urban communities also have a wealth of resources available, including academic institutions, cultural centers, shopping malls, and health and human service agencies. The real problem is that the resources and services available in urban communities are not linked and are often highly fragmented.

Several public-private partnerships have emerged that have been successful in serving families living in highly disadvantaged circumstances, including the school district’s Family Centers, which integrate and coordinate education, parenting, counseling, and health resources for children , youth and their families through school-linked services.

The following are critical aspects of establishing and maintaining successful partnerships:

– Financing. Lack of funding is the most frequently blamed barrier in any community development program and is often used as an excuse to avoid change and maintain the status quo. However, proper planning and better budget oversight can often overcome this barrier, and collaboration between like-minded agencies and individuals can further save substantial administrative and operational costs. While the initial costs to integrate and coordinate services between public and private entities can be high, these costs are not compared to the long-term savings of streamlined programs that were once duplicated across agencies.

– Data integration. Modern technology through computers makes it possible to efficiently share, accumulate and integrate data, which in turn allows agencies to work with clients more effectively. Again, the initial costs do not compare to the long-term savings due to this type of investment.

– Lawn/Interest. Each contributing member must have a clear understanding of his or her role, as well as his or her expectations in the association. Furthermore, mutual trust and commitment must exist between the partners.

– Regulation. Bureaucratic legislation has often killed excellent visions. Policies must be tailored to the needs of local communities and can be worked with or created anew. Consolidation of health, human, and social government functions, for example, may allow the new service agency to adhere to a single set of regulations, while using public funds to create comprehensive service coordination.

– Leadership. The passionate and personal application of senior leadership to project priorities is critical to the success of these efforts. Leaders must also be able to share their visions with other key stakeholders in the community and build consensus among all stakeholders.

Given the growing population of urban children under the age of six in the United States who live in families at or below the poverty line and the move toward comprehensive strategies to address their pressing needs, there are four special design and implementation issues for initiatives involving young inmates. -children and families of the city.

– First, program strategies must respond to the harsh realities of living in poverty while being consistent with the principles of adult and child learning and development. Strategies must be strength-based, rather than deficit-based, while recognizing the very difficult issues families face that make daily survival an issue.

– The second imperative that also arises from the realities of inner city life is the need to focus not only on children and families, but also on neighborhood issues. Linking up or creating forums to mobilize action, like Head Start’s longstanding approach to family engagement, creates opportunities for families to address neighborhood and community issues. Strategies that develop the leadership capacity of family members involved in the program, through participation in all aspects of program activities (including participation in research projects, government, etc.), also ensure a broader approach that includes neighborhood issues.

– A third imperative for inner city initiatives is to deliberately create strategies to return revenue to the community, whether through individual program job creation, linkages with larger community development mechanisms, or other approaches. Empowerment Zones and Business Communities seem particularly helpful in developing some of these strategies because reinvestment and community development are central to their mission.

– A fourth imperative is to focus on building a system of supports and services for young children and families, not just a series of programs and case managers on a program-by-program basis. This requires building a broad community network, including, for example, community leaders, families, Head Start teachers, informal care providers, well-baby clinic staff, managed care providers, and court personnel. Such community networks should address more technical service integration issues and serve as a link to larger community forums to address economic issues and monitor the impacts of devolution and welfare changes at the more local and neighborhood level. These imperatives may drive current opportunities to design “street smart” interventions for young children and their families.