Feature: Early educations value is determined by quality and effectiveness, not price Nestled in a spacious field, the Joseph

E. Stopher Elementary School beckons to passing drivers with its wide, green lawn. The brand-new school, first opened in 2007, is surrounded by the fresh, new-looking, upper-class homes of the Lake Forest Highlands suburb. Inside lies Lauren Hallinans preschool room, where a boy wanders, trying to decide in which activity in which to participate. He has plenty of options. He could head over to the childsized furniture which makes up a kitchen, complete with its own baby dolls to feed. He could create his own architectural feats at a building block table, or work with art supplies at one of several easels. With all of the children free to roam and choose in this manner, Hallinans room is an image of the nearly-invisible organizational success that is free choice time. Gavin H. Cochran Elementary School lies on the opposite side of town, at the dead end of an Old Louisville street. Next to apartments, it is surrounded by a large field of autumn grass. It is just blocks away from the University of Louisville, duPont Manual Magnet High School, and the Youth Performing Arts School. Trina Williams classroom is similar to Hallinans. It has an open space in the middle, occupied by two alphabet rugs. Along the edges of the classroom lie stations similar to Hallinans: books, child-sized house furniture, a bin of musical instruments & noisemakers, a child-sized sink, and a coat rack over several shelves of individual cubbies. The space in the middle of the room is jam-packed with kids, many in costume, as Williams Head Start classroom celebrates its Harvest Party with their second grade buddies. Children sit with their legs crossed, munching on hot dogs and chatting with one another. One bulletin board reads, Harvest Time: I Am What I Eat. To the casual observer, there is no drastic difference between the two preschools or their teachers. Class sizes are similar, classrooms are reminiscent of one another, students are present for the same length of time (both Hallinans and Williams classes run Monday through Friday for a full school day), and the programs have similar approaches (open-door policies and encouraging the parents to be involved with their kids education). However, a big difference exists between the two classes: the price. Hallinans preschool, surrounded by the highly educated and prosperous families of the nearby suburbs, costs $140 per week (above the average rate for the state of Kentucky). Meanwhile, Williams room is a Head Start room, one of about 52 branches of the federal preschool program in Louisville. For a child from a four-person family to be eligible for Head Starts tax money-fueled services, his or her family must make less than $22,050 a year (which would place them under the national poverty line).

The relative equality of the two preschool rooms is good news for low-income parents, as it means that they do not have to worry about their children getting a preschool education of lesser quality than the children of a wealthier household. This is encouraging for Head Start students. Jennifer Brooks, Ph.D., researcher for the central Head Start Research Office, has proven that the program (which, in addition to education, also provides health, nutrition, dental, and parenting advice) has lasting positive effects, especially in literacy. It has also increased positive parent involvement. These two factors, which may appear to be unrelated, are actually linked. Research accumulated by the Louisville Free Public Library has shown that the children of confident, actively engaging parents tend to have much larger vocabularies than those with lessengaging parents upon entering kindergarten. Often, low-income parents may not know all that they can about being actively involved and engaging with their children. Head Start does its best to combat this trend. We have a monthly parent meeting, an open-door policy, and homework assignments that try to get the parents involved with what their kids are doing, Williams says to explain how she tries to achieve this goal. Head Start could also be helping to counteract the correlation between parent educational attainment and standardized test scores observed in Louisville high schools. According to U.S. Census data from 2000 and Jefferson County test scores from 2008, high schools drawing from areas with a high percentage of adults (those of age 25 or older) with at least a high school diploma had higher test scores, both on the state-mandated KCCT test and on the national ACT exam, than areas with lower percentages of adults holding diplomas. The effects of this correlation are great, especially because of the new student assignment plan being finalized by the Jefferson County Board of Education. The plan is meant to counteract and eliminate the correlation by mixing schools drawing areas more than they currently are. The most important thing that Head Start is doing to break down this non-ideal relationship is building the foundation for strong parental involvement. It works to build a positive, encouraging environment toward academics in the students communities, as well as lasting high expectations. Resource teacher Jo Bell and Lisa Sizemore, Louisville Free Public Library Manager of Branch Libraries, agree that these factors are important for kids of all ages, as they provide real, close-to-home motivation for doing well throughout their learning careers. Many studies, including Brooks, prove that preschool and Head Start are helping students andas far as observations have shownare doing so without significant differences in materials or style. Because of their preschool experiences, both the wandering boy in Hallinans room and the children celebrating the harvest on Williams alphabet rug will have an extra building block in their educational foundation.