Early Childhood
Philly parents say schools don’t prepare students to thrive, want next mayor to prioritize education
Parents are most concerned about safety, teacher quality, and curriculum.
Candidates want to lengthen the school day, offer free transportation, knock down old buildings, and raise teacher pay, among other ideas.
In Philadelphia, 83% of early childhood programs are currently facing a staffing shortage and nearly 3,000 children are on a waitlist.
The Kids Campaignhas detailed policy proposals for issues like the teacher shortage, summer jobs, and juvenile justice.
The district would like at least 10,000 students to enroll in kindergarten for the 2023-24 school year.
The guide also includes a teacher’s perspective on helping students successfully go from home to school environments after COVID’s disruptions.
Advocates and others say the city’s “Read by 4th” campaign and other efforts have built a strong foundation.
A significant number of Philadelphia’s children struggle to get adequate and consistent meals, recent data show.
“We understand that if students see themselves valued, reflected, and honored in books and learning experiences that we provide them, they’re more likely to learn.”
This veteran preschool teacher spoke with Chalkbeat Philadelphia about teaching preschoolers to share, common misconceptions about early learners, and more.
The new grant comes as Pennsylvania introduces standards to help teachers address bias.
Mayor Jim Kenney and others stressed that early education is crucial to children’s development and academic success
She applauds the city’s efforts and said they should be replicated around the country.
More Philadelphia child care providers opened in the second year of the pandemic than the first, but the city still saw a net loss of providers.
Brent Johnstone and Akeiff Staples started FathersRead365 from scratch five years ago and worked hard to expand its reach.
Mayor Jim Kenney’s proposed budget for the coming year includes funding for 300 new PHLpreK seats.
Advocates are concerned that the decline could knock students off track academically.
Researchers at Penn State find sharp disparities in quality, funding before COVID.
Despite growing evidence of the importance of early childhood education, kindergarten is not mandatory in Pennsylvania.
Routine classroom moments are punctuated by reminders of COVID’s fallout at this Philadelphia elementary school.
The increase is primarily in the basic education subsidy, but includes savings through charter funding reform and $60 million more for Pre-K Counts
“We are trying to physically transform everyday spaces in Philadelphia and families’ experience of raising a reader.”
Experts testify about the importance of pre-K to student development as advocates mass on Capitol steps to demand the legislature reform the state’s funding system.
Olga Rosario, is a dual-language kindergarten teacher at Lewis Elkin Elementary School in Kensington. This school year, she is closely observing the development of early learners .
Many educators and advocates agree that parental involvement is key in early learners’ development — even more so after nearly two years of disrupted learning.
Staffing has always been an issue in the industry due to its persistently low pay and often stressful working conditions, but shortages worsened during the pandemic.
Preschool suspensions and expulsions in public schools have decreased in the last several years, but disparities based on race, gender and disability status persist.
The largest of Pennsylvania’s state-funded preschool programs serves only a fraction of the state’s nearly 300,000 3- and 4-year-olds.
Philadelphia’s health commissioner expresses ‘great concern’ over the low percentage of young children who have received the vaccine as the omicron variant emerges
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