Preschool: where your child’s success begins
This year the Preschool Promise is no longer just a small pilot program operating only in Kettering and Northwest Dayton.
Today the Preschool Promise is real for hundreds of families and children across Dayton and in Kettering. One day, we hope the Preschool Promise will be Montgomery County-wide.
The Preschool Promise is helping make quality preschool both more affordable and more available. The initiative is open to families of 4-year-olds who send their child to one of nearly 75 participating Preschool Promise programs situated in Dayton or Kettering.
Tuition assistance is available, and many families who earn too much for government programs are getting help to make preschool affordable.
Why have a Preschool Promise? When children start school behind, invariably they stay behind. By high school, a small skill gap too often has grown to a chasm. Trying to catch up at that date or, worse yet, in college or on the job is difficult. All of the best research shows that providing young children with a strong start in the critical years from birth to kindergarten sets them up for success later in life.
The Preschool Promise is an outgrowth of efforts by Learn to Earn Dayton, which is working to improve Montgomery County’s attractiveness to employers by increasing the number of adults who have college degrees and high-value credentials. Montgomery County, Dayton, Kettering and Kettering City Schools have been generous and steadfast champions.
They know quality preschools set the stage for success because they are real schools — not babysitters. In quality programs, children learn beginning math and reading concepts. They are taught to share, take turns, sit quietly and work in groups.
Preschool Promise also is setting the bar high for the kind of instruction young learners get:
■ All preschools are star rated under Ohio’s Step Up to Quality initiative or are in the process of earning this distinction.
■ Preschool Promise is giving preschool teachers intensive and personalized help to improve their teaching using research proven strategies.
Of the 6,500 children entering kindergarten each year in Montgomery County, nearly two-thirds are not fully ready. By giving every child the chance to attend a quality preschool, we can turn this statistic around.