Rapides pre-K network helping achieve 'common goal'

A unified early childhood education system has been three years in the making for Rapides, one of the districts that opted to be a pilot network before full state implementation.

Cindy Rushing, the Rapides Parish school district's early childhood education coordinator, stands by that decision as the right one for this area.

"We knew it was coming, and we wanted to be in on the ground floor," Rushing said. "I think it was good for us."

The Louisiana Department of Education now oversees all child care, Head Start and publicly-funded pre-kindergartens through networks like the Rapides Parish Early Childhood Network formed in 2013.

"The first year we started it was like we were all silos," Rushing said, meaning the various pre-K providers and educators did not interact. "What we worked on that first year was developing trust."

Next came preparation for new standards from the state, including individual student, teacher and classroom evaluations.

"2016-17 makes the first year that there's actually going to be a score, a performance profile," Rushing explained.

Public K-12 schools receive performance scores from the state in the form of letter grades, but pre-K schools will be judged differently on a seven-point scale. Schools will be labeled as excellent (6.0-7.), proficient (4.5-5.99), approaching proficient (3.0-4.49) or unsatisfactory (1.0-2.99).

Rushing said the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the new standards at a summer meeting. She said the performance scores will be released yearly and determined by multiple observations in every classroom, which focus on teacher interaction.

"What is it that teachers are doing and saying all day and what are those students doing and saying? That's going to affect that learning that's taking place," Rushing said.

As the lead agency for the Rapides Early Childhood Network, the district is responsible for facilitating those observations in the fall and the spring, Rushing explained. That's part of the reason the district is looking for an early childhood facilitator to handle extra responsibilities. The hire was approved by the Rapides Parish School Board at a July meeting.

Rushing has decades of experiences in early childhood education and believes recent changes like the statewide network are a good thing.

"I really, really think it’s going to bring us all closer together, and it already has," she said. "We have a common goal."

That goal, she said, is making sure children are ready for kindergarten. She said if students start their K-12 education behind, it's often impossible to catch up.

The district has about 1,500 slots for pre-K students and recently has added classes to serve more students as part of a federal preschool grant. They are labeled as "diverse delivery" classes, and the fifth one in Rapides will be added for 2016-17 at a local Head Start Center.

"I think even the state is recognizing that this is where we need to put our money," Rushing said. "Everyone knows that our greatest resource is those little ones."

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