Comments on: Pete Stark’s wife to head national pre-K initiative http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2008/10/25/pete-starks-wife-to-head-national-pre-k-initiative/ Politics in the Bay Area and beyond Sat, 25 May 2013 08:06:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Bruce R. Peterson, Lafayette http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2008/10/25/pete-starks-wife-to-head-national-pre-k-initiative/comment-page-1/#comment-118522 Bruce R. Peterson, Lafayette Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:14:05 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/?p=2815#comment-118522 Look at how far we have gone backward. In the old days of 2008, people put their name & town on their comments. Now the comments are dominated by robotic snipers. It’s a good thing Old Pete has a wife skilled in changing diapers.

]]> By: Roberta Goodin http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2008/10/25/pete-starks-wife-to-head-national-pre-k-initiative/comment-page-1/#comment-7047 Roberta Goodin Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:50:55 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/?p=2815#comment-7047 Ms. Stark,
I’m at the other end of the spectrum from Ms. Bishop, MSW, but no less passionate about literacy and children’s success in school. NapaLit, your literacy connection is a two-year old nonprofit in Napa County. Our family literacy program is Story Times & Books. This program’s mission is to support parents in their role as their child’s first teacher. To avoid transportation issues, we go to the community room or other such location,and read a story before which each child is given his/her own copy of a bilingual board book. Other materials and tools are given to the parents to assist them between our monthly story times. We recognize that more frequent story times would be better but are not in a position to do that yet. I’m glad to see what you are doing.
Looking forward to seeing it soar!

Roberta Goodin
Executive Director/Founder
NapaLit, your literacy connection
PO Box 684
Napa, CA 94559
707-266-4403

]]> By: Sarah Bishop http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2008/10/25/pete-starks-wife-to-head-national-pre-k-initiative/comment-page-1/#comment-7048 Sarah Bishop Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:07:33 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/?p=2815#comment-7048 Ms. Stark -
I am both thrilled and relieved that a person with your visibility is going to focus on Parent Engagement. I have been a social worker for 30 years. I am the Director of a school readiness initiative called Success By 6 at United Way of South Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia. I have 6,600 children involved with the highly successful Raising A Reader program that is designed to engage families of all literacy levels with their children on a regular and freguent basis around books and discussion. Raising A Reader is based in San Mateo. And we are getting results – parents engaged with their children are the surest way to get children engaged. If parents are disinterested or unaware of their responsibilities or capabilites, then there is little an educated provider can do in the long run. We see gains in children for the first few years of school and then quickly fall behind their peers after third grade unless parents are engaged.

I am also deeply involved in regional partnerships that focus on school readiness. However, I have been frustrated that the efforts underway focus entirely on childcare provider training and childcare facility upgrades. I have pushed and pushed for the focus to include parent education, training, and engagement. But the money has been for capital improvements, so that is where the parterships are going with their work.

I applaud your focusing on parents as the research is very strong that the quality of parent engagement is the most telling indicator and long lasting element for academic success.

Please include someone from the Harvard Family Research Project (Dr. Suzanne Bouffard is one researcher that I would recommend as a possibility) in your national effort. Also, “google” the POWERFUL research results from Hart & Risley called “The Early Catastrophe.” I have used this 6 page summary report with many audiences – parents, childcare providers, teachers, school boards, children’s hosptial’s board and CEO, Superintendents and corporate learders. It gets great responses.

I remain firmly focused on parent engagement and fear that improvements in pre-K and childcare will fall flat if parents are not brought in to the picture.

I wish you tremendous success in your efforts and would be pleased to forward “The Early Catastrophe” or anything from the Harvard Family Research Project to you.

Good Luck. I will frequently “google” your name to see if you will be coming to southeastern Virginia or to see what you have accomplished.

I would be happy to assist in your efforts in anyway possible.

Sincerely,
Sarah Bishop, MSW,
Director, Success By 6 and Raising A Reader Coordinator
2515 Walmer Ave
Norfolk, VA 23513
sbishop@unitedwayshr.org
757-853-8500, ext. 120

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