Brightpoint School Readiness Outcomes Increase Each Period Throughout the Year

Brightpoint is a private, non-profit agency that promotes economic and community development by providing resources and helping people gain access to opportunities. At Brightpoint Early Head Start and Head Start, they believe children construct knowledge through a wide variety of rich, meaningful experiences with adults, peers, and materials. They believe the parents are the first and primary teachers of their children. Therefore, parent engagement is vital in every aspect of their efforts to enrich each child’s life and Frog Street supports this effort!

Brightpoint began their journey with Frog Street in 2018. The goal was to provide staff with a curriculum that allowed teachers both new and seasoned to excel in their own creativity and knowledge as well as supplying the Center Supervisors with a foundation to enhance their ability to support staff and provide Curriculum Fidelity.

The Challenge

The challenge during the pandemic was to make sure that even though children were not attending in person, that the program still provided a successful outcome for children and parents, along with providing professional development for teachers. Given the extreme challenges early childhood educators encountered during the pandemic, Frog Street helped Brightpoint succeed in these efforts.

The Solution

The Frog Street curriculum provided a framework that organized the childrens’ and teachers’ interactions, learning environment, and daily routine. Throughout the day, children – with the support of adults – practiced and defined skills to become Kindergarten ready. Frog Street supported in:

• Helping children become confident learners.
• Helping children develop their bodies.
• Helping children become socially competent.
• Helping children develop a healthy emotional outlook.

Brightpoint continued parent engagement using ABC Mouse® and Pre-K at Home! Classroom teachers provided parents with the opportunity to virtually read to children in virtual classrooms. Field trips also took on a different look during this time with a variety of virtual field trip options and on-site field trips! In addition, they implemented the on-demand video library with Frog Street’s Infant/Toddler, Pre-K, AIM, and Love and Learn programs.

The Impact

As the chart shows, school readiness outcomes increased each period throughout the year in each of the following categories: social and emotional development, approaches towards learning, language and communication, literacy, mathematic development, scientific reasoning, and physical, perceptual and motor development. It is helpful for parents and teachers to see what the strengths of the children are and where the areas of need are in any stage of the assessment period. More importantly, they will know how to build on the skills already acquired.