Denver Preschool Program promotes quality

Denver Preschool Program promotes quality
By Carol Boigon

When I moved to Park Hill in 1973 from Detroit, my first step was to search out a great preschool.  We enrolled our foster daughter in Montview Community Preschool.  I recognized its quality from my own training in the British infant system.  What I knew then, and believe deeply now, is that all children deserve the benefits of high-quality early education.  Decades of research demonstrate that the odds of long-term school and life success for children from struggling families go way up when they attend high-quality preschools.

Preschool promotes school success, leads to better jobs and even prevents crime.  The compelling scientific evidence of these benefits underpins the Denver Preschool Program, which offers tuition support to all Denver families to help send their children to the preschool of their choice.  And while the benefits appear to be greatest for the economically disadvantaged, preschool benefits all children, regardless of their economic status.

But not just any preschool.  High-quality preschool.

That’s why the Denver Preschool Program drives quality by offering coaching and quality improvement grants to its more than 250 participating preschools.  Preschools are independently rated for quality so Denver families can choose the best option for their children.  Last year, 91% of Denver Preschool Program four-year-olds were enrolled in top‐quality preschool classrooms.  More and more families are selecting preschools based on quality rather than cost or location.

Helping Denver families access high-quality preschool has been a smart investment and key to closing the achievement gap in our K-12 schools.  A recent independent evaluation concluded that the vast majority of the nearly 6,000 children that participate in the Denver Preschool Program every year leave the program ready for kindergarten – socially, emotionally and academically.  Three-quarters of children scored at the average or above on literacy and math assessments, well above what would be expected in the general population.  Similarly, teachers identified significantly fewer children with behavioral concerns than one would expect in the general population.  These are achievements that voters who approved the Denver Preschool Program in 2006 can be proud of.

Since the Denver Preschool Program began, the city has collected approximately $10.5 million per year in sales tax revenue for the program.  Every year, approximately 10 percent of this revenue is dedicated toward improving the quality of participating preschools.

Denver Preschool Program tuition credits are available for all Denver families with a child in their last year of preschool before kindergarten and can be applied toward attendance at a wide variety of preschools all across the metro area.  Families can find descriptions and quality ratings for these preschools on the Denver Preschool Program website, which also includes a tuition credit calculator to estimate the level of your family’s tuition support.

Whether you have little children or grandchildren, keep your eye on the Denver Preschool Program.  Not only will you and your neighbors benefit now, but you will be called in a few years to decide whether this brilliant Denver experiment should continue.  In the long Park Hill tradition, the Denver Preschool Program builds healthy communities for families of every kind, and it will need informed advocates who care about that mission.

For more information on the Denver Preschool Program, visit www.DenverPreschoolProgram.org.

Carol Boigon, a former reading teacher and Denver City Councilmember at-large, served as the first executive director of the Mayor’s Office for Education and Children and founding board member of the Denver Preschool Program.