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About JumpstartThe School Readiness Problem More than ever before in our nation's history, children are entering school lacking basic school readiness skills - language and literacy, social, and initiative skills. In the Carnegie Foundation's Starting Points publication, teachers reported 35 percent of American kindergarten children arrive at school unprepared to learn. These statistics are even more alarming for children from low-income families: A 1993 study showed that about 50 percent of all children from low-income families start first grade up to two years behind their peers in preschool skills. Since these early inequalities in skills persist and increase with time, a child's performance in preschool is directly linked to success later in his or her school career.
A Simple Idea Jumpstart was founded in 1993 at Yale University at the intersection of two national trends: the public need for quality early childhood programs and the emerging national service movement recruiting thousands of college students to community service. Jumpstart connects these trends by recruiting, training, and supervising college students to work with Head Start and other early childhood programs in low-income neighborhoods to provide one-to-one attention to young children struggling in preschool.
Jumpstart TodaySince 1993, Jumpstart has grown from a campus-based program to a national education leader. This year, Jumpstart is serving more than 6,000 children in 44 communities across the country. Nearly 1,600 college students are participating in Jumpstart on 50 different higher education campuses. And Jumpstart continues to grow every year through new partnerships with colleges and universities across the country. Jumpstart was founded in 1993 at Yale University at the intersection of two national trends: the public need for quality early childhood programs and the emerging national service movement recruiting thousands of college students to community service. Jumpstart connects these trends by recruiting, training, and supervising college students to work with Head Start and other early childhood programs in low-income neighborhoods to provide one-to-one attention to young children struggling in preschool. Jumpstart School Year and Summer ProgramsJumpstart is an outcome-based model that offers both summer and school year programs for children. During the eight-month Jumpstart School Year, a Corps member holds twice-weekly, two-hour Jumpstart Sessions, structured classroom sessions set aside at a preschool for a team of nine or 10 Corps members to devote attention to children following the traditional school day. Each Corps member spends additional time in his child's classroom supporting the classroom teacher and other students.During Jumpstart Summer, Corps members team-teach full-time with mentor teachers to provide learning opportunities for children. Program GoalsJumpstart focuses on three major goals - school success, family involvement, and future teachers. By focusing on the child, and his or her family, and college students, Jumpstart provides a comprehensive program to ensure children enter school prepared to succeed.School Success. Jumpstart's curriculum fosters early literacy and language skills and promotes social and emotional development in young children. Children recognize and produce rhymes, show signs of beginning reading and writing, understand what books are and how books work, engage in problem solving, know how to make and express choices, interact constructively with familiar adults and children, and understand and express feelings appropriately. Future Teachers. Jumpstart provides training and hands-on experiences that enable Corps members to become early childhood educators and leaders in education. Corps members acquire a working knowledge of child growth and development, classroom management, and family dynamics; learn effective ways to interact with children to encourage language, communication, and problem solving skills; and understand major research and trends in the field of early childhood education. Through the Pearson Teacher Fellowship, select alumni Corps members pursue a career in early education by working for two years in an early learning center after graduation.
Family Involvement. Jumpstart promotes family involvement by providing books and learning activities for the home, thereby reinforcing the learning that takes place during Jumpstart sessions. Working with Jumpstart, families establish suitable goals for literacy and school readiness; create learning plans that identify their child's challenges and build upon their child's strengths; find ways to incorporate literacy skills into the family routine; and participate in classroom visits, family potlucks, and achievement celebrations. Outcomes Jumpstart assesses each child twice a year using its School Success Checklist, a 17-item assessment of language and literacy, social, and initiative skills. This strong pre- and post-assessment process allows Jumpstart to track a child's progress, measure program impact, and continuously improve content and delivery. Assessments from the 2002-2003 school year show significant program impact on the participating preschool-age children's language, social, and adaptive skills. Jumpstart children begin the school year with skills rated lower than their peers but make statistically significant greater progress than their peers in language and literacy, social, and initiative skill areas by the end of the year.
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| Jumpstart San Francisco * Jumpstart National Website | ||
