Abstract

In school today, four-year old Daniel heard his first story. For the first time, Tanisha used markers and pencils and Carmen heard a sustained conversation in English. In P.S. 5 in Jersey City, these preschool children come together to begin their educational journey. We know that that journey is not always successful.

Young children in our urban schools begin their schooling markedly under prepared. Many 5 year olds are functioning at the academic level of their 3 year old suburban peers (Barnett & Frede, 1998). Poor children are more likely to have difficulty in math concepts, vocabulary, early reading, and in adapting to the learning environment of schools. For too many urban districts, average test scores lag behind the scores achieved by Special Education children in more affluent districts. Because of these problems, the New Jersey Supreme Court has mandated high quality public preschool programs for our poorest children. And the strongest indicator of quality is well-prepared teachers who are effective at working in urban schools (NJDOE, 1998).

To meet this challenge, New Jersey City University (NJCU), Hudson County Community College (HCCC) and the Jersey City Public Schools (JCPS) will partner to improve their current success in providing effective teachers for young children. With Early Childhood Project Success we will improve the quality of teaching at a time when unprecedented shortages are bringing teachers into schools with less preparation than ever before. Since 1997 the number of preschool classrooms in Jersey City has grown from 29 to approximately 143 in September of 2001. Many of the new early childhood teachers to fill these classrooms will be hired through the alternate route program, therefore having little or no previous training in early childhood pedagogy. In addition, many new teachers will be hired in grades K-3 replacing those who are filling the new preschool classrooms.

Career pathways for new teachers, however, are strewn with barriers. Experienced teachers in community-based child care centers have great difficulty in gaining the knowledge and credentials to be effective public school educators (New Jersey Professional Development Center, 2001). NJCU and HCCC have established an articulation model noted throughout the state for its innovative way of helping teacher candidates move seamlessly from the community college through the 4-year teacher preparation program. As Jersey City Public Schools serve a population of predominantly minority children, this model is designed to increase the number of minority teacher candidates, and to increase all teachers’ ability to support diversity in their teaching. Since the percentage of minority teacher candidates at HCCC (96%) and at NJCU (40%) is the highest in the state (NJ Title II Report), we are in a unique position to build on our partnership to increase the number and quality of minority teacher candidates entering the field.

Early Childhood Project Success meets these challenges in four ways:

As the movement takes hold to increase student performance on the state’s Core Curriculum Content Standards, we believe that teachers need more support in how to put these standards into practice. In Early Childhood Project Success, we will provide intensive training through The Education Trust’s nationally recognized Standards In Practice Program that has documented success in increasing teacher effectiveness. In conjunction, we will provide professional development through graduate coursework in working with Limited English Proficient children and those with special needs.

We also believe, however, that any systemic reform of our schools needs to be seen as P-16 reform. Working toward improving teacher quality in Jersey City schools, we will also improve the quality of the teacher preparation programs at HCCC and NJCU. Aligning these programs with each other and with the state’s standards and infusing technology into the curriculum will ensure that teachers have the knowledge, skills and dispositions to make a difference in the performance of children in the early years. It is impossible to raise student achievement without a strong foundation developed in the early childhood grades. Early Childhood Project Success will make that strong foundation a reality and provide the basis for future student improvement in our urban schools.