Literacy in Early Learning Spaces
Free Library of Philadelphia
Innovation Synopsis
In Philadelphia, the major US city with the highest rates of poverty, ⅔ of 4th graders aren’t reading on grade level. Incoming Kindergarteners are unprepared to learn to read & write because they don’t have early exposure to books, back-and-forth conversation & other foundations of early literacy. The Free Library of Philadelphia's "Literacy in Early Learning Spaces" initiative partners intensively with childcare teachers of kids birth-5 years, to offer comprehensive support in early literacy best practices for the classroom. By focusing on childcare teachers, the practice of building foundational skills in the youngest learners can carry over to class after class, year after year. Support includes professional development, in-class technical assistance coaching, books and materials, family engagement assistance, and connections to neighborhood libraries and other organizations. Full complement of support offered in a cohort model in both English and Spanish.
Challenge/Opportunity
CHALLENGES
- Philadelphia has a literacy crisis
- 90% of brain development happens in the first 5 years of life and many local children spend much of this time in childcare programs
- There is widespread lack of access to resources (educational, financial, material, etc) for child care programs
OPPORTUNITIES
- Focus early literacy intervention on teachers & directors to tackle widespread childhood literacy challenges
- Focus on low quality childcares (according to PA quality rating) with systemic barriers to resources & support, for equity-based approach
- Libraries have a rich history of providing early education support and tips in their programming
- Work within communities to provide materials & expertise
- Expand the library's role beyond storytime outreach into technical assistance coaching and comprehensive literacy support for childcare programs
- Library as connector to other orgs & resources
Key Elements of Innovation
- Partnered with teachers in 64 Infant, Toddler & PreK classrooms
- Selected childcares rated by PA as lower quality
- Hired staff with education experience for in-class coaching
- Wrote 8 anchor trainings+coaching curriculum (including Early Literacy Handbook)
- Teach current best practices as related to PA Early Learning Standards
- 8 trainings carry PA continuing ed credit, which support a facet of quality increase
- Provide Book Nook furniture, books & materials (scarves, crayons, paper, blocks, puppets, instruments, etc) for each classroom
- 2 in-class tech assistance visits/month with an early childhood literacy specialist
- Support for 2 family fun literacy nights at every childcare
- Cohort model fosters community of practice among childcare teachers & directors which allows for sustainable support & encouragement
- Connect each classroom to their local library, assist in teachers & families getting library cards, local librarian outreach storytime visit to each program
Achieved Outcomes
- Partnered w 155 teachers; 64 infant, toddler, & PreK classes; 28 childcares
- 52 family literacy events
- 16 professional developments (8 in Spanish)
- 1520+ coaching visits
External evaluation: teacher &director surveys, interviews, family surveys, classroom assessments to measure change over time. Compared to 1 year ago, stronger evidence of 13 metrics including:
- Developing comprehension skills
- Developing narrative skills
- Efforts to build vocabulary
- Phonological awareness
- Quality of book reading
- Approaches to curriculum
- Opportunities for child choice & initiative
- Opportunities for extended conversations
Teachers:
- “It has motivated me to do more with my children. Initially I didn't realize the resources available to me. The more I learn from my coach, the more I can do with my children and provide feedback to my parents.”
- “Your program gave me more confidence with literacy in my classroom”
17 of 28 childcares increased their quality with PA; 11 now high quality
