Montgomery County, Ohio – Preschool Promise

Abstract (200 words) -- Description, Purpose, Outcomes

The Montgomery County Preschool Promise is dedicated to ensuring that every Montgomery
County family has the opportunity to send their child to at least one year of high-quality
Preschool. Preschool Promise's focuses are:

 Educating the community about the power of Preschool

 Expanding the availability of high quality Preschools
 Assisting families in affording high quality Preschool

In 2017-18, just 38% of children started Kindergarten ready to learn. Meanwhile, the most
recently available data show that only 36% of our young people earned a college degree within
6 years of graduation. That these two data points are nearly identical is not a coincidence.
Preschool is where children start learning the skills they will need to be successful in the
workplace — working well with others, sharing, showing empathy, delaying gratification and
more. If children, especially high-need children, don't have the advantage of attending
Preschool, they often start school behind. Typically, they then stay behind.

Montgomery County is investing in children when it matters most — the early years. Preschool
Promise sets up children for school success, which leads to career- and college-readiness. This
commitment benefits children; supports working families; and is critical to creating
Montgomery County's future workforce.

Need for the Program (1/4 page) -- County Legal Obligation If Any

Montgomery County was not legally obligated to be a supporter of Preschool Promise or to

take the bold step of becoming the first major public investor in Preschool Promise. However,
the County committed to this initiative because of the documented return on investment in
early learning.

As stated earlier, just 38% of Montgomery County children come to Kindergarten fully ready to
learn. That is 4 percentage points below Ohio's statewide average in 2017-18.

Another consideration is that Ohio has adopted a "third-grade reading guarantee."

Preparedness for Kindergarten is a strong predictor of a child's ability to read well in third
grade. Ensuring children come to Kindergarten with both the academic and social skills to learn
means teachers aren't playing catch-up, allowing all children in our classrooms to be more
focused on grade-level learning.

Montgomery County also recognizes that area employers are clamoring to hire employees.
Many people who want to work simply can't afford to pay for high-quality Preschool and
childcare. Middle-class families are especially burdened by this cost because they don't qualify
for assistance that is available to our extremely low-income families. Preschool Promise is

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helping to make Preschool affordable for all families. If we want parents to take jobs and to stay
on the job, we must provide high-quality learning environments for their children.

Description of the Program (2 1/2 page)

The Montgomery County Preschool Promise exists today because of leadership by the
Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners and numerous local philanthropic
organizations. As part of efforts to improve our region's economic competitiveness, they are
committed to investing in the next generation of young people, beginning with our youngest
children.

Preschool Promise traces its beginning to 2007, when advocates who had joined together under
the Montgomery County Early Care & Education Initiative, formed ReadySetSoar. Its focus was
on improving children's readiness for Kindergarten and their 3rd-grade reading proficiency. For
several years, ReadySetSoar worked collaboratively with Learn to Earn Dayton, which was
dedicated to improving educational achievement among older children. Then in 2015-16, the
organizations merged, becoming Montgomery County's cradle-to-career initiative.

Another critical transition occurred in 2016 when the City of Dayton made important history.
Dayton voters passed a 0.25% income tax increase to support critical city services and to offer
one year of affordable, quality Preschool to all Dayton families with a 4-year-old. This move
institutionalized Preschool Promise in Dayton and provides sustained funding.

Dayton made this major leap after our community, under the leadership of Montgomery
County, successfully implemented Preschool Promise demonstration programs first in the
suburb of Kettering, and then in Kettering and Northwest Dayton in the 2016-17 school year.
These pilot efforts were made possible by multiple public and private funders, with the
Montgomery County Commissioners at the forefront.

Because of the overwhelming support of Dayton voters - 56% voted "yes" for Issue 9 -
Preschool Promise was expanded to all of Dayton beginning in the 2017-18 school year.
Montgomery County currently is supporting Preschool Promise's expansion to additional high-
need communities, with the goal of one day taking the program countywide.

In 2017, Preschool Promise became a stand-alone 501(c)(3) organization, and today is led by a
five-member board of directors. It is fiscally separate from Learn to Earn Dayton, though it
remains a close partner.

In all of its work, Preschool Promise is committed to fostering equity, recognizing that far too
many African-American and Appalachian young children do not share the same advantages and

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privileges of many of their middle-class peers. In addition to promoting best practices

for all young learners, Preschool Promise promotes targeting the Dayton community's
resources to the highest-need young children.

Preschool Promise's guiding principles are:

 Families are a child’s most important teacher.

 To ensure the greatest return on investment, Preschool Promise must foster continuous
quality improvement at participating Preschools.
 Preschool Promise must be simple for families to access and administratively efficient
for Preschools to join.
 Funding Preschool Promise is a shared responsibility, and the initiative must leverage all
available financial support, including federal, state, and local public dollars, as well as
private investment.

The Cost of the Program

Preschool Promise is funded through an innovative partnership between two anchor funders,
Montgomery County and the City of Dayton. The Preschool Promise model relies on leveraging
available federal, state and local school district funds for Preschool and early childhood
education. Preschool Promise funds are used to enhance and supplement current Head Start
funding, Child Care and Development Block Grant funding for subsidized child care, the State of
Ohio Department of Education Preschool funding, and local school district general revenue
funds.

The 2019 Fiscal Year budget for Preschool Promise is $6.7 million, with an estimated 2,000 4-
year-old children benefitting from the initiative. Funding is allocated to four major expense
areas as detailed below:

Budget Area Key Activities

Educating the 1. Outreach specialists who canvas the community and educate families
Community about their Preschool options
$854,000 (13%) 2. Paid media campaign (including billboards, social media, radio ads,
bus ads)
3. Marketing staff, including a family/social media specialist who builds
relationships with parents and leads communication efforts with
families, including monthly postcards, weekly text messages with tips
about learning at home, birthday cards, etc.
4. Monthly book mailed to child’s home with interactive questions

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5. Stipends for Parent Ambassadors who provide advice and feedback

and serve as Preschool Promise champions
Improving Quality 1. Coaching to Preschool providers – including private childcare
$3,516,000 (52%) programs, public Preschools, Head Start programs, and family
childcare providers
2. Training workshops, Professional Learning Communities, and teacher
stipends for participation in training
3. Quality stipends that programs apply for to make quality
improvements and to offer wage supplements
4. Expansion funds to help Preschool sites open new classrooms to
serve additional children
Assisting Families 1. Tuition assistance for families who need help paying for Preschool –
$1,869,000 (28%) families must first leverage available state and federal funding before
using Preschool Promise tuition assistance
2. Star Attendance program – funded by the City of Dayton to help
promote strong, consistent attendance
3. Staff to support application and enrollment of children and families
Evaluating and 1. Contract with the University of Dayton to conduct extensive data
Administrating collection – including assessments of children done by trained
the Program undergraduate and graduate students
$493,000 (7%) 2. Administrative staff and operations, including finance staff, auditor
and attorney fees, etc.

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Results/Success of the Program

Preschool Promise’s overarching vision is to ensure all children are fully ready for Kindergarten.
The mission is to help more children have access to at least one year of high-quality Preschool.
The initiative is monitoring progress in many ways.

The 2017-18 school year was the official baseline year, and already there are early signs of
important progress. Preschool Promise is reaching over half of Dayton’s 4-year-olds and over
40% of Kettering’s 4-year-olds in Preschool Promise partner Preschool sites. Simultaneously,
the initiative is investing in teachers to improve the quality of teaching and programming
offered to children and their families.

The following are among the early indicators of success:

1. Increases in the percentage of 4-year-olds in high-quality Preschool: In Preschool

Promise's 2014 pilot year that began in the inner-ring suburb of Kettering, 26% of our 4-
year-olds were in highly rated Preschool programs (as judged by Ohio's voluntary Step
Up to Quality Initiative). In 2017, the first full year of implementation of Preschool
Promise, 37% of our 4-year-olds were in highly rated programs.
2. Increases in children’s skills: In the 2017-18 baseline year, Preschool Promise looked at
pre- and post-tests for 4-year-olds according to two measurements. The assessments
were done by outside trained observers who are undergraduate and graduate students
from the University of Dayton.
a. Bracken Scaled Scores: The Bracken is a nationally norm-referenced assessment
that looks at school readiness skills, including social and early math skills.
Preschool Promise children made more than the expected year’s growth from
Fall 2017 to Spring 2018 in each of the three subscales. (School Readiness
Composite Scores went from 8.43 to 9.86, Social from 8.7 to 10.25, and
Quantitative from 8.33 to 9.88).
b. Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS): The MEFS looks at executive
function (self-regulation) skills using an iPad game and is also norm-referenced.
Preschool Promise children started at 94.19 in the Fall and progressed to 95.88
in the Spring, again showing more than an expected year’s growth.
3. Increases in teacher skills: We trained over 150 teachers in intensive 9-month
Professional Learning Communities and workshops, and provided more than 2,500
hours of on-site, individualized coaching.
4. Increases in Star-Rated Preschool programs: We helped 26 of our 72 Preschool
Programs increase their Star Rating in the 2017-18 school year, and have already helped
another 18 programs increase their Star Ratings in the 2018-19 school year. Many of our
Preschool partners are already at the highest level of 5 Stars.

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While these early indicators are promising, we also know there is still significant work to do,
especially as we look at the disparities between our African-American children and our white
children. Racial opportunity and achievement gaps are tragically evident in our Preschool
children. In recognition of that unacceptable reality, Preschool Promise is implementing
strategies to promote culturally responsive teaching and to create more welcoming and
healthier social-emotional learning environments. We also must improve attendance and
encourage an additional 20%-30% of children in Dayton and Kettering who are not going to
Preschool to enroll in a quality program.

Worthiness of Award (1/4 to 1/2 page)

The Montgomery County Preschool Promise represents the best of innovation and
collaboration in local government:

 The initiative is a commitment to children and families who are most in need, and is
intentionally focused on promoting equity by eliminating opportunity and achievement
gaps.
 Investment in quality is a touchstone and is reflected in the initiative's budget, with the
greatest percentage of funding going toward improving the quality of teaching that
children receive.
 The effort is an investment in the future — the well-being of both individuals (young
children and their families) and the wider community, the success of which will rise or
fall on the educational attainment of our citizens.
 The initiative is succeeding and is sustainable because of collaboration between local
governments, school districts, philanthropies, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
 Preschool Promise is leveraging all manner of public and private resources in recognition
that no entity alone can afford to give children a strong start.
 Preschool Promise is committed to transparency and accountability, with the
establishment of a publicly appointed board that conducts all meetings in public and
reports annually to the community.
 Independent evaluation and continuous improvement are central to the initiative's
vision and work plans.

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