Sharing Wed Resources

On Harlem Children Zone website I opened a section where they have there result and I was able to get some information about some of the issues we've been discussing in this course. This has really opened my eyes to see how one can actually get parents involved in their children's education as early as possible. Early Childhood As researchers confirm that the early-childhood years are key to building a strong foundation for future educational success, HCZ has been bolstering its work with children and families in these critically important first years. Like all of HCZ’s programs, our early childhood programs provide their services free to the public. The Baby College® The Baby College offers a nine-week parenting workshop to expectant parents and those raising a child up to three years old. Among other lessons, the workshops promote reading to children and verbal discipline over corporal punishment. Over the past two years, more than 870 people graduated from The Baby College. The Three Year Old Journey The Three-Year-Old Journey works with parents of children who have won the HCZ Promise Academy charter school lottery. Held on Saturdays over several months, it teaches parents about their child's development, building language skills and parenting skills. GET READY FOR PRE-K The Get Ready for Pre-K program brings in new Gems students before the start of the school year. The six-week summer session runs for extended hours during weekdays like the regular Gems program, helping children acclimate to the new schedule and readying them to start school in the fall. Harlem Gems® Harlem Gems is an all-day pre-kindergarten program that gets children ready to enter kindergarten. Classes have a 4:1 child-to-adult ratio, teach English, Spanish and French, and run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. HCZ runs three pre-kindergarten sites, serving 200 children. Of the 190 four-year-olds that entered the Harlem Gems in the 2009-2010 school years, 16.5% had a school readiness classification of delayed or very delayed. By the end of the year, there were no students classified as "very delayed" and the percentage of "advanced" had gone from 21.3% to 41.6%, with another 6.8% at "very advanced," up from 2.1%. 99.5% of students attained a school readiness classification of average or above.