By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT-A study conducted by the Claremont School District has found that children who attended Children With Severe Disabilities Early Childhood Pre-K program have historically scored lower than the children that did not attend.
At a school board meeting on May 4, Director of Special Education Dr. Ben Nestor stated that, “Given the quasi experimental design applied it is clear that the early childhood intervention design did not close the gap or level the playing field.” Dr. Nester also brought forth a number of variables in the data as to why they may have reached that outcome.
The program, due to state regulation, operates under the early childhood model. Under this model, the program maintains a 50-50 split between children that receive special education and children that receive a regular education. To obtain the test scores that would show the difference in results, the school district utilized iReady tests. The iReady tests were used between the years of 2016 and 2021, with the exception of the 2019-2020 school year due to shutdowns. In all tests, the children that did not attend the program outperformed the children that did.
While the gap between children that did attend the Pre-K program was significant, it was consistent over the last several years. Although not drastic, Dr. Nester believes it does warrant further investigation. “It’s something I’m going to continue to monitor closely, and present data in other forms,” Dr. Nester said.
A class issue could be a determining factor in the lower testing grades of the children enrolled in the CSD Pre-K program. It was reported that district-wide, 34.8% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. However, 47.5% of children enrolled in the Early Childhood program qualify for the same aid. It was also noted that 42% of those children enrolled in the program are below the poverty line. It was suggested by Dr. Nester that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a factor in the years 2020-2021 as well as 2021-2022. Frank Sprague, a member of the school board, asked, “I wonder about attendance, are the kids there everyday?” Unfortunately, there is no way to know, as access to individual records of the students aren’t accessible.
Dr. Nester noted that he was not employed with SAU 6 at the time of the program’s inception, but is under the impression that, “the program was conceived to target the population that needed them the most.” Upon receiving the outcome of the data, it was discovered that there were students attending that received early support and services but were discharged prior to attending the program. There were also a few examples of children that didn’t meet Early Education Services criteria to receive special education services but are developmentally delayed in some way.
School board member Michael Perrin did question the possibility whether, “The gap could be larger if the kids that attended hadn’t.” To which Dr. Nester replied, “I think, professionally, I would say yes.”
CSD Early Childhood currently works with different Claremont Pre-Kindergarten schools. At this time, there are 38 special education students enrolled in the program. 30 of those students are on site, with eith attending head start programs. The Head Start program currently does not offer Speech Language Therapy or Occupational Therapy. Children that require those services receive them off campus.
Looking toward the future, Dr. Nester also proposed action items with the goal of closing the gap between children that attended the program and children that did not. The first of which was elementary restructuring, a plan that was proposed by the Claremont School District in September 2021, to have the three Claremont Elementary Schools go from their current overlap to an interconnected system with each school being responsible for specific grade levels.
This plan was put on pause in November 2021 when School Board Members cited lack of compelling evidence to continue with the restructuring plan. Dr. Nester also suggested that the district reach out to an outside agency to receive an independent evaluation of the CSD Early Childhood Program.
There was also the suggestion of changing the schedule to a full day for four-year-olds. “Do we have the space and resources for four-year-olds to attend full day?” questioned school board member Whitney Skillen. “We felt as though we did in the 2019-2020 school year but as of today we do not,” said Dr. Nester in response. “The program still faces a lot of academic, behavioral and emotional challenges.”
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