History, Campus, Community
In 1992, Glynn County was included in a pilot program of 20 sites in Georgia funded by Governor Zell Miller with state lottery monies to serve at-risk 4-year-old children and their families in an effort to increase their likelihood of success in school. Participation in the program is open to any child who is four years old on or before September 1st.
Research studies conducted by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation have found the benefits of high quality preschool education include (among other things) increased literacy, decreased retentions in elementary grades, decreased high school dropout rates, and decreased special education placements. In Glynn County, we have found that 64% of our former Pre-K students are above average in kindergarten readiness and 68% are above average in first grade readiness.
The combination of experienced, certified teachers with extensive early childhood training, experienced and well-trained teaching assistants (paraprofessionals) along with high quality, developmentally appropriate curriculum and strong parent/family participation creates an exciting and successful Pre-Kindergarten program for Glynn County's schools.
In Glynn County, parents are reminded that they are their children's first teachers and they are encouraged to participate in the Pre-Kindergarten Program often.
Glynn County Pre-K follows the mandate of Bright From the Start; its controlling body at the state level, with a maximum of 22 children per class with a teacher and paraprofessional. Resource coordinators offer support to children and their families and provide additional interaction opportunities for teachers, students and parents.
A rich literacy environment is critical! The inclusion of Breakthrough to Literacy in the curriculum assures children daily individual instruction on the computer related to books that are read in the classroom and taken home to keep weekly.
Glynn County Pre-K is committed to accommodation of special needs children in all areas of the classroom and daily schedule as is appropriate for each child. Pre-K children are exposed to many classroom structures, routines, materials and their use in order to address varied learning styles and developmental rates. Staff honors the accepted philosophy that children learn through play and active integration of new concepts into existing understandings. Classrooms provide wide ranges of both academic (math, language and literacy, and computer work) as well as non-structured activities (blocks, art, dramatic play and discovery) for children to choose from to provide balance and flexibility in learning.
Research in early childhood curricula shows there is no single best curriculum for preparing 4 year olds for school. Specific skills and concepts that have been identified as pertinent to 4-year-old development are built into the Pre-K curriculum and in Glynn County are aligned with the elementary school standards for fulfillment of long range goals. This points again to the individualization of instruction in keeping with the theory that children learn at different rates and cannot be rubber-stamped into expertise. The language arts with focus on vocabulary and pre-reading find their place in the Pre-K curriculum. Science and mathematics have strong roots in the Pre-K curriculum for their natural tendency to provide great opportunities for problem solving. Children's progress is shared with parents throughout the school year.
Local studies have shown:
KINDERGARTEN
Children who attended Glynn County Pre-K FY03 scored
2 points higher than the county average on the GKAP-R
given in Kindergarten.
4TH GRADE
Long term, local study shows that the children who attended Glynn County Pre-K FY98 scored equal to or higher than the county average on the 4th grade CRCT in reading, language arts, and math.
5TH GRADE
Long term, local study shows that the children who attended Glynn County Pre-K FY98 scored equal to or higher than the grade equivalent averages in the reading, language and math areas of the ITBS in the 5th grade than the county average.