Through these groundbreaking Learning Laboratories, Ready At Five nurtures school readiness and identifies promising practices:

• In Southwest Baltimore
  It takes a healthy home to raise a healthy child. Ready At Five's pilot program in Southwest Baltimore proved that we can improve school readiness and health outlooks in at-risk children when we provide the right support and information to families. The program, a partnership of Ready At Five, University of Maryland, Open Gates Medical Center, and Harbor Hospital, enabled practitioners and volunteers to work closely with 78 targeted families of children under five in the Cherry Hill and Pigtown/Washington Village communities. Through personal outreach, parents learned about maintaining their child's health, school readiness, everyday teachable moments, and the importance of their children's development in all of the domains of learning. Children without current immunization were identified, and parents without health insurance received help in applying for state health coverage for their children. Most importantly, collaborations took shape that link health care facilities, elementary schools, and public libraries. It's an important model for strengthening healthy growth and school readiness in a high-poverty community.

• In East Baltimore
  Spanish speakers are the largest and fastest-growing group of Maryland's non-English-speaking population. The school readiness data reveal that English Language Learners lag behind their non-ELL peers. The population is growing and the gap is growing!  For this reason, for the past five years, Ready At Five has generated momentum and support for young English Language Learners to improve thier school readiness. Ready At Five offered:

• Professional Development. In 2004/05, Ready At Five hosted a three-part School Readines Symposium series focused on English language learners. Over 500 policy makers, educators, and early care and education professionals learned key research and discussed strategies and practices aimed at improving the school readiness of English language learners. Keynote speakers included: Nonie Lesaux, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dr. Betty Ansin Smallwood, Center for Applied Linguistics, and Wendy Jones and Kathy Hepburn, Center for Child and Human Development at Georgetown University.
• Effective Tools and Resources. In early 2005, Ready At Five culminated it's national review of effective practices, strategies and successful programs, and released What Works? Promising Practices for Improving the School Readiness of English Language Learners. The publication was developed in conjunction with a panel of national and state experts and serves as a school readiness framework for working with English language learners, outlining promising practices, Snap Shots of programs at work and references, including an annotated bibliography.
• Direct Service. To pilot innovative strategies, Ready At Five launched a direct-service Learning Laboratory in Baltimore City's eastside (the General Wolfe and Highlandtown Elementary School communities).  With help from Centro de la Comunidad, the Kennedy Krieger Institute Early Head Start, South East Community Organization (SECO) Head Start and staff from Highlandtown and General Wolfe Elementary Schools, Ready At Five provided a variety of parent workshops, including Learning Parties.  These experiences have improved the knowledge and parenting skills of more than 108 parents learning the English language.  Ready At Five also provided professional development of early childhood educators in Baltimore City's eastside centered on effective practices for working with ELL children and shedding light on what works in helping children in economically-challenged Spanish-speaking communities to enter school ready to learn.

• In Howard County
  School readiness has to start with parents. In the communities served by Bollman Bridge, Deep Run and Phelps Luck elementary schools in Howard County, where residents struggle with poverty, single parenthood, high mobility, limited education, language barriers and other challenges, Ready At Five worked to help parents help their children. Many parents didn't have the awareness or the skills to know how to prepare their children for kindergarten work. Coordinated by Advisory Committees in each school who were familiar with their parents and their neighborhoods, the program brought together school personnel, child care providers, the Child Care Resource Center and public library staff to nourish positive parenting and child learning skills. In all, 322 families became more familiar with the skills children need to be ready for school and the elementary school and staff where their children will be attending.

• Improving Parenting Skills. To support parents as a child's first teacher, Ready At Five supported extensive outreach to future students in 3 Title I schools in Howard County. Open Houses, a four-part Learning Party series, story hours, workshops, and informal contacts reinforced with a supply of publications and resources engaged parents and helped them better understand how to enhance children's learning at home.
• Professional Development. To reinforce the connection between the education and knowledge early care and education professionals receive and the quality of care they provide, Ready At Five created the Institute for First Teachers.  The Institute - a three-part full day professional development experience involves center and family providers providing care to young children and future students in Bollman Bridge, Deep Run and Phelps Luck Elementary Schools - the 3 schools in the county's Learning Lab.  Coach mentoring, site visits and a professional network of early educators are part of the Institute. 

• Institute for Early Educators
  To expand its work focused on supporting the school readiness of English Language Learners, Ready At Five designed and Institute for Earl Educators, a unique, two-day professional development experience for early educators and elementary school staff and administrators who work with and teach young English language learners in Baltimore City's eastside.  The composition of the December 2006 Institute included early educators from the Kennedy Krieger Early Head Start Program and South East Community Organizations (SECO) Head Start--St. Brigid's and Patterson Park Centers, who have classrooms where more than 50 percent of students speak Spanish and the General Wolfe, Hightlandtown and John Ruhrah Elementary School communities.

The centerpiece of the Institute is theCultural and Linguistic Competency Module developed by Ready At Five and Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development.  The module is aligned with the MMSR, the seven Domains of Learning, Creative Curriculum, the Head Start National Reporting Standards, as well as the needs of programs and staff (determined by an initial staff focus group, assessments and observations).

The module contains research-based theory, policies, demonstration of effective practices and hands-on techniques for working with English language learners.  The framework of cultural and linguistic competence module will be presented through the following sessions:

Cultural and Linguistic Competence: A Framework for Early Care and Education and School Readiness
Learning About Family and Community
The Early Care and Education Environment
Early Learning: Language and Literacy
Family Involvement and Family Friendly Communication and
The PATH to Planning and Implementation

Through a series of six sessions, case studies, role playing, hands-on practice, and cross-sharing, participants will learn effective practices and activities that promote culturally and linguistically appropriate classroom and parent-child learning activities.  At the conclusion of the Institute, Ready At Five will invite attendees to participate in a Professional Learning Community, which will reinforce the utilization and implementation of the module.  Site-Visits and Hands-On Learning will be provided by Ready At Five staff offering ongoing coaching and mentoring to participants attending the two-day Institute.

A cadre of Trainers will be available, through Ready At Five, to replicate the Institute for Early Educators in other communities and jurisdictions in Maryland that have a substantial ELL population enrolled in early care and education programs and preK and kindergarten.  Ready At Five will coordinate future trainings to assure fidelity to the module; to guide the Institute's stability and to enable trainers to learn from the collective experiences of their peers.

The Institute is a first step - one of many - needed to close the achievement gap between native speakers and English Language Learner young children.