Ready, Set, Go is OPEN’s systemic early childhood and school readiness initiative, aimed at changing the life trajectory of a generation by focusing on our youngest citizens.
Through Ready, Set, Go!, OPEN seeks to engage schools, parents, and community leaders in working to best prepare our children for their first day of school. A child’s readiness for kindergarten has been connected to third grade literacy, middle school math scores, and high school dropout rates. Ready, Set, Go! is driven by data collected through the city using a developmentally appropriate assessment called the Early Development Instrument as part of a thirty-four state collaborative with Transforming Early Childhood Community Systems (TECCS) and the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities.
Ready, Set, Go has a three-pronged approach:
• EDI Data Collection
• Early Childhood Advocacy (Champions for the Young Child)
• Community Engagement and Capacity (Parents as First Educators)
Utilizing the EDI, OPEN collected data on 65% of kindergarten-age New Orleans children in 2013, and we’re sharing it with neighborhood organizations, parents, early childhood service providers, city government leaders, and other key stakeholders to help them better support families in preparing children for school. EDI data is also used to support community improvement grants and help local citizens direct resources where they are most needed.
OPEN is taking several steps to institutionalize the work of Ready, Set, Go. The key component of this work is the data collection of Early Development Instrument Data. The critical information the EDI conveys on early development and school readiness has now been incorporated into:
Data Center’s Youth Index;
The development of the Urban League’s State of Black New Orleans at 10;
Training for neighborhood leaders at the city’s annual Neighborhood Summit;
Training to early childhood educators and supported strategies for how to leverage the neighborhood profiles, Parents as First Educators and Community Data report to support young children and their parents
the New Orleans Kids Partnership’s Parent’s as First Teachers Initiative; and
numerous strategic community initiatives to guide communities in taking a holistic approach to community development with children at the center.
