Legislature(2005 - 2006)CAPITOL 106
03/02/2006 12:00 PM House EDUCATION
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| Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Task Force Presentation | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
March 2, 2006
12:01 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Mark Neuman, Chair
Representative Carl Gatto
Representative Peggy Wilson
Representative Les Gara
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Bob Lynn
Representative Bill Thomas
Representative Woodie Salmon
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative Ethan Berkowitz
Representative Eric Croft
Representative Nancy Dahlstrom
Representative Berta Gardner
Representative Reggie Joule
Representative Mike Kelly
Senator Bettye Davis
Senator Johnny Ellis
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
READY TO READ, READY TO LEARN TASK FORCE PRESENTATION
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
NANCY MURKOWSKI, Chair
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented speakers and members of the Ready
to Read, Ready Learn Alaska Task Force.
ROBERT GRUNEWALD, Associate Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented information on the Perry
Preschool program in Minnesota.
BRIDGETT CHANDLER
Washington State Governor's Early Learning Council
Washington
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented brain research data and the
significance of child brain development.
IRA PERMAN, Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force;
President & CEO, Alaska Humanities Forum
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented information on the Ready to Read,
Ready to Learn Task Force.
DAVID WIGHT, Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a private sector perspective on
early childhood education.
EDNA AHGEAK MACLEAN, Ph.D., Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force;
President Emeritus, Ilisagvik College
Barrow, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented information on early childhood
education issues in Alaska Native rural communities.
CANDACE WINKLER, Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force;
CEO, Child Care Connection
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Discussed the affordability, accessibility,
and quality of early childhood education in Alaska.
JOHN DAVIS, Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force;
Superintendent, Bering Strait School District
Unalakleet, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Requested participation in the effort to
improve early childhood education for all children.
SHARON GAGNON, Ph.D., Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force;
Vice Chair, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) Foundation;
Vice Chair, University of Alaska Foundation
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented ways to improve early childhood
literacy within families.
CATHRYN RASMUSON, Member
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force;
Trustee, Rasmuson Foundation
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented a philanthropic perspective and
explained three elements that would provide a positive impact on
early childhood literacy.
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR MARK NEUMAN called the House Special Committee on
Education meeting to order at 12:01:31 PM. Representatives
Neuman and Wilson were present at the call to order.
Representatives Gara and Gatto arrived as the meeting was in
progress. Representatives Berkowitz, Croft, Dahlstrom, Gardner,
Joule, and Kelly, and Senators Davis and Ellis were also in
attendance.
^READY TO READ, READY TO LEARN TASK FORCE PRESENTATION
12:01:56 PM
CHAIR NEUMAN announced that the only order of business would be
a presentation given by the Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska
Task Force with opening remarks by its chair, Nancy Murkowski.
12:02:50 PM
NANCY MURKOWSKI, Chair, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska
Task Force, introduced the task force members and relayed that
their mission is to reverse the findings indicating that there
are too many Alaskan children entering kindergarten unable to
read and learn.
12:04:04 PM
ROBERT GRUNEWALD, Associate Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of
Minneapolis, informed the committee that he would be explaining
the concepts in an article he co-wrote entitled, "Early
Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public
Return." He relayed that the Federal Reserve Bank of
Minneapolis has a diverse research program which examines those
ingredients necessary for creating a strong economy at the
national, state, and local levels. The quality of the
workforce, he opined, is one of the key ingredients to a growing
economy. He said that "those states that have a high percent of
population with a college degree also tend to be those states
that have ... high per capita income." Furthermore, he noted
that research has shown that there is a 70 percent difference in
wages between workers with a college degree as compared to those
with only a high school degree. He then highlighted, through
PowerPoint slides, the benefits of the 1960's Perry Preschool
study in Michigan in which 123 children from low-income families
were randomly selected to participate in either the preschool or
in a control group and then tracked over a 40-year span. He
explained that those children participating in the preschool not
only received a high-quality daily session at school, but also
had teachers working with the parents at home on parenting
skills. He shared some of the results of the study:
significant differences in school achievement scores, graduation
rates, and a reduced need for special education. Furthermore,
he highlighted that these same students, unlike those in the
control group, were more likely to own their own home, earned
more money in the workforce, more likely to have a savings
account, and were involved in half as many incidences of crime.
He shared additional results of the study on slides entitled,
"Perry Preschool - Estimated Return on Investment," Benefit-Cost
Ratios for Other Longitudinal Studies," and "Lessons Learned
from Research." In conclusion, he listed some of the businesses
that have invested in early childhood education, such as the
Minnesota Business for Early Learning. He said that this
business has partnered with Alaska "to leverage resources from
the private sector from community leaders ... to explore how to
most cost-effectively help Alaskans with early childhood
development."
12:15:12 PM
MS. MURKOWSKI informed the committee that Alaska is one of 12
states that does not have an early childhood development
program.
12:16:09 PM
BRIDGETT CHANDLER, Washington State Governor's Early Learning
Council, acknowledged the "remarkable strides" Alaska has made,
in a short period of time, in pulling together a public-private
partnership to address early childhood development. She
informed the committee that she is here today as a "bridge from
the scientific world" to address the relevancy of neuroscience
findings and its pertinence to the world of economy and human
capital development. She highlighted new technology allowing
one to observe the inside of the brain while it conducts tasks
and shows the rapid development of a child's brain in the first
couple years of life. "Those early circuits that [are]
established are the foundation for all the later learning that
we do in our life," she said. She shared other key findings
with the committee such as: if development needs are not met in
the early years, particularly birth to age one, the child's body
will enter a "stress response system" which is "toxic to
children's brains"; the quality of learning is driven by the
environment and by the key players in a child's life; the
emotional climate surrounding the child is the most important
aspect of development; and compelling research data shows that
infants "can be depressed if not receiving nurturing care and
responsive interactions."
12:25:46 PM
MS. CHANDLER, in response to Chair Neuman, relayed the
importance of parents establishing loving relationships with
their children and understanding that children have much to
communicate long before they learn to speak. She then returned
to highlighting another key finding in brain research which is
that the brain is plastic throughout life but more critically so
in the early years. In conclusion, she informed the committee
that in the state of Washington, legislation was drafted to
create a new Department of Early Learning in an effort to
consolidate childhood programs in a variety of departments.
12:31:15 PM
REPRESENTATIVE WILSON, in noting the cultural differences
[within Alaska], questioned how some parents could be taught to
change their methods of communication with their children.
MS. CHANDLER suggested to start by building on the strengths and
focusing on the literacy traditions each culture and family has
to offer. "It is that phonemic awareness, that knowledge of an
experience with sounds in infancy, ... not how many books you've
been read, that predicts your later success in school in
reading," she said.
12:34:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GARA questioned Mr. Grunewald regarding the
component of the Perry Preschool program which involved staff
visiting parents to encourage their involvement in early
childhood education. He asked what the benefits of including
this component would be.
MR. GRUNEWALD said studies have shown that a consistent
component of successful preschool programs are ones that either
have a home-visiting program encouraging parental involvement or
ones that have a parent education component at the center. He
referred to Ms. Chandler's earlier mention of parents being the
child's first teacher and opined that including parents in a
child's activities is an important element to early education.
MS. MURKOWSKI, remarked that Headstart has a family-visiting
component included in its program; however, only 100 out of 300
villages in Alaska have the Headstart program.
12:36:56 PM
IRA PERMAN, Member, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task
Force; President & CEO, Alaska Humanities Forum, informed the
committee he and Melinda Myers serve as staff for the task
force. Through a PowerPoint slide presentation, he provided the
committee with early childhood information pertinent to Alaska.
He relayed that there are approximately 55,000 children in
Alaska who fall within the early childhood years from birth to
roughly five years old. He noted that it's been determined many
of these children enter the school system unprepared to read or
learn and that kindergarten teachers can usually predict, within
the first week of school, where students will "end up" by the
time they graduate from high school. He highlighted that
beginning in 2002, kindergarten teachers are now required to do
developmental profiles of their students within the first week
of school to assess desired behaviors of each in specific areas.
Profile results, he said, show low percentages in categories
such as listening, emergent reading, emergent writing, and
problem solving - percentages that are declining each year. He
concluded that those kids who come to school behind, tend to
stay behind, and those kids ready to read and ready to learn are
the ones who succeed in school and in life.
12:42:39 PM
DAVID WIGHT, Member, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task
Force, informed the committee that he formerly served as
president and CEO of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and has
had more than 40 years in the energy business. He noted how an
effective early learning system could improve three essential
ingredients in the business world: effectiveness of employees,
retention of those employees, and future replacement of
employees by hiring more qualified, educated workers within the
state.
12:45:50 PM
EDNA AHGEAK MACLEAN, Ph.D., Member, Ready to Read, Ready to
Learn Alaska Task Force; President Emeritus, Ilisagvik College,
provided the committee with a PowerPoint slide presentation
focusing on four issues of Native Alaska rural communities:
lack of meaningful parental involvement in schools; retention of
teachers and administrators, largely hired from the Lower 48,
who do not have a vested interest in the [Alaska Native]
communities; lack of culturally relevant curriculum; and too few
Alaska Native students succeeding in schools. She expressed her
belief that the number one priority for parents is to see their
children succeed in school. She also noted that factors such as
rejection of [Alaska Native] language and knowledge, and removal
of children from schools "has left a great deal of resentment
towards the school by many of our parents and our communities."
She said that although many of the parents did not stop this
from happening, they are now becoming participants in finding
ways to help their children succeed in schools. She also
pointed out that many teachers are unsure of how to use parent
help in the classroom. Additionally, she explained how honoring
the ancestral language in schools can make students feel better
toward the schooling process. She described the practices of
parents with their young children in Alaska Native homes prior
to the introduction of schools - many practices which stopped
once parents were encouraged to not speak the native language at
home so children might better learn English. She expressed her
wish to see the return of these practices and to see involvement
of local, state, and federal organizations in providing access
to quality, early childhood education in both rural and urban
communities.
12:53:31 PM
CHAIR NEUMAN interjected to recognize and commend those schools
in Alaska that do participate in early education opportunities.
He asked Dr. MacLean how the [state] could help ensure that
parents teach cultural traditions.
DR. MACLEAN explained that in reading to their children and
teaching them how to interact with a book, parents might wish to
do so in their native language. She opined that development of
more culturally relevant materials in that particular language
is then needed in homes. Furthermore, she said that for those
parents with no access to early childhood learning materials,
outside help from experts or resource materials are needed.
12:56:05 PM
CANDACE WINKLER, Member, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska
Task Force; CEO, Child Care Connection, informed the committee
that the organization has a network of agencies throughout the
state that consult and train parents and childcare providers.
She discussed three components of early childhood education in
Alaska: accessibility, affordability, and quality. In regard
to accessibility, she said that there are only 22,000 spaces in
licensed or certified programs accessible to about 46,000
children under the age of six, having all parents in the
workforce which leaves some of the children in informal, unsafe
childcare situations. She then listed the average cost of
childcare for infants and four-year olds in Alaska and how it
often doubles the cost of college tuition without providing the
same scholarship opportunities or years of saving opportunities.
On a national level, from a report entitled, "Breaking the Piggy
Bank: [Parents and the High Price of Child Care]," she said it
was determined that the cost of childcare for two children - one
infant and one preschool-aged child - is more than the average
rental payment and yet equal to the average mortgage payment for
those who own their homes. With regard to the final component
of early childhood education, she relayed that the number one
factor in determining the quality of a program is teacher
training and retention, and a second factor is family
involvement. Factors such as low wages contribute to high
turnover rates, she explained, and the younger the child, the
more impact the turnover has. She suggested that solutions in
other states be considered such as implementing a quality rating
system and investing in teacher training and retention.
1:03:53 PM
JOHN DAVIS, Member, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task
Force; Superintendent, Bering Strait School District, and former
president of the Alaska Association of School Administrators
(AASA), asked for participation in the challenge of how to
"educate those who are most in need of education." He opined
that the issue is not determining who will do well but rather to
ensure that everyone does well. "We all prosper when that
happens," he said. He also expressed his belief that many of
the recent efforts at educational reform are misguided and "are
not going to lead us to where we want to be." He concluded by
reiterating his request for participation in the effort to
address early childhood education.
1:09:36 PM
CHAIR NEUMAN announced that future meetings with committee
members and various members of the Ready to Read, Ready to Learn
Alaska Task Force members would be arranged and welcomed.
1:10:02 PM
SHARON GAGNON, Ph.D., Member, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn
Alaska Task Force; Vice Chair, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI)
Foundation; Vice Chair, University of Alaska Foundation,
informed the committee of the former positions she's held:
chair of the Alaska Humanities Forum; president of the Board of
Regents of the University of Alaska; and president of the Board
of Overseers of Harvard. All these positions, in addition to
being a grandmother, have contributed to her being "more than
interested in the whole concept of early childhood literacy,"
she said. The family, she opined, has the greatest influence on
a child which is why she is most interested in family literacy.
She poised the question as to how to promote important literacy
skills to those families who need help in interacting with their
children. She listed Even Start and Head Start as existing
family literacy programs in Alaska. Other states have programs
such as Prime Time, which works through the library systems, or
the Mother Read/Father Read program which involves training the
parents. She expressed her belief that one important role of
the Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska Task Force would be to
work with the state and other entities to explore the variety of
available family literacy programs in other states and then
determine how to implement them.
1:14:38 PM
CATHRYN RASMUSON, Member, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Alaska
Task Force; Trustee, Rasmuson Foundation, shared with the
committee the three elements that would impact early childhood
literacy: coordination between business, state, and federal
programs; collaboration among businesses and various foundations
to help finance projects; and engaging communities. She listed
several Alaskan communities that have received grants from the
Rasmuson Foundation to help preschool programs and libraries.
She also noted that foundations outside Alaska have, upon
invitation, "brought in millions of dollars to various [Alaska]
communities and non-profit organizations."
CHAIR NEUMAN expressed his appreciation for all the work done by
the Rasmuson Foundation throughout Alaska.
1:19:39 PM
MS. MURKOWSKI opened the meeting to questions.
CHAIR NEUMAN reminded the committee that the task force would
also be presenting at the House Health, Education and Social
Services Standing Committee later that day. He also announced
that Stephanie Clothier, from the National Conference of State
Legislators, would be presenting information to the House
Special Committee on Education next week on what other states
are doing in the early childhood arena.
REPRESENTATIVE DAHLSTROM, Alaska State Legislature, expressed
her thanks to the task force for their work.
MS. MURKOWSKI said there is more work to do. She clarified that
the task force's mission is to not only ensure that children are
ready to read, but ready to learn as well.
CHAIR NEUMAN thanked Ms. Murkowski and the presenters for their
involvement in education.
1:23:35 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Education meeting was adjourned at 12:23
p.m.
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