Virginia Preschool Initiative
VDOE Video Feature Transcript
September 2006

(Narrator)
The Virginia Preschool Initiative was launched in 1995 to serve the thousands of “at-risk” four-year-olds in the commonwealth who were not being served by other programs, such as Head Start. Initially, funding was provided for about 30 percent of un-served, at-risk children. In 2005, the General Assembly expanded the initiative to serve all at-risk four year olds not served by other pre-K programs. Some localities, such as Surry County, supplement initiative funding with local and federal dollars to provide quality pre-K programs for all children in the county.

(Marion H. Wilkins, Superintendent, Surry County Public Schools)
We know that early intervention does pay off. According to the research, and we have seen that in Surry, those students who have gone through the pre-K program tend to do better in kindergarten and on the SOL tests. So our goal is to give those students an early start. Our county officials elected to offer the pre-K program to all students because as you know with the pre-K funding, you only serve those students who are at risk. There also are other students who can benefit from those early services.

(Mark Allen, Division of Instruction, Virginia Department of Education)
There are children who come to kindergarten who may not be as prepared for the kindergarten experiences that will be presented to them because they don’t have a foundation of prior experiences in these areas. So, we have a Virginia Preschool Initiative program in order to build these experiences for these children, especially in the area of literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies. The preschool program is going to provide those experiences for these youngsters.

(Narrator)
Governor Timothy Kaine’s “Start Strong” council is studying how to expand access to high-quality pre-K programs in Virginia. The Governor recently toured the four pre-K classrooms at Surry Elementary School and was impressed by what he saw.

(Governor Timothy M. Kaine)
You walk into one class, and it is using the computer for letters and reading readiness. Walk into the next classroom, and it is using the chalkboard and cardboard cutouts for math. Walk into a third class, and it is kids learning shapes to start some of the building blocks they will need for later math and science. It is a way to give kids information and also get them to a place where they are comfortable in school. Surry Elementary is a fully accredited school, it has made AYP under No Child Left Behind for the last three years, and here they really attribute a lot of it to the fact that the pre-K program has helped kids get ready to learn by the time they hit kindergarten.

(Narrator)
Instruction in Surry’s pre-K classrooms, and in all programs supported by the Virginia Preschool Initiative, is based on Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning, which provides age-appropriate standards for learning in English, mathematics, science, and social studies.

(Mark Allen, Virginia Department of Education)
The foundation blocks show teachers what four-year olds should be able to do and what they should know prior to entering kindergarten. Like a letter stands for a sound, a number stands for a number of objects; it is a continuum right into the kindergarten Standards of Learning.

(Narrator)
Parents remain the first and most important teachers of Virginia’s children but the Virginia Preschool Initiative is now preparing nearly 10 thousand four-year-olds for success in kindergarten, and beyond.