Why Early Learners Need Community Investment To Succeed

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demographics in Pre-K and Kindergarten are shifting. This is leaving an enrollment bubble as students head back to class in Fall 2021. A strain will be placed on the educators and the community. Some services will also be needed in order to support students, including community investment.

On this episode of Marketscale TV, B2B Media Producer Hilary Kennedy talked with Ronald Chaluisán, Executive Director of Newark Trust for Education. The pair spoke about the trust and its history of supporting public education initiatives through investments and partnerships. They also dug into building community investment around effective collaboration to support early learners and what the Newark Trust is doing to help.

“What’s happening in kindergarten is very representative of what’s happening in the system as a whole,” Chaluisán said. “In kindergarten, we have young children aged zero to six … it’s so important for them on the socialization side and emotional side.”

COVID-19 put a damper on Pre-K and kindergarten enrollment, which will lead to a significant shift in demographics. According to an NPR survey, school districts across the U.S. saw a 16 percent drop in enrollment in the Fall of 2020. New compiled research from NWEA will see these demographics shifts lead to age disparities, in-class preparedness, and classroom size.

“We have to acknowledge the fact we’re really bringing them to a new place,” Chaluisán said, of how the community and educators can work students back into the classroom. “With any change, whenever it’s a change for a young child, you want to prepare them.”

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