Ready Set Succeed is a community-wide approach to the kindergarten transition. This approach will engage community partners, preschools, elementary schools, preschool and kindergarten educators and teaching teams, families, and 4-year-old children. Ready Set Succeed strategically provides tailored content to each key partner in a child’s life (families, educators, school administrators, and the broader community) to support a more culturally responsive transition to kindergarten. With a major focus on racial equity and elevating and amplifying the voices of Black families, Ready Set Succeed will change the ways families experience the transition from preschool to kindergarten in Flint.
The Flint Center for Educational Excellence, in partnership with Harmony Research, LLC, American Institutes for Research (AIR), and HighScope Educational Research Foundation will co-create the new approach to kindergarten transitions and test the extent to which it changes policy, practice, and outcomes for schools, families, and children in Flint.
The initiative includes six components strategically created to engage all important adults in a scholar’s life—community partners, families, educators, school leaders— as well as the scholars themselves, to all be ready for the kindergarten transition.
- Culturally Responsive Training and Coaching for teachers and school leaders, focused on addressing racial bias and building culturally responsive classrooms.
- Building Bridges meetings to bring Pre-K and kindergarten teachers together around the theme of kindergarten-readiness (ready children, ready schools, and ready families).
- Family visits to support school-family partnerships in preparation for the transition into elementary school.
- Community Conversations to foster community-wide support for the kindergarten transition.
- Buddy Visits to introduce Pre-K children to elementary schools and their future peers.
- Family engagement and advocacy sessions to support parents as they advocate for their children during and after the kindergarten transition.
As a result of this intervention, we expect to see greater collaboration between prekindergarten and K-12 in Flint; more culturally competent instruction and practice; increased school readiness and positive racial identity; and improved advocacy skills for Black families.
To learn more or get involved, contact Jalen Nunn, Early Childhood Special Projects Manager, at jnunn@theflintcenter.org or 810.600.5458.
