San Francisco is reducing the achievement gap of low-income students by connecting preschool and elementary school instruction. To make this significant shift, the district took on a list of pivotal tasks, including coordinating curriculum and professional development for teachers of pre-K – 3rd grade, bringing pre-K programs under the authority of elementary school principals, and building kindergarten readiness measures from scratch. Bridging pre-K and elementary education was a complex journey for San Francisco, as chronicled in a July 2015 case study published by the Evelyn & Walter Hass Jr. Fund.
“What we are talking about fundamentally is that too many of our children enter preschool with no books in their home, living in high crime neighborhoods where parents are struggling to make ends meet. We are trying to impact that child before he or she ever crosses over our kindergarten threshold.„
The Power of a Good Idea: How San Francisco School District is Building a PreK – 3rd Grade Bridge
July 2015
Published by: Evelyn & Walter Hass Jr. Fund