Tribal students get boost from pilot program
ANADARKO, Okla. - A recent expansion in Oklahoma's Pilot Early Childhood Program has allowed Oklahoma child care facilities throughout the state to expand educational opportunities for children from birth to age 3 who come from low-income families. Created by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2006, the facilities eligible to apply for this program include day care centers with a three-star rating from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services or those applying for the three-star rating.
Originally slated for Head Start programs, the pilot program was expanded in part by a grant from the George Kaiser Family Foundation, with matching funds from private donors. According to reports, the amount donated by the Kaiser Foundation was $9.3 million for the first year and a pledged $11 million for the second year.
One of the recipients to the program is the Cherokee Nation, which also donated $80,000 towards the program. Its Tahlequah-based Cherokee Nation Child Development Center was selected for the program, based in part on their national accreditation. Criteria for the program selection also included times of operation and the provision of services through the calendar year.
According to Laurie Hand, director of the Cherokee Nation Child Care and Development Center, the pilot program's curriculum is both creative and assessment-based, in which teachers develop a portfolio for the child and track the student's progress before a student enters kindergarten.
Cherokee cultural and language components that are currently either being used or developed by the Cherokee child care program begin with Cherokee words by labeling toys and classroom objects in Cherokee.
''We try to incorporate a few Cherokee words during the week,'' said child care development manager Deanna O'Laughlin. She also said that cultural items such as Cherokee baskets, turtle-shell rattles and flutes are also on display in each of the rooms.
Language programs targeted for pre-kindergarten that are also used by the Cherokee Nation include paying home-based day care providers fluent in Cherokee to use the language with the children in their care to provide them with educational resources.
''We've identified fluent speakers, and we're paying them an additional incentive if they'll work with the children during part of the day in the Cherokee language,'' Hand said.
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She said that there are also ''play and learn groups'' in which parents and day care providers bring their children to meet with two Cherokee language teachers for two hours a day and two days per week to participate in language and cultural activities, including games and Cherokee songs. Currently, there is one group that meets in Tahlequah, two that meet in Stilwell and one that meets in the Sequoyah County area.
Furthermore, the Cherokee Nation is working with a company that develops early childhood products to make resource and language kits that are Cherokee-specific.
''Our intention is any child care provider could use it, whether they speak Cherokee or don't,'' Hand said. ''It gives them enough information to be able to take a kit and use it in their classroom.''
In order to prevent the kits from being used only at Thanksgiving, they are being designed to be cross-curricular and used year-round. One of these science components, called ''Growing Things,'' is written to focus on the Three Sisters - the traditional foods of corn, beans and squash.
Hand said this program is the first time that there has been a major investment in child care by the state of Oklahoma and said she has ''no doubt as to the future success of the program.''
A written statement from the Cherokee Nation used statistics that Hand said came from Smart Start Oklahoma, the state's early childhood initiative program, and indicated that 90 percent of brain development occurs before a child enters kindergarten. That statistic is one of the reasons behind implementing the pilot program.
A document published by the National Academy of Sciences titled ''From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development,'' found on the Oklahoma Smart Start Web site, notes that a desperate need exists to place more emphasis on the importance of child care development. It also said that there were ''striking disparities'' in child care development along economic and social lines that influenced a child's future academic performance.
''Redressing these disparities is critical,'' the report reads, ''both for the children whose life opportunities are at stake and for a society whose goals demand that children be prepared to begin school, achieve academic success and ultimately sustain economic independence and engage constructively with others as adult citizens.''
Another Oklahoma tribe accepted into the pilot program is the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, whose tribal complex is located in Red Rock, has 1,440 enrolled members. The tribe currently has its own Head Start program and provides day care assistance to local communities. Tribal chairman John Shotton said that the Otoe-Missouria is currently in the process of creating an onsite day care, with construction beginning March 1 by remodeling its Elder Center and the day care is scheduled to open in early May. Shotton also said that the tribe gave $175,000 to match Kaiser Foundation funds toward the pilot program.
