...aimed at ensuring that young children enter school ready to learn. A panel of 30 carefully selected early childhood panelists completed 4 rounds of questionnaires designed to develop a prioritized list of key community needs and programs. The panelists identified 39 broad issues and prioritized these in terms of critical importance. Participants also identified key existing assets and needed community efforts to address the highest rated priorities. Several implications for educational intervention and service provision can be drawn from this project. The article may provide a blueprint for others wishing to identify key community needs related to important early childhood issues.

Introduction

Much effort has been expended in developing intervention programs to help improve the early literacy and school readiness skills of young children. These programs have been developed to reach children, parents, child care programs, and the community at large (e.g., Dickinson, 1994; Morrow, 1995). However, before designing and implementing such programs, a critical first step is to assess the specific early literacy and school readiness needs of children, families, and communities. In this way, educators and early childhood service providers will be better able to target local programs for maximum effectiveness. This article illustrates a specific strategy for identifying early literacy and school readiness needs. It is hoped that the process will provide a blueprint for educators, service providers, and policy experts wanting to conduct similar needs assessments before making decisions on implementing new intervention efforts in their communities.

The Ecology of Early Literacy and School Readiness

With the increased demand for accountability and improved student performance on a national level, the issues of school readiness and early literacy have taken on increased importance (Murphey & Burns, 2002). Although school readiness is a sensitive topic among early educators and policy makers across the country, at present, there is no agreed upon definition of school readiness (Saluja, Scott-Little, & Clifford, 2000). However, most agree that readiness includes at least five domains--health and physical development, emotional well-being and social competence, approaches to learning, communication skills, and cognition and general knowledge (National Education Goals Panel, 1992). In addition, early literacy development is one aspect of being ready for school that has garnered much attention, given research indicating that preschoolers' literacy and language abilities may predict their reading achievements in grades one through three (Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994). There is also growing agreement that not only children need to be ready for schools but that schools and communities need to be ready to accommodate the diverse needs and experiences of children and their families (Murphey & Burns, 2002). Therefore, school readiness is not just a child or family issue but a community issue as well.

The foundation for literacy and school success is laid during the early years. During this time, young children develop the skills and attitudes that will help them be successful. Through their daily experiences, children encounter opportunities to develop oral language skills, gain knowledge about the forms and functions of written language, practice their emerging literacy skills, and refine their cognitive and social abilities. Children acquire these skills and knowledge in a variety of formal and informal settings, including the home (Purcell-Gates, 1996; Strickland & Taylor, 1989), child care programs (Bryant, Burchinal, Lau, & Sparling, 1994; Dickinson & Smith, 1994), and other community settings (e.g., Kuby & Aldridge, 2004).

Young children's development does not occur in isolation; rather it takes place in a rich context of direct and indirect influences. Research linking children's developmental outcomes and the environments in which they live supports the importance of recognizing the contexts of children's experience. The ecological theory of child development advanced by Bronfenbrenner (1979) provides a conceptual basis for understanding the broad influences on children's development. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory purports that children develop within a variety of social contexts and that it is important to investigate the interrelationships among the various contexts when studying children's development.

The ecological contexts can be seen as a series of nested spheres (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). At the center are the children themselves. Their unique personal characteristics and experiences will influence the course of their development. The next ecological sphere contains contexts outside children, but ones that have direct influences upon them. The home and family environment, as well as the child care or preschool environment, are two primary contexts that directly influence young children's development. The home context includes interactions between the child, his or her parents, and any siblings and other adults who are present in the home or family unit. The child care or preschool setting is another powerful influence in the lives of many young children, and it includes interactions between the child, his or her peers and preschool teachers, and other adults who are present in the setting. Children also are influenced by other broader contexts, including their neighborhoods and communities, in which educational interventions and services may be offered to support young children and their families. Even culture plays a factor. Children for whom English is a second language frequently start school with no or limited English, and their families may lack the resources and knowledge to help prepare them for school (Barone, 1998).

Within this perspective, identifying early literacy and school readiness needs should encompass the children, family, and community spheres. Children's issues can be seen as those that most directly impact children and, if addressed, would improve their potential success in school. Family issues constitute those issues that impact families with young children, whereby attending to these issues would help parents and families improve the educational outcomes for their children. Finally, community needs are those issues within the community as a whole, and addressing them would benefit the school success of a large number of young children in the community.

In the spirit of an ecological perspective, early literacy and school readiness approaches have taken many forms. Dickinson (1994) and Morrow (1995) have highlighted a wide variety of educational programs. Some programs have targeted children and families, such as parent workshops or home-visitor programs. Other endeavors have targeted child care and school systems as ways of strengthening the educational supports for young children. A number of federal programs, such as Head Start and Even Start, are specifically designed to increase the early literacy and school readiness skills of young, vulnerable children and their parents. Various community groups have initiated early literacy and school readiness programs, including libraries, university outreach programs, service clubs, and nonprofit organizations. Even public television has striven to address early literacy and learning through programs such as Sesame Street, Between the Lions, and Ready To Learn.

Assessing Community Need

Despite the variety of programs that have been developed, not all programs are available in each community. There are still young children and families who have not had access to programs that fit their needs. Before offering new or additional programs, educators and service providers would be best served by assessing the needs of their local community. Needs assessment is the term used to describe efforts at collecting information to guide program and service delivery efforts, and it is the first step in Jacobs' (1988) comprehensive model of planning and evaluation of family service programs. Reviere, Berkowitz, Carter, and Ferguson (1996) define needs assessment as "a systematic and ongoing process of providing usable and useful information about the needs of the target population--to those who can and will utilize it to make judgments about policy and programs" (p. 6).

Two...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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