BALDWIN COUNTY, Ga. — At Baldwin County Early Learning Center, students are getting a head start on reading. The children at the school range from infants to Pre-K, and the school puts books in front of students as young as two.
And because of the county's Ferst Readers Program, they go home with books too. The Walmart in Milledgeville granted the school district $1,500 to help Ferst Readers with the push for early reading too.
Each month of the school year, almost every student will get a free book to take home.
“What's really important for teaching a child how to read is phonological awareness,” she said. “Also making sure they know their letter names, their letter sounds and having them blend them together.”
Ferst Readers program chair Jemeria Cummings said if young students don't have books to read at home, they could struggle later.
"What happens is they become two or three years behind everyone else and if they don't start to learn from there, then most of them drop out,” Cummings said. “There's a high dropout rate from those who do not know their um those early language skills."
The Baldwin County School District said pushing literacy is one way to keep their drop-out rate low. The Ferst Readers program provides enough age-appropriate books for the school so almost every student can go home with one in their backpack.
Early Learning Center Director Wanda Stewart said the students take the Bracken Test within their first 30 days of school. That helps the school understand what areas they need to work on.
"If a child comes in already knowing alphabets, there's not a whole lot of need for us to try to teach them alphabet,” Stewart said. “We take them to the next level."
Cummings said the key to that next level is parents helping students from home.
"Even if the parents are struggling to read the books to them, just having those pictures and having conversations about the books also helps to build that language as well," Cummings said.
Students learn about the words that describe their emotions at the Early Learning Center too.
“We require our teachers to do two social emotional lessons because our kids are just coming in,” Stewart said. “This is their first time being in, for a lot of them, not all of them, being in this type of setting. So, one of the first things we want to teach them is how to express themselves,”
According to Baldwin County's most recent Milestones Test results, reading status increased in all grade levels but sixth grade.
The district said all teachers in grades K-3 will have to complete literacy training by next June. To learn more about the Ferst Readers program and how to donate to it, visit the website.