Family School Readiness Program

Program Overview

The Learning Collaborative (TLC) provides a tuition-free, high-quality preschool education to at-risk families through a unique partnership with our children,families, parents, staff and community. We do this by supporting children's educational and social development in the classroom to prepare them for kindergarten and beyond, while also supporting families in learning how best to help their children grow at home. This includes not only helping parents learn to support their children's academic, behavioral and social development, but also how to gain self-sufficiency as individuals and develop ways of connecting their families to the community – critical pieces that are not always targeted in parent education programs.We collaborate directly with parents to help them define their family challenges and to bring resources to them through weekly parent workshops focused on three areas: 1) self-sufficiency, 2)connecting with the community, and 3) parenting. We are pleased to have developed partnerships with Southeast Psychology, Discovery Place, Carolinas Healthcare Systems, United Way, Crossroads Corporation and others in helping us to deliver these workshops. Recent topics have included tips on stress reduction, development in children. Parents are also required to volunteer in the classroom or the school for 7 hours each month in order to learn how best to support their children's growth from the modeling provided by the teachers.

We have found success delivering an evidence-based parenting program called Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) for the past 3 years. Parents of our pre-K children complete a 10-week group
and individual coaching program.

Goal #1 –. We measure our children's pre-academic skills using the Speed DIAL-4 (Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning – 4th edition), a norm-referenced tool that allows us to identify potential delays and compare our children's growth against expected norms.

Goal #2 - We expect that 80% of parent-child dyads will show improvement on at least 8 of the 12 subscales of the Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale (KIPS).The KIPS is coded by an
independent evaluator and yields data on 12 areas of parent-child interaction such as the parent's sensitivity, engagement in language experiences, ability to set limits & consequences.

Cost Info