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Wilson said when it came to recruiting teachers, many came from across the spectrum K-5, each <br />wanting to be a part of the program bringing a passion of helping kids get ready for their grade school <br />career. <br />Wilson said involving parents in an informational session was also key to making the students successful. <br />“We wanted to provide parents with specific questions to engage in meaningful conversation with their <br />kids about the learning that was taking place and also use that as an opportunity to provide them with <br />strategies that could then be intertwined to their daily activities—utilize that time traveling in a car and <br />reading a book at night before they went to sleep and questions to go a long with that text,” she said. <br />Wilson said part of the goal was inspiring children to want to learn. <br />“We wanted those children to develop a love of learning and feel successful because they were going to <br />be successful when they came to New Hope,” she said. “Now that these children are at New Hope and I <br />see their shining faces everyday, it’s funny because I’ll ask them, ‘Who was your teacher last year?’ and <br />you know they count last year as summer camp. … It’s developing that passion in our kids and our <br />teachers.” <br />Wilson said she’s starting to collect data on children involved in the program. <br />“We are beginning to track data on these children as we move into the beginning of the year <br />assessments,” she said. “So I’m beginning to compile that data so I can look and see is this an alignment <br />with the assessments that we used in the summer program? Are we seeing this carryover into the <br />assessment that we use throughout the school year? I will continue to monitor the data on the children <br />that were in the program as well as the students who did not participate that were invited, so we’ll still <br />have that controlled group to monitor.” <br />Magda Parvey, assistant superintendent for Instructional Services for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, <br />said the district has been working on an achievement gap for some time. <br />“And we feel like the kindergarten readiness program really aligns very nicely with the work that we’re <br />doing in addressing the achievement gap, specifically in terms of pre-teaching and preparing students in <br />advance of being in school,” Parvey said. “It aligns very much with our K-12 initiatives in terms of <br />strategies that are evidence based. So we really appreciated the ‘it takes a village’ approach that the <br />Family Success Alliance provided and we’re really honored to be a part of that. <br />“The gains that Mr. Stiener and Mr. Lanier have talked about really mean a lot to students. We’re talking <br />about not only kindergarten readiness, but also college and career readiness, putting them on the right <br />trajectory for success in school. It starts with kindergarten readiness.” <br />From the parents’ perspective <br />Claudia Yerena and Eddye Morrison know about the success of the kindergarten readiness program first <br />hand.