District ahead of preschool curve

California preschool enrollment isn’t reaching the kids who need it most, a new study says, but the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s children are flying ahead of the curve.

A study from the RAND Corporation shows that 59% of children in California attend preschool either through a public or private program, and the majority who don’t attend are in low socioeconomic demographics.

Previous research has shown that a preschool education can give children an advantage both socially and in academics when entering kindergarten. Many school districts have begun to create programs for preschool education, something that was previously offered mostly at private schools.

But Newport-Mesa has excelled in comparison to the average, with 85% of its students who entered kindergarten this year having had a preschool education through a district program or private center, according to a district survey.

“We are very proactive in putting pieces in place to make sure we offer programming that is accessible to children who have the most barriers and that our programs strive for the highest quality,” said Lorie Hoggard, director of early childhood education for the district.

The numbers vary throughout district zones, with Newport Beach’s numbers higher than Costa Mesa’s, but both remain well above the state average presented by the RAND study.

Due to support from the community and the popularity of the programs, the district has been expanding its preschool program yearly and will continue to do so in 2008-09, Hoggard said.

Some of the elementary schools with the lowest enrollment for preschool, such as Wilson, Sonora and Pomona, are all expanding their programs next year to incorporate more children, Hoggard said.

On the survey, one of the most common answers for children not attending was that space wasn’t available. The other most common response was parents wanted to keep their child at home until kindergarten.

Another concern presented in the RAND study was the amount of students taught by teachers without a bachelor’s degree.

Only one in four preschool students were taught by a teacher with the degree, while two-thirds were taught by educators with an associate’s degree.

In Newport-Mesa, 13 of the 18 preschool classrooms were taught by teachers with bachelor’s degrees and the other five are working on getting that degree, Hoggard said.

“We are really proud of the education level of our preschool teachers,” Hoggard said.

STATISTICS

Percentage of 2007-08 kindergarten students who attended preschool:

Corona del Mar zone: 96.5%

Newport Harbor zone: 90%

Estancia zone: 74%

Costa Mesa zone: 755

Schools with highest percentages of 2007-08 kindergarten students who did not attend preschool:

Killybrooke: 41%

Adams: 38%

Wilson: 31%

College Park: 26%

Sonora: 24%

Victoria: 23%

Pomona: 21%

Schools with highest numbers of 2007-08 kindergarten students who did not attend preschool:

Wilson: 31 students

College Park: 26 students

Adams: 22 students

Pomona: 21 students

Whittier: 21 students

Killybrooke: 18 students

Sonora: 18 students

All numbers according to Newport-Mesa Unified School District survey

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.