Program helps preschoolers become kindergarten ready

MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio - When Markese Moss enters kindergarten this fall, his mother is confident  he'll be ready. "He's reading words," Erica Horne said. "He's sounding out vowels, syllables."

Markese participates in the SPARK pilot program at Raymond School in Maple Heights.  SPARK, which stands for Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids, provides monthly home tutoring for preschoolers to improve their readiness for kindergarten.

Bob Paponetti, executive director of the Literacy Cooperative which sponsors SPARK, said many children enter kindergarten unprepared in areas like recognition of letters and rhyming words. Some never catch up.

However, he said annual kindergarten readiness test scores improved in Canton after children there enrolled in SPARK. "And further what we found is by the time the children hit third grade they are performing better on Ohio Achievement Tests than their peers who did not particpate in SPARK," he said.

In addition to Raymond School in Maple Heights, there are SPARK pilot programs at three schools in both Cleveland and Cleveland Heights.

For a list of kindergarten readiness test results district by district go to the website here .