Braulio Colon, assistant director of ENLACE Florida, an organization created to get more under-represented student groups into college, is our guest blogger today. He focuses on the important role of education before kindergarten in narrowing the achievement gap. Here's what he has to say:

"In the U.S. today, one out of every three kindergarteners walking into a classroom for the very first time is unprepared to begin learning at grade level; for Hispanics and African Americans I suspect the ratio is much more daunting. Annually, this equates to millions launching their scholastic career already behind their peers and more than 200,000 students repeating kindergarten because they lack the pre-academic fundamentals required to engage in formal reading instruction (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2008).

Unfortunately, research demonstrates that this group is more likely to remain academically behind through middle school and is three to four times more likely to drop out of high school in later years. 

In this age of global competition, more and more jobs require some form of post-secondary education.  Given that dramatic increases in the Hispanic and African American student populations has increased to the extent that minority students already constitute a majority in many school districts and states, there is no greater long-term challenge facing our country today than that of eliminating the achievement gap and ensuring more minority children graduate from high school ready to pursue a postsecondary education.

Eliminating the achievement gap, the persistent disparity in
educational achievement and attainment among groups of students, first
requires universal consensus on its origin. The achievement gap does
not originate in, nor is it produced by our K-12 public school system;
rather, it's brought into the classrooms of our nation where it is then
measured and studied, and where teachers are held accountable to how
successful they are in closing it.

If America is going to effectively
compete in the 21st century, we need to eliminate the gap before it
ever reaches kindergarten. We should not wait to intervene and fix
deficits in education. School districts, public libraries, community
organizations, and education leaders should be actively involved in
working with parents and their young children raising awareness of the
importance of early literacy and increasing access to early learning
opportunities.

In Hillsborough County, Florida, the community is doing exactly
that.

In 2006, several local agencies came together in an effort to
improve kindergarten readiness by increasing the number of
age-appropriate books in the homes of young children and improving
parental involvement in early education. The partnership includes
organizations like the Hillsborough County Public Library Consortium,
Children's Board of Hillsborough County, United Way of Tampa Bay , Head
Start, Early Head Start, Healthy Start, U.S. Postal Service, School
District of Hillsborough County, University of South Florida , and the
Dollywood Foundation. Known as the Imagination Library of Hillsborough
County, this program mails a new, age-appropriate book to young
children every month until they turn five years of age.  In addition,
the program offers workshops for parents, providing practical advice on
how to read with their young children and how to transform day-to-day
activities into early learning opportunities. 

Today, over 5,000 children are enrolled in the early literacy program
with more parents signing up their children everyday. What is
important to note here is this community's choice to recognize a
problem, and proactively implement a comprehensive solution that should
prove to be effective.

All major cities in the U.S. share the kindergarten readiness problem
and therefore should mimic Hillsborough County's reaction to it — a
reaction that does not duplicate services, but rather supplements state
and federal attempts to service the pre-K population.

Investing in
such programs designed to transform culture and enrich early learning
within the homes of our young children, coupled with equitable access
to high quality pre-K programs is the key to eliminating the
achievement gap and ensuring that all children enter kindergarten
prepared and ready to learn.

Educators and organizations focused on improving college readiness in
our public school systems rarely focus on early literacy programs. However, evidence shows that the achievement gap exists in
kindergarten, which means, from a policy perspective, that our efforts
should concentrate on eliminating it at its inception, before the gap
widens to the extent that it becomes irremediable. ENLACE FLORIDA, a
statewide initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to promote
college readiness, access, and success, believes that we must open a
path to college to every student. That path can be opened to more
students by promoting early literacy."