What this program could change for Detroit's youngest kids

Nancy Kaffer | Detroit Free Press

Denise Smith has a lot of work to do.

Smith is the woman the Kresge Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation have tasked to transform early childhood education in Detroit, where an estimated 28,000 kids have no access to the kind of pre-school programs that have become standard in many suburban school districts.

The two foundations dedicated $50 million to the initiative in 2016, and three years later, after surveying an astonishing 18,000 Detroiters, Smith and her Hope Starts Here coalition have a plan to remake early childhood education by 2027.

Smith started working 26 years ago as an in-home daycare provider. She's also served as vice-president at Excellent Schools Detroit, a community, civic and education coalition, and directed the State of Michigan's Great Start to Quality, an online tool to help families find high rated childcare and preschools.

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The Free Press sat down with Smith earlier this week, ahead of a Hope Starts Here summit Nov. 22 at the Marygrove College campus.

Nancy Kaffer: One of Hope Starts Here’s goals is to make Detroit a city that puts children first. What does that mean?

Denise Smith: Viscerally, we can tell that right now this city is responding to a certain demographic, which is young and typically single, who are able to work in the industries that are primarily downtown. So you can see the response to the city wanting that demographic here: scooters, bikes, all of the things that that we see, downtown is alive at night again, and all those other things. I think that similarly we should be able to have safe and inspiring environments and these quality programs for young children and families.

NK: Like how some areas have dog parks but not kid parks …

DS: Exactly right.We need a similar response to young children and families so that they can feel comfortable, and have free and inspiring places for their children to go.

NK: So you're saying there are these visible markers of us prioritizing children, ensuring that amenities that exist for children and that the things that city is investing in ...

DS: When you think about it holistically, you're talking about health and well being. You're talking about infrastructures that exist, and systems that are coordinated and speaking to each other, whether it's health and education, early childhood and K-8, all of those systems need to be better coordinated.

When you think about a stable tax base, it's really a family that provides that stability, because the other demographic can pick up and leave. So if you want a city that's really strong, a city that's going to have a sustainable base, then you need to be responsive to the families who are in it . . .

(We will create) a plan that is working towards very specific outcomes over time. So in three years, in six years, in 10 years, what do we want to see? And what are the activities and indicators that we're moving towards that?

NK: I was really fascinated by your prescription of six things parents should be doing each day with their children — encouragement, talking, reading, hugging, singing and playing. How did you develop that?

DS: Actually it was developed by the parents themselves. It's based on research from Harvard, but it's looking at what just I can do to encourage my child's critical thinking, that makes him be much more curious and responsive.

NK: These are things anyone can do, they don’t need –

DS: Degrees.

NK: Or wealth …

DS: Exactly right. It crosses all demographics, it crosses those social strata. I would love to see more of that emerging and interface and interaction between and across economic strata. So that we begin to have children grow up appreciating difference and really be more empathetic as they become adults.

NK: I was really astounded that 28,000 Detroit kids don't have access to high quality early childhood education. I would have guessed a lot, but not quite that many.

DS: Most of those spots are in the infant-toddler space, which I understand, given the cost of infant-toddler spaces, and then the smaller number in-home.

So those two things compounded make the number harder to actually narrow. If we don't start working on workforce and talent, then everything else that we're doing it will be for naught, because part of that issue with that 28,000-30,000 slot gap is that we don't have the workforce.

How do we prepare this next generation of educators? How to attract them, retain them, and really compensate them for the incredible work they’re doing? That has to be addressed as one of our policy priorities.

NK: If I’m a child care provider, in my home or a small center, and I'm doing the best I can with my resources, I'm always looking to do better, what are the things that you're going to do for me? What are the things I'm going to get?

DS: One of those was the model for coaching for early childhood educators that's being laid out right now ... Educators, especially those who weren't at the higher-rated scale, will be included in this kind of support. Typically in early childhood education, you don't have the same kind of supports that you would in K-12. ... The specialized training that you should have for teachers typically isn't there. So that's managing children with impairments or delays. Most teachers don't have the learning and/or capacity to do that. And so you see those children left out, which is part of what we don't want.

With this coach-based training and support that is now being implemented through Early Childhood Investment Corporation’s Detroit office, they're providing support to all programs, for educators to be able to have this type of quality interactions they should be having with young children . . . They're getting trained on curriculum, they're being supported as to how to actually implement that curriculum and how to have meaningful interactions with their children, but also in between themselves.

NK: If I’m a home daycare provider, how do I …

DS: … plug in? This event that we're having this Friday is the first step in that, and is re-engaging with the community. We’ve invited 400 folks to come to that event to let them know how to get involved. There will be an actual media and communications campaign ... and knocking on door to door to let people know, too. So we'll have feet on the ground, as well as the air game, if you will, through different platforms. (Visit HopeStartsHereDetroit.org for more information.)

NK: Should people who have access to a broad range of programs and a car to get there and they're not living in poverty like 40% of Detroiters, assume that everything is fine?, Or should people in the suburbs be taking a hard look at their early childhood education options?

DS: I would say yes. Do families in those communities have greater access to quality options? Absolutely. But are all of those options quality? If we do the fast-forward to now or even third grade and look at those test scores, then we will have to say that something in the mix is not working, everywhere.

I would say that given our social fabric right now, that there are concerns across the board. I've worked and been to all kinds of places in Michigan ... and I've seen the very stark similarities across this entire state. And they're not all that positive.

More from Nancy Kaffer:

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Nancy Kaffer is a Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.