Ohio’s children need help earlier in life to succeed | Shannon Jones

I’ve been reading about the disappointment around the academic progress of children at Akron Public Schools’ I Promise School. I’m not surprised by the test scores — notwithstanding the excruciatingly hard work that has gone into helping the children succeed.

Frankly, no one should be surprised that the progress reports aren’t what families and the Akron community hoped for when the LeBron James Family Foundation generously stepped up to help fund the school and give back to his hometown.

The I Promise School serves students who are at least two years behind, beginning in third grade and continuing through eighth grade. But “discovering” children when they are 8 or 9, and then putting them in small classes, extending the school day and providing special support to them and their families is too late. The chance to ensure their brains and bodies were developing on track happened long ago.

All the brain research tells us that children’s brains grow the fastest between birth to 5. The way to set children up for success is to invest in them during these early years. That’s when the foundation for their later learning is being set.

If pregnant mothers don’t have access to quality prenatal care; if their babies don’t have enriching and nurturing early experiences, including quality child care and preschool; if young children don’t get good medical care and eat healthy, they’re not going to develop on track and to their full potential. If they are subjected to trauma — lack of bonding, abuse, exposure to violence — then their development is likely to be especially arrested.

The best schools, the best teachers, the best wrap-around services for families can help, but when children miss out in the early years, they’ll invariably be playing catch-up for a long time.

What the Akron community and especially James — an immensely successful entrepreneur, a legendary sports icon and an incredible philanthropist — is doing deserves to be celebrated. Children who’ve not gotten what they deserved as babies, toddlers and preschoolers need us to give them extra attention. But blaming the I Promise School, turnover in its leadership and teachers or any other form of finger-pointing is getting the performance problem — and the solution — wrong.

Showering interventions on children in third grade and beyond is like trying to stop a train wreck moments before impact. It’s like asking a runner to win a marathon without ever training. It’s like trying to fly without wings.

We can’t expect philanthropists — no matter how deep their pockets or how big their hearts — to build a system that invests in families and our youngest children. It’s on us — as citizens and voters — to hold our political leaders accountable for doing so. We have to make sure they support and fund:

• Affordable, equitable and accessible prenatal care so all babies get a healthy start.

• Affordable, equitable and accessible high-quality child care and early learning to ensure children begin kindergarten on track, not behind.

• Living wages for the dedicated people — mostly women — who care for and teach young children so families can work and be financially independent.

Doing all these things takes a partnership. Local communities and philanthropists aren’t off the hook for supporting good ideas and intentions like the I Promise School. But they can’t be the only or biggest drivers behind a moral imperative.

Our federal and state governments are failing kids. And they should be leading the way to lift up young children.

• Why is it that the United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates among developed countries?

• Why is it that Ohio provides less child care assistance for infants to age 5 than any state in the country?

If we really want children to succeed in school and in life, we need to show that from the start and stop expecting schools and teachers to belatedly make up for what we failed to do in the earliest years.

Shannon Jones is the president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, an advocacy organization for families and young children. She is a former state senator.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio’s children need help earlier in life to succeed