Pottstown program aims for peak performance in kindergarten

Soon after Victoria Dransoff and her partner became foster parents to a 4-year-old boy named Rory last year, they started to worry that he would not be ready to start kindergarten this year.

Rory, who had already lived in several foster homes by the time he arrived at Dransoff's home in Pottstown, was so uncoordinated he frequently tripped over his own feet. His vocabulary was limited, and he had a hard time articulating his words well enough to be understood.

But with the intervention of a unique collaboration of public and private partners known as Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness, Rory is set to start kindergarten in the fall. Among the partners in PEAK are the Pottstown School District, local early child-care providers, and the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Today, Rory can count to 100, knows the alphabet, plays team sports, and has made major progress in his behavioral problems, Dransoff said. She believes PEAK is largely responsible for many of the improvements.

"We've been very grateful that the program has been available, because for a kid like Rory, I think he would have really had issues going into kindergarten," said Dransoff, a teacher at an alternative school.

Hundreds of children in Pottstown have benefited from PEAK, which tries to ensure that every child, regardless of circumstance, is prepared for kindergarten. Now five years old, the program relies on public and private funding to help pay for prekindergarten, a battery of health screenings, therapists for children who need help, teacher training, and other efforts.

Harriet Dichter, national director of the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit that aims to improve federal policy for early education, is among those who have praised the program.

"Pottstown PEAK has raised the standards, performance, and impact of all of the early-education programs," Dichter said. "They have embraced accountability for the public resources, showing great results for the children, and winning well-deserved kudos from the parents and early-childhood, school, business, and civic leaders."

According to the Pottstown School District, PEAK has already created noticeable changes in kindergarten readiness. The percentage of children entering kindergarten with adequate literacy skills has increased from 45 percent to 56 percent since 2006-07, for example.