LAKEPORT, Calif. – The First 5 Lake Commission received a report on its 2019 Kindergarten Entry Developmental Profile study at its January meeting, and the results show that a book gifting program founded by country music legend Dolly Parton is helping children get ready for school.

The report was written and presented by evaluation consultant, Crystal Duarte of Social Entrepreneurs Inc. in Reno, Nevada.

Lake County’s Kindergarten Entry Developmental Profile, or KEDP, is a joint effort with Lake County Office of Education and involves a structured process whereby teachers observe the students in their classroom during the first few months of the new school year and then rate each child’s developmental level according to 15 indicators across five skill areas.

Those areas are social/interpersonal, language comprehension and expression, cognitive competence, math skills and literacy skills.

The study has been conducted annually since 2008 and reports are published on the First 5 Lake website and presented at a regular meeting of the First 5 Lake Commission as a way of tracking the school readiness of incoming students and to help guide investments.

In 2019, 12 schools participated in the KEDP with 31 kindergarten and transitional kindergarten, or TK, teachers completing assessments of their students, for a total of 637 children, or 74 percent of all children enrolled in TK and kindergarten in Lake County.

One key finding from the 2019 KEDP was the correlation of increased school readiness with previous participation in the Imagination Library.

The Imagination Library program, founded by Parton in 1990, distributes one free book per month to children from birth to their fifth birthday, regardless of income.

First 5 Lake County has been a major funder of this program for several years in an effort to increase early literacy and provide opportunities for parents to read and bond with their children.

In 2019, 106 of the 520 assessed kindergartners were known to be participating in this program. The study shows that the percentage of developmental indicators rated as “school ready” for students participating in Imagination Library are higher across all five skill areas than those for students who did not participate in the program.

The report cautions that the study’s findings cannot be used to attribute causation, “Although children who participate in Imagination Library had higher percentages of developmental indicators rated as ‘school ready,’ families that are interested in enrolling their children in the program may also be more likely to enroll their children in other activities or engage in more educational activities at home.”

Additional comparisons were made in the report based on previous early childhood education experiences, age, ethnicity, gender, language and school district.

The 2019 ratings continued the trend seen in 2018 with increases in percentages of school readiness across virtually all skill areas for both kindergarten and TK students.

With the highest areas of readiness being Math (65%) and Literacy (58%), and Social/Interpersonal (53%) as the area of least readiness.

The full KEDP report and the presentation slides shared by Social Entrepreneur’s Inc. can be read and downloaded at http://www.firstfivelake.org/reports.php.

While the Imagination Library books are mailed free to children, there is an associated cost to the Lake County Office of Education of $25 per child, per year.

Administered by LCOE, this program is funded by donations from local businesses, community organizations and individuals.

To learn more about enrolling a child in the Imagination Library or supporting the program with your donations, go to https://www.lakecoe.org/Imagination_Library.