EDUCATION Early learning priority

The secretary told preschool educators they are a model for Pennsylvania.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Dr. Vicki L. Phillips may be leaving her post as Pennsylvania secretary of education in August, but she said the state's recent emphasis on fostering preschool education will continue.
Phillips visited the Farrell Area School District and later met Wednesday with 28 area school superintendents at the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV offices in Grove City.
She's leaving her post to take the reins of a 53,000-student school district in Portland, Ore., in August but said Gov. Ed Rendell shares her passion for preschool education and will appoint a new secretary with the same goals.
Phillips said she chose to visit Farrell because it is a district really working hard to provide programs for students in difficult circumstances.
Farrell is number four on the state's list of poorest districts out of the 501 districts in Pennsylvania, she said.
Plus, those in Harrisburg can't do their jobs if they can't see the full array of what people are doing in the field, she said.
State leader
Farrell has been a state leader in preschool education, and Phillips and other officials visited the district's John Hetra Early Childhood Center. In one classroom, she joined about 25 kindergarten students sitting on the floor to participate in a learning exercise.
Superintendent Richard Rubano pointed out that Farrell has been a leader in preschool education for 38 years. Farrell started the first kindergarten for 4-year-olds in the state.
"I think that's great," Phillips said, adding that she was both impressed and concerned with what the district has done to provide children with what they need in an early learning setting.
"You guys are such a great model for what we want to do across Pennsylvania," she told the Hetra staff.
Phillips said the state is running 17 early-childhood institutes this summer and is working on the development of an early-learning profile program to find children in need of early educational assistance as young as 3.
She met with the preschool literacy coaches who work with teachers to develop the reading skills of students.
Pennsylvania is looking at creating a statewide educational coaching program, she said.
Phillips said she is always heartened by the dedication and commitment of educators in the field but remains dismayed by how little the state sometimes does to help them.