By We believe that all families want their children to get the highest quality education so that they can realize their full potential. And while most children attend public schools, funding for public education doesn’t always meet the needs and demands of our youngest learners.
But Grand Rapids understands that its future depends on the well-being of its children.
In 2024, Kent County voters approved the six-year renewal of a property tax (the Ready By Five Early Childhood millage raising over $8 million in the first year) used to support early childhood programs and services for families with young children. This followed city residents’ approval the year before of a proposal – which did not increase taxes – to upgrade and revitalize school buildings to serve students in more effective, efficient and equitable ways.
“We clearly have a community that demonstrates commitment to do whatever it takes to ensure investment in our children,” said Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) Superintendent Leadriane Roby.
Amidst calls for accountability from our city’s parents and leaders throughout our neighborhoods, GRPS continues to demonstrate its commitment and responsiveness to the youngest learners in our city, offering proximate and high-quality programming and services to children and families in nearly 30 locations.
“We know what level of investment it takes to make sure young children are ready to shine and achieve as scholars in our schools,” says Bridget Cheney, chief instructional area leader of Southeast Quadrant. “Partnership with parents, families and community organizations continues and we are educating and serving more of our city’s youngest children than at any other time in the district’s history.”
Decades of research affirms that early childhood education, including preschool, is linked to better long-term outcomes for children, which can extend into their adult years and futures.
The mission of GRPS’s early childhood education programming is “to model child-centered, play-based environments that support critical thinking skills, develop positive self-esteem and facilitate independence and competence.”
From partnerships to co-locate Head Start classrooms in elementary school campuses across the city to expanding preschool program access via the State of Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program with community partners, GRPS is clear that leveraging and maximizing collaboration is vital to removing barriers that contribute to disproportionate outcomes for our city’s youngest children.
As an example, Purposefully Playing Toward Kindergarten (PPTK) is a collaboration between W.K. Kellogg Foundation grantees GRPS and the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum. This summer program is designed for young students who will be entering GRPS kindergarten in the fall, building key kindergarten readiness skills in a play-based, developmentally appropriate manner both in the classroom and at home. To support at-home learning, families are provided with hands-on materials to be used in conjunction with weekly at-home play-based learning tasks.
The GRPS “Summer of Success” program is another learning lifeline, aiming to improve third grade reading outcomes by providing linked summer and academic-year literacy instruction to kindergarten through third grade students. GRPS students transitioning between kindergarten and third grade participate in a five-week summer and related academic year program focused on meeting the needs of all students with varied literacy skill gaps.
Hundreds of young children benefit from these intensive learning experiences annually, stemming summer learning loss, improving literacy and linguistic levels, supporting their families and positioning them for higher achievement in our city’s schools. GRPS teachers utilize high-dosage, evidence-based instructional strategies, activities and games to engage young learners. Students develop executive functioning and problem-solving skills needed to be successful in these early childhood grade levels.
And even amidst these programmatic and systematic bright spots, there is so much more work to do.
Let’s collectively suspend and expel any and all notions that demography or geography should determine the destinies of our city’s children.
We certainly should celebrate the recognition of Grand Rapids’ growing economy, vibrant real estate market and the culture of development, creativity and innovation we have. But a city with our resources and brilliance should not have young children growing up here and gradually concluding the possibility that they may not be able to thrive in their own hometown. If that continues, we all have failed.
So let’s press forward together- with urgency and unwavering commitment- for our children and for the future they deserve.
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