skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

“Judy Centers” Work to Help MD Preschoolers Flourish

play audio
Play

Wednesday, August 28, 2019   

BALTIMORE – More low-income preschoolers in the Baltimore area will be ready when kindergarten starts next week because of their time at what are commonly known as the "Judy Centers."

The Baltimore Community Foundation is a supporter of the Judith P. Hoyer Center Early Learning Hubs. Billie Malcolm, the foundation's program officer, said 55% of all kindergarteners in Baltimore City Judy Centers are ready to learn, according to the state's latest Kindergarten Reading Assessment, compared with 39% in the city and 47% of preschoolers overall in the state.

"When you provide the proper support for families and children, you're getting them outperforming their peers by, in this case, about 16 points, and even the state, by eight points," she said, "and that just excites me very much."

As of 2018, 56 Judy Centers, which are located in Title I schools, served more than 15,000 children in every county in the state, providing full-day, full-year services.

The Baltimore Community Foundation also funds a new initiative at five Judy Centers. The "Leading Men" program provides training and jobs for young men of color to be tutors in a pre-K classroom in their own neighborhoods. Malcolm said Leading Men has proven to increase school readiness levels for Latino and African-American boys, and employs an often-overlooked population.

"I've seen the magic with kids and teachers that love these young African-American and Hispanic males coming in to support, every single day," she said, "and the stories they tell are amazing – from the way they connect with parents to the way they can run an intervention with a child that maybe a teacher can't do."

She said the foundation is funding the Leading Men program until 2021. It also granted about $4 million between 2013 and 2017 to expand the number of Judy Centers in Baltimore, according to the Maryland state Department of Education. That annual report is online at earlychildhood.marylandpublicschools.org.

Disclosure: Baltimore Community Foundation contributes to our fund for reporting. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021