Summary of "How Preschool Fights Poverty"

How Preschool Fights Poverty
By: Cynthia E Lamy

1) Summarize each paragraph:
      A) Lower-income household children are usually behind in development from higher income household children, as shown through scores in early math, literacy, vocabulary, and social skills.
      B) These scores continue to remain lagging throughout higher education, where much of the focus of the media and political debate is, even though the delay shown in preschool can be a huge indicator of such behavior. "Children who enter school lagging far behind don't usually catch up,".
      C) Lower income families tend to be more stressed, less educated, less patient, and less likely to have the resources available to them to help grow the vocabulary, social, literary, and other skills necessary to stay ahead in kindergarten.
      D) Preschool helps to bring all children to the same high level of skills and learning ability.
      E) There are 3 studies that show the growth and development of children from preschool to higher education to prove that preschool is beneficial.
      F) These studies each started 10 years behind the other, so the finished product adults are in their 30's, 40's, and 50's.
      G) Other statewide studies have started to follow children through elementary school; though not completed they still have helpful insight to the growth of young children and have been conducted in many different states and therefore show variety.
      H) These studies showed that those who had preschool education prior to kindergarten had higher developmental and test scores than those who didn't.
      I) These children scored higher than the control group on standardized tests, were more successful as shown through their yearly expected incomes by the age of 40, had lower crime rates than the control group, attended college at a higher rate than the control group, and were less likely to be a teen pregnancy statistic.
      J) High quality programs are: staffed with highly educated, responsive teachers with "strong backgrounds" in child education, knowledge of best practice in the administrative offices of the program, strong classroom supports and lots of knowledge in background information, and classrooms that are full of interesting materials and play activities to engage and entertain learning.
      K) Preschool teaches children that they like to learn.
      L) Preschools also provide families with support systems and resources some cannot find on their own.
      M) Preschools help school systems by delivering highly educated children with a desire to learn who are less likely to need extra help, make poor choices and fall out of schooling, or need to repeat a grade. This gives higher level schools good ratings and less money pulled from the budgets, giving them more money to use for further classroom learning materials.
      N) Preschools give a holistic approach to children at an early age, promoting school in a successful, meaningful way that instills success and learning for years to come.

2) 1-2 complete sentences:
      A) Preschool extends the love of learning to all children, no matter the family household financial status by promoting positive and successful learning experiences in a safe and loving environment. Through preschool programs, these children can grow up to be successful, well oriented adults who have higher standardized test scores, less teen pregnancies and crime rates, higher incomes by the age of 40, and more likelihood of going to college.

3) Write it again:
      A) Preschool extends the love of learning to all children, no matter the income level of the family household by promoting positive and successful learning experiences. Through preschool programs, these children can grow up to be well oriented adults who have higher standardized test scores, less teen pregnancies and crime rates, higher incomes by the age of 40, and a more likelihood of completing college.

4) Comparing my summary to another peer's:
      A) I compared my summary of that of Jake's. I found that I liked how he stated the very basic, general information, and left out the details of the article for the audience to read on their own. I found this helpful in a summary situation. My summary definitely has more writing in it, as I dive into details. I guess this is a prime example of how two different writers can provide the same kind of writing in two very different ways.