How Kinder Bridge prepares young students for school

As Kindergarten begins this week, many children are embarking on an exciting new adventure, transitioning from home to the structured environment of a classroom. For some, particularly those from low-income or marginalized families, this journey can be especially meaningful if they haven’t had prior exposure to a formal learning environment.

That’s why we proudly fund Kinder Bridge, a program designed to empower young learners in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) with targeted summer support, helping them start their school experience with confidence.

In 2024, Kinder Bridge served over 270 incoming kindergarten students across four BVSD summer learning sites: Emerald Elementary, Creekside Elementary, Crest View Elementary, and Ryan Elementary. 

Over the course of four weeks, students engaged in full-day programming designed to prepare them for kindergarten. The program’s curriculum mirrored the first month of school, focusing on essential academic skills and social-emotional learning, including instruction in music, art, P.E., and STEM. In addition, students learn school readiness skills like classroom routines, following instructions, riding a bus, and attending school meals.

Results at-a-glance

• 4 out of 10 incoming Kinder Bridge students were not reaching the benchmark standards for kindergarten students when they started the program. By the final week of the program, 8 out of 10 students were reaching or exceeding standards.
• There was a 25% increase in the number of students who knew how to write their names.
• Per readiness standards, 62% of students were ready for kindergarten when they started Kinder Bridge and 83% were ready by the end of the program.

“Early intervention is crucial for setting young learners on a path to success,” says Cameo Rainaldo-DeDominces, BVSD Coordinator of Extended Learning & Network Support. “By partnering with community organizations, we were able to recruit and reach students who didn’t have any formal preschool experience and help prepare them for life as a kindergarten student.” Impact on Education funding provides these students with four weeks of crucial summer learning and targeted support, helping them build confidence and a strong foundation for learning.

Impact on Education funding provides these students with four weeks of crucial summer learning and targeted support, helping them build confidence and a strong foundation for learning.

Building academic skills

Kinder Bridge introduces students to many of the academic skills they will need in kindergarten. The program emphasizes letter recognition, counting, letter-sound formation, and name-writing.

Educators observed significant progress in students’ academic abilities over the course of the program. “Some kids didn’t know how to hold a pencil, and the expectation for kindergarten is to write their name,” one teacher shared. “We had kids who didn’t know how to use a glue stick, so we had to start at the beginning of everything.”

Fostering social-emotional development

In addition to academic skills, Kinder Bridge places a strong emphasis on social-emotional learning. The program provides students with opportunities to engage with their peers and develop essential social skills.

One teacher described how students were prompted to ask each other questions and share their ideas, helping them build the confidence to interact with new friends in kindergarten. “When they go to kindergarten, they are going to meet new friends, so having had the opportunity to meet others and have another teacher is important,” the teacher explained.

When she started, she couldn’t write or spell her name, but by the end of the program, she was confidently writing and spelling it. She even made a bracelet with letter beads to help her practice, proudly showing it to her teacher each day.

Instilling confidence and a love for learning

Kinder Bridge also builds students’ confidence and fosters a love for learning. The program helps find and nurture each child’s unique strengths, building their confidence and their belief in their ability to succeed.

One teacher shared the story of a young girl who had never attended school before Kinder Bridge. When she started, she couldn’t write or spell her name, but by the end of the program, she was confidently writing and spelling it. She even made a bracelet with letter beads to help her practice, proudly showing it to her teacher each day. “She loved being in school, and seeing her progress was a huge success for the summer,” the teacher shared

Preparing for a successful kindergarten transition

Ultimately, the goal of Kinder Bridge is to prepare students for a smooth and successful transition into kindergarten. By providing a structured environment where students can learn and practice essential skills, Kinder Bridge helps ease the anxiety that children may feel as they approach this important milestone.

Educators reported that students showed noticeable improvements in the students’ ability to follow classroom routines, interact with peers, and engage in learning activities. “It’s really getting them ready to learn, learning how to learn and understanding classroom expectations,” one teacher shared.

We know that early intervention and targeted support can have a profound impact on young learners. For students who may not have had the opportunity to engage in preschool or other early learning experiences, Kinder Bridge provides a vital foundation that sets them up for success in kindergarten and beyond.

BEFORE YOU GO

Impact on Education is an independent non-profit supporting the Boulder Valley School District. We depend on the generosity of our community to put our mission into action.

Will you help us provide opportunities and resources to local students?

Kinder Bridge prepares BVSD students for Kindergarten

In 2013, in collaboration with Boulder Housing Partners, Impact on Education piloted a summer literacy program for children living in Kalmia public housing in north Boulder. 40 students participated in that first Summer Shuffle program, which eventually grew to serve 60 students across three Boulder public housing sites.

In 2022, the program, now called Kinder Bridge, became part of BVSD’s summer learning program – Summer Summit. Impact on Education funding now enables 160 students to receive four weeks of full-day instruction to prepare them for their first year of school.

2023 program and results

“The whole school had social-emotional time every morning. Doing those activities and team building within our classroom was really helpful. It gave the kids a grounding point.”

– Lead Educator, Kinder Bridge

The 2023 Kinder Bridge summer enrichment program delivered 105 hours of programming to 160 incoming Kindergarten students. Transportation, school supplies, and nutritious meals, along with lessons on healthy behaviors and social-emotional learning, were included in the program.

Licensed educators conducted Kinder Bridge at four Summer Summit locations across Boulder County: Emerald Elementary School in Broomfield, Whittier Elementary School in Boulder, Lafayette Elementary School in Lafayette, and Monarch PK-8 in Louisville.

New this year, students were given a preview of the first month of the Kindergarten curriculum. The site leaders believe students responded well and that the familiarity with both the school routine and academic content would lead to stronger school readiness.

“They’re going to ride the bus, they’re getting a full day. They are going to specials. They get to learn how to stand in line and how to walk from their classroom to the lunchroom and how to put their stuff away in their cubby. I saw a lot of growth in school readiness.”

– Lead Educator, Kinder Bridge

Parent engagement

An important element of the original Summer Shuffle program was family engagement, which we were thrilled to bring back to Kinder Bridge this year. Two partnerships allowed us to offer opportunities for parents and guardians to participate in Kinder Bridge:

• WOW! Children’s Museum – This local museum brought their “Romping Stomping Dinosaurs” program to each site and welcomed parents to participate, helping their little learners practice counting and comparing. Over 40 parents attended.
• Vroom – In partnership with Parent Possible, families were encouraged to download the Vroom app (available in 19 languages) which offers 1,000 science-based Brain-Building Activities that boost children’s brain development and help prepare them for school. Nearly 40% of the families downloaded the app.

Continued learning and growth

Each year we learn how we can improve the program for the following summer. Two ways we’ll continue growing Kinder Bridge next summer include:

• Increasing our community outreach to enroll more families who are not yet involved with BVSD
• Providing more one on one support for students with high needs

We know opportunity gaps start early, and it’s why Impact on Education remains committed to investing in early childhood education.

BEFORE YOU GO

Impact on Education is an independent non-profit supporting the Boulder Valley School District. We depend on the generosity of our community to put our mission into action.

Will you help us provide opportunities and resources to local students?

3 ways we’re making a difference in 2023

Last year held many challenges for our community and our organization, but our commitment to creating opportunity for success, from preschool through graduation, supported BVSD students furthest from resources. If you haven’t already flipped through our 2022 Impact Report, we encourage you to see what we accomplished last year.

While we’re continuing to support recovery from the Marshall Fire, gearing up to recognize educators at the 2023 Impact Awards, planning our summer school supply distribution Crayons to Calculators, and preparing another round of our Academic Opportunity Fund, there are three important areas we’re excited to invest in this year.

We hope you join us this year in supporting nearly 30,000 students in the Boulder Valley School District. Our work addresses systemic barriers and prioritizes those furthest from resources in order to equalize opportunity and bolster academic success.

Thank you for being part of our community and making investments to help us drive lasting change for students, educators, and our public schools.

BEFORE YOU GO …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We need your help to to provide opportunity and resources to 29,000 students and 4,000 educators in the Boulder Valley School District.

Investing in our schools is investing in our children and our communities

Where students learn matters. In Colorado, without adequate state funding, school districts are on their own to provide and maintain the schools where students and teachers do their essential work everyday. This fall Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) is asking our community to invest in improving schools across the district. The only way for BVSD to address the critical needs included in ballot measure 5A is by asking our taxpayers — our community — for help.

The $350 million property tax increase asks property owners to invest approximately $118 per year, or $9.83 a month, for each $600,000 of home value. While the ballot is crowded with tax measures this year, it’s important to support ballot issue 5A this year because our buildings are aging and require immediate maintenance to extend their useful life, and new home construction at the northeastern edge of our district will lead to overcrowded and inequitable classrooms if we fail to act. 

Perhaps the most exciting projects included in measure 5A, however, are the proposed investments that will provide BVSD students with quality skills-based learning experiences. The Boulder Chamber identified workforce development as a priority need for local employers and BVSD’s Facilities Critical Needs Plan would include renovating our middle and high schools to offer innovative classrooms and learning laboratories that will ensure our graduates are equipped for postsecondary success. 

What’s included in Ballot Measure 5A

Renovating buildings to better prepare students for their futures – 15%

BVSD is ready to transform the student experience in college and career preparedness. Proposed renovations at PK-8, middle, and high schools will expand or create flexible, agile spaces where students can experience industry-inspired environments with the latest equipment, helping them acquire valuable technical skills along with the real-world, hands-on experiences that lead to high-wage and high-growth jobs that are in high demand. Allowing students to build their own path to success is important, and GradPlus enables a skills-based curriculum where students don’t have to choose between learning a skilled trade or further academic pursuits.

Critical maintenance, facility improvements, rebuilding New Vista High – 68.9%

Measure 5A also represents the District’s highest priority building needs that must be addressed in the next four years in order to optimize taxpayer investments. Nearly 60% of the buildings in BVSD are over 40 years old and the cost of current critical building needs, recommended by the Capital Improvement Plan Review Committee, will only increase if the measure does not pass. Plans also call for the 70-year old New Vista High School building to be replaced.

Relieving overcrowding in schools – 13.8%

The only BVSD school in Erie, Meadowlark PK-8, is at 100% capacity in grades PK-5. Development that’s already under construction in the area requires a plan to address enrollment growth before it’s a crisis. Building a second elementary school in Erie will accommodate new students and relieve overcrowding in other district schools, which leads to inequitable classrooms and learning experiences.

Improving ADA access on playgrounds – 2.3%

So that students of all physical abilities can benefit from play and exercise, playground mulch on a number of elementary playgrounds would be replaced with rubberized solid surfaces that are wheelchair friendly.

Vote yes on 5A

Public schools are a pillar of local cities and towns, providing an important thread in the social fabric of our community. It’s difficult to imagine our neighborhoods without their local schools – critical infrastructure that enables learning, social connections, and student growth and achievement to take place. In order to positively impact our economy and community we must educate our youth, facilitate avenues for careers, and provide safe facilities for learning. 

Voting yes on 5A is a vote for public education.

BEFORE YOU GO …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We need your help to to provide opportunity and resources to 30,000 students and 4,000 educators in the Boulder Valley School District.

Our partnership with BVSD prepared more students for Kindergarten

One of the magical ingredients to our work is our partnership with the Boulder Valley School District. We’re much stronger when we work together, and our Kinder Bridge program is a prime example.

Why we became a champion for early learning

Preparing students for that all-important first year of formal schooling allows us to address opportunity gaps facing our youngest learners. The BVSD community is diverse in many ways, welcoming students from different races, cultures, economic and family backgrounds.

Because we know school readiness can impact everything from reading at grade level to graduating high school to being career ready later in life, Impact on Education partnered with Boulder Housing Partners over six years ago to start offering a summer program that provided high quality early learning experiences to preschool age students heading to BVSD. In 2022 this program was woven into BVSD’s summer learning, allowing us to serve four times the number of students and provide 50% more instructional hours.

What Kinder Bridge offers students

This past summer, 170 rising Kindergarten students with identified risk factors participated in our Kinder Bridge program. These students wouldn’t have otherwise had access to summer preschool and would have arrived in our kindergarten classrooms less prepared than their peers. The new partnership allowed us to:

• Increase the number of students served, enrolling 170 preschoolers from 30 schools at three sites in Boulder and Lafayette
• Enroll 40% Free and Reduced Price Meals (FRPM) students
• Provide BVSD transportation to make the program accessible to all students
• Double instructional hours, providing 80 hours of instruction focusing on letter recognition, counting, letter sound formation and recognition, name-writing, executive functioning and social emotional skills

The impact of the 2022 Kinder Bridge program

While many students were already demonstrating Kindergarten-level behaviors at the beginning of the summer, all students saw growth on the BVSD TS-Gold Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, and 65% left the program within the expected range of a kindergartener one month into the school year. The greatest gains were in identifying letter-sound correspondences and taking care of their own needs appropriately.

Class attendance averaged 86% across the three sites and 92% of families indicated plans to enroll their students in BVSD Kindergarten.

Looking ahead to 2023 we’ll continue working closely and proactively with BVSD to improve and enroll students in our Kinder Bridge program.

*The BVSD TS-Gold Kindergarten Readiness Assessment measures literacy/letter recognition, numeracy/number recognition and counting, and executive functioning skills necessary to engage productively and positively in a kindergarten class.

BEFORE YOU GO …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We need your help to to provide opportunity and resources to 30,000 students and 4,000 educators in the Boulder Valley School District.

Expanding early learning for incoming BVSD Kindergarteners

We want to prepare as many children as we can for that all-important first year of formal schooling. From academic knowledge and skills to executive functioning and social emotional learning, high quality early learning experiences are critical to their future success.

Our Kinder Bridge investment

Impact on Education partners with the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) to fund Kinder Bridge, providing summer learning for over 160 rising Kindergarten students. Access to early learning, including reading and math, is not equitably available to all children who will enroll in the district, so we invest in this program to provide access to those historically underserved.

School readiness can significantly impact everything from reading at grade level to graduating high school to being career ready later in life.

Center for American Progress

Working with BVSD and community partners we identify the students most likely to be in need of programming to prepare them for the classroom. 

What students learn

At three schools across the district, students receive six weeks of summer instruction focusing on letter recognition, counting, letter sound formation and recognition, and name-writing. They also cultivate executive functioning and social emotional learning skills which are important for kindergarten readiness.

Learn more about BVSD’s summer learning program >>

The importance of early learning

We invest in Kinder Bridge and our partnership with BVSD because our schools are well-positioned to provide young children and their families with high quality early learning experiences. We’ll work closely with BVSD to evaluate the progress students make during this summer’s program as they prepare for their classrooms this fall.

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