Learning Enrichment Activities Program

The Texas Instruments Foundation is so pleased with Southern Methodist University's language program for Head Start 4-year-olds that it has given $1.5 million to endow a faculty chair for a nationally renowned reading specialist.

The yet-to-be-named chair holder will also serve as director of a new Graduate Institute for Reading Research at SMU.

Back in 1990, the TI Foundation and Head Start of Greater Dallas started a collaboration by establishing the Margaret H. Cone Head Start Center in a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood near Fair Park.

The program instituted in 1990 involved a nutrition specialist, a full-time nurse, and two full-time social workers to work with families on the theory that healthy kids would learn like kids from a higher socioeconomic level do.

Actually, there was very little improvement, said Nell Carvell of SMU's Learning Therapy Program.

But Ms. Carvell praises the TI Foundation "for not walking away from the problem."

In 1993, the foundation went to SMU, Ms. Carvell said, and asked the school to develop an intensive pre-reading language-enrichment program for children at the Cone Center.

Ms. Carvell, who works with dyslexic children, was recruited by a friend from SMU to tackle the problem. The Language Enrichment Activities Program that she developed has been endorsed by first lady Laura Bush as part of her education platform.

The curriculum, called LEAP, is rich in developmental activities, such as using picture charts to build vocabulary, reading books to children that encourage their interaction, and teaching children to make the connection between letters and sounds.

TI Foundation agreed to launch Ms. Carvell's undertaking with an initial grant of $6,000.

"I think TI wanted a phonics program, and I said, 'Let me go out there and I'll think about it,'" Ms. Carvell said.

"I love phonics. I just don't think it's for 4-year-olds."

At that age, they require "language - listening to stories. It's looking at pictures or seeing real things like a horse or dog or cow, seeing colors like brown and gold, learning vocabulary by modeling grammar."

"By the end of the year, they're talking in sentences."

Ms. Carvell even uses environmental print - the M in the McDonald's sign, the bell in Taco Bell. It's playful.

White House recognition

The TI Foundation and its president, Mike Rice, and director/ grants administrator, Ann Minnis, have been among the most avid supporters of the approach.

Not only did Mrs. Bush cite the Cone Center as an example of a successful pre-kindergarten reading program, but she also recognized Ms. Carvell and Ms. Minnis in July at the White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development.

This was really icing on the cake.

In 1999, at Mrs. Bush's urging, the Cone Center was used as the model for the $15 million statewide Ready to Read preschool funding program approved by the Texas Legislature.

Before LEAP was introduced at the Cone Center, children entering the Julia Frazier Elementary School from the center scored as low as the 21st percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which is used nationwide.

"After several years with the LEAP curriculum, the children soared to levels ranging from the 60th percentile to as high as the 94th percentile in vocabulary and pre-reading skills," Ms. Carvell said.

"Our Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Stanford-9 data clearly show that children from low-income, minimum family support environments can perform at a level comparable to children from a much higher socioeconomic level, given a quality experience," Mr. Rice said.

"At the end of the beginning of the collaboration, 42 percent of third-graders passed TAAS.

"This year, 98 percent passed, and Frazier earned the coveted state of Exemplary per the Texas Education Agency," he said.

The Cone Center has a twin of sorts. Thanks to the TI Foundation, a second model was created in 1997 to address the education needs of Hispanic children.

The Jerry R. Junkins Child Development Center in West Dallas honors the memory of TI's late chairman and chief executive officer.

Question of emphasis

Ms. Carvell said the emphasis there is on language, with at least one bilingual teacher in every English as a First Language classroom and two bilingual teachers in primarily Spanish-speaking classrooms.

"We need to strengthen the language skills of the Spanish- speaking children first. That's true for them, just as language skills must be developed first for the English-speaking kids."

The partnership of SMU and the TI Foundation was lauded by Dr. R. Gerald Turner, SMU president, and he cited the foundation's "visionary leadership" in filling a critical need of the city.

Ross C. Murfin, SMU provost and vice president for academic affairs, said: "We expect the institute's research component to help chart new directions in reading instruction."

He said that in addition to the university's Head Start language and literacy program, the Graduate Institute will include the SMU Learning Therapy, Bilingual, and Master Reading Teacher graduate certificate program and address adult literacy needs as well.

Ms. Minnis said: "We believe that early reading skills provide the foundation for academic success as well as the key to future economic opportunities."

Her views were echoed by Robert A. Patterson, dean of Education and Lifelong Learning at SMU.

"Dallas needs to address the needs of reading and literacy in three main areas - family, educational process, and the workforce, that is, the economy.

"If we do it right, it's a real building block" for an educated citizenry, Mr. Patterson said, "but the institute will only be a mechanism. We will still need a financial commitment to achieve success."

Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO(S): (MARK M. HANCOCK/Staff Photographer) Ann Minnis (left) of the Texas Instruments Foundation and Nell Carvell and Robert A. Patterson of Southern Methodist University see big potential in the Margaret H. Cone Head Start Center in Dallas.