Earlier this year, as part of the push to ensure that every child in Michigan has a Great Start and arrives at the kindergarten door healthy and ready to succeed in school, the Early Childhood Investment Corporation (with the financial support of the Kellogg Foundation and the Head Start State Collaboration Office) set off to develop an opinion survey of Michigan kindergarten teachers across the state.

The intent was to gather valuable information about the school readiness of young children in Michigan based on the professional opinions of kindergarten teachers, with a specific emphasis placed on the readiness of their 2008-2009 cohort of students.

The purpose of the survey was to gauge kindergarten teacher opinion on:

• issues surrounding school readiness,
• potential reasons for school unreadiness, and to
• assess resources available statewide that support school readiness.

After researching similar efforts in other states and after much discussion with relevant stakeholders, an online opinion survey of Michigan kindergarten teachers was developed and fielded this Spring.

The survey was conducted by Lake Research Partners (LPR) from February 25 through March 11, and April 29 through May 26, 2009.

From Benton Harbor to Copper Harbor, Michigan kindergarten teachers welcomed the opportunity to weigh in on these critical issues — with almost 700 teachers, representing 55 ISDs across the state, completing the online survey.

Although additional analyses of the survey results will be published in the coming months, please see the results document containing some initial key findings of the survey that are extremely relevant to the current discussion of early childhood in Michigan. This and other relevant documents, including the actual survey questions, will be available at www.ecic4kids.org in soon.

Given the increasing numbers of vulnerable young children in Michigan and the relentless threats to the programs ensuring their care and education, it is the sincere hope of the ECIC that these initial findings impact the priorities and policies of Michigan's decision-makers, at both the state and local level.

For questions, please contact Jessica Gillard, Specialist in Early Education, ECIC, at 517.488.4008, jgillard@ecic4kids.org.