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Governor Corzine: Where is she now?
Mother in Red: She's now going into second grade, yes but she started when she was three.
She learned how to write her name at that age, versus me, I didn't learn to write my name until I was in kindergarten.
You know five years old, and at three she's learning how to write her name.
and now she's writing sentences and paragraphs.
Governor Corzine: You know at the end of the day, the success of an education system and what we do as
as a state as a local community, is dependent on parents.
When moms and dads pay attention to what's going on in their educational activities we get great results.
And this guy Steve Barnett who's a professor down at Rutgers about 12 years ago got inside my head
and made the argument that if you prepare your children at the earliest stages
to be prepared for school and learning then they will be better learners
all the way through their whole career in the process.
Mother in Grey Dress: A teacher, you know, taught her how to read
and she's reading and she writes very well, and she did pre-k and kindergarten and she just graduated.
Governor Corzine: The ones who have the ability to absorb math and science and reading
and oral skills end up really performing well.
Steven Barnett: So our job is really to figure out,
are we getting the kinds of results in NJ that we've seen in national studies.
We've seen kids in these urban districts who've been to pre-school
are ahead in their language and general cognitive ability,
they're ahead in their literacy skills and they're ahead in mathematics.
Translator: She has three children, the 22 year old wouldn't bring homework home,
where the six year old did and she was writing sentences,
and the result was that she did perfect scores, high scores in her TerraNova test.
Steven Barnett: The kids still by the end of second grade have made twice as much progress
if they had two years of pre-school as if they had one year of pre school.
Father in white striped shirt: The social piece is very, very important to us.
Mother in Black dress: So if it wasn't for this program she wouldn't have any social skills,
or academic skills. She wouldn't be around any other children, so I can't imagine
just tossing her into kindergarten before she's ready to start.
Governor Corzine: You grow up and it's part of what you'reÉ.
it's who your friends are, how you think about it, and then learning is fun.
It's a social experience as well as a learning experience.
There are people in society that will argue this is baby sitting
and I'll tell you that is a failed failed thought.
And the reality is, what we're doing is bringing school reform to it's most important piece,
the foundation of where a child gets started.
Steven Barnett: You ask yourself why do 4 out of 10 kids in some places drop out of high school.
Well it's because 4 out of 10 of them haven't been doing well since they walked in that kindergarten door.
That's what we're putting a stop to.
Governor Corzine: We're sustaining it and expanding it making it better
and allowing more children to have access, and if we keep doing that
New Jersey's going to have the smartest brightest ablest children grow up with the best chance for success.
[applause]