For Advocates

Overview

Countdown To Kindergarten, a private/public partnership, is conducting a statewide public awareness campaign about early learning (ages zero to five) and school readiness.

The campaign goal is to increase public awareness about the importance of early experience as the basis for school readiness. Campaign materials convey the message that everything a child experiences, every day, can stimulate his mind and build the foundation for learning and success in school.

Campaign components
The campaign features a strategic media campaign, utilizing TV and radio, print media, and the Internet. It also has a grassroots outreach component.

Media Campaign
Governor Ehrlich officially launched the campaign at a press conference on January 18, 2005, along with Woody Collins of M&T Bank, and Rolf Grafwallner of Maryland State Department of Education, standing in for State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick. Radio ads began airing, statewide, January 25, 2005, with a radio buy designed to create strong impact and message retention. The ads ran through May 2005.

The radio campaign consists of three 60-second ads that stress the link between early learning and school readiness and that urge parents to use everyday activities as opportunities to teach their children. The “everyday learning” theme was developed after conducting focus groups and is central to the radio ads and the grassroots outreach work, described below. The ads can also be heard on the website at www.countdownMD.org.

Public relations efforts capitalize on the paid media by obtaining associated “earned” media and by maximizing the reach of promotional opportunities, e.g. participation in events such as Kids Fest. Taste of Baltimore, etc. In August, 2005, the Baltimore Ravens hosted Countdown To Kindergarten Day at Ravens Training Camp in Westminster, Maryland. Ravens player Todd Heap greeted a group of 5-year olds and spoke to the press. Media coverage of this event was outstanding.

When they are running, the radio ads and other media efforts bring approximately 1,000 people a week to the CTK website, described below. Fundraising is currently underway to launch another run of the radio ads.

Grassroots Outreach: The campaign is reaching out to parents, the general public, and regional press with the dual message about the importance of early learning and about using everyday activities as learning activities for young children. This outreach is being conducted through:

• Partnership with local and regional early childhood initiatives/groups, and
• Statewide agencies, such as
  • Maryland State Department of Education(Division of Early Childhood Development, Judy Centers, MD Infants & Toddlers),
  • Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program
  • Maryland Child Care Resource Network,
  • Maryland Head Start Association,
  • Maryland Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Friends of the Family,
  • Public Libraries
  • Home Visiting programs, and
  • Reach Out and Read.

Parent Education and Support Materials: In conjunction with the grassroots outreach, several items were developed. These have been enhanced or expanded since their introduction:

• School-readiness refrigerator magnet, initially available with only the Ravens logo, is now available with the Washington Redskins logo and colors, so that we are able to benefit from association with both of Maryland’s football teams.
  • 50,000 have been distributed statewide.
• “Tips for Turning Everyday Activities into Learning Activities,” the illustrated booklet for parents, has been published in English and Spanish, with 15 other languages available for download from the website – translations courtesy of Maryland State Department of Education.
  • 250,000 have been distributed statewide.
• Countdown to Kindergarten website (www.countdownMD.org) has been designed to handle requests for CTK materials, to provide pdfs of “Tips” in 17 languages, and to showcase the radio ads. In addition, it provides other parent education and support resources as well as a research-focused resource list with live links to major early learning studies and websites.

Leadership
As of April 2007, the leadership for the statewide campaign is:

• The Chair, the head of a leading Maryland business: Atwood Collins III, M&T Bank, and
• Additional Maryland business leaders: Richard Cass, Baltimore Ravens,
• The Governor or the Governor’s designee: presently open
• A member (or members) of the leadership of the Maryland General Assembly: Senator Ulysses Currie and Delegate Sheila Hixson,
• The State Superintendent of Education: Nancy Grasmick,
• A leader from a non-profit organization in the early childhood field:
  Margaret Williams, Executive Director, Friends of the Family, and
• A member of the Subcabinet for Children, Youth and Families:
  presently open.

Local Countdown To Kindergarten Campaigns
Early childhood leaders in various jurisdictions from Frederick County to the Lower Shore have embraced the Countdown To Kindergarten campaign and co-branded local activities as Countdown To Kindergarten events. This allows them to take advantage of CTK materials and advertising in order to bolster local awareness about early learning and about early childhood programs.

In addition, the state has a planning process for achieving school readiness based on the Leadership in Action Program (LAP). Public engagement is one of the six goals of LAP, and CTK is the entity designated to carry out the action steps of this goal. Thus, as the LAP process moves from the state level to regional implementation, Countdown To Kindergarten partners with local LAP groups on their public engagement activities. In this context, Countdown To Kindergarten is currently partnering with LAP groups in Baltimore City and in Southern Maryland, with others to come. The Baltimore City LAP has funded Countdown To Kindergarten—Baltimore, which is conducting extensive community-based efforts to support early learning and to engage all sectors of the city – families, nonprofits service organizations, cultural institutions, government, and business – in the work of school readiness.

Revised 4/6/07