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Despite a slight increase in the number of Carroll County kindergartners who were ready to start school last year, the county still has a lot to do to catch up with other counties in the state.

Carroll ranked 19 among 24 school systems in Maryland, according to the 2007-08 Maryland report on school readiness.

The Maryland State Department of Education compiles the report every year, basing it on information about the knowledge and skills of kindergartners when they start school each year.

The report measures kindergartners' readiness based on 30 indicators covering seven major areas: social development, language and literacy, mathematical thinking, scientific thinking, social studies, arts, and health and physical development.

A composite score then indicates if kindergartners were fully ready, approaching readiness or developing.

The report for 2007-08 indicated that 63 percent of kindergartners in Carroll County were fully ready for the demands of the curriculum, 34 percent were approaching readiness, and 4 percent were developing. The results were up from 2006-07 when 60 percent of kindergartners in the county measured as fully ready.

This year's results, however, put the county below the state average (which was 68 percent in 2007-08) for a third time in the last four years.

This is a concern for some Carroll County community agencies — including the Carroll County Local Management Board, the Youth Service Bureau, Carroll County Public Library, The Family Support Center, Families Learning Together and Catholic Charities Head Start — which have come together to focus efforts and improve student readiness.

On Tuesday, representatives from different agencies in the partnership presented their efforts and goals to the Carroll County Board of Education. Their hope was to raise awareness of the problem and publicize the new programs and services that have been created to solve it.

"We wanted the board to be aware that we are not keeping up with other counties in the state," said Dorothy Stoltz with Carroll County Public Libraries.

Agencies in the partnership identified the problem in 2006, when the state department reported that only 60 percent of Carroll County children were fully ready to start school. That placed Carroll County 19th among the 24 Maryland school systems in terms of school readiness.

"In most other areas, we were first and second in the state," said Mary Scholz, administrator with the Local Management Board. "… We really took this as a wake-up call."

School readiness is based on what a child learns before entering the school system.

So, the partnership developed a plan for new initiatives and programs, which educate parents how to be their children's first teachers.

The start was securing a $50,000 grant, which paid to train 25 parent educators and place them with the different agencies in the partnership. Educators would work with parents and teach them how to help their children develop new skills from an early age.

This became the foundation of Parents as Teachers, a nationally recognized program created to reach out to parents and educate them about early childhood development and teaching techniques. The program allows parent educators to hold different workshops, do home visits or hold seminars for parents through a number of different agencies in the county, including the library, Head Start or the family Support Center.

Last year, it served 250 families and more than 370 children from birth to the age of 5. The program is popular among parents because it's flexible and allows parents to build a peer support network, Scholz said.

"It just really caught on," she said. "People in their hearts really want to be as good parents as they can."

This year, the partnership is adding a new, mental health component to the program. Parents as Teachers will now offer mental health support, for parents and children, covering issues ranging from separation and attachment problems with children to post partum depression in mothers.

The partnership also has other programs aimed at increasing school readiness. The Carroll County Baby Shower initiative, for example, helps educate pregnant mothers about child development and early education. Carroll County Public Library's story times and the Books for Babies initiative, which provides baby books to mothers of newborns, also promote early childhood education.

Having started a number of initiatives, the agencies hope that if they continue raising awareness of the importance of school readiness, they will eventually help improve the issue around the county, Scholz said.

"That is really reflective of what this child has learned in the community," she said. "…If we really want to reach kids, we really have to do it before the age of 5."

Percent of students considered school ready in 2007-08

-Queen Anne's County: 89 percent (first place)

-Frederick, Garrett and Howard counties: 76 percent (seventh, eighth and ninth places)

-Baltimore County: 73 percent (12th place)

-Montgomery County: 70 percent (14th place)

-Washington County: 69 percent (16th place)

-Carroll County: 63 percent (19th place)

-Prince George's County: 62 percent (20th place)

-Charles County: 48 percent (last place)

Source: The Maryland State Department of Education