Schools

Parkway Acquires 'Competitive Advantage' with Massive Demographic Study

The study, commissioned by the school board at a cost of around $43,200 in November, is meant to help guide the development of their early childhood education program.

The Parkway School District is weighing how to move forward with its early childhood education program with the help of a demographic study packed with a “phenomenal amount” of information.

The district commissioned the demographic market study November of last year at a cost of $43,200 and with the purpose of using it to guide the long-term development and growth of its early childhood education (ECE) services.

On Wednesday, the Parkway School Board saw the results of that study with a presentation from the firm that conducted it, Landes Associates. Les Landes summarized many of the findings from the massive report for the board and then presented them with a tricky question.

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“What is the District’s main goal for Early Childhood Education?” he said. “Is it to increase its market share of available pre-school age children? Or, is it to ensure that families of all children are informed of and able to enroll in a qualified ECE program regardless of what organization provides it?”

He said the choice would have “huge implications” for the district and will be something they will have to wrestle with.

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Among the many findings from the 101-page demographic study, Landes and his team said that around 87 percent of all 3-4 year olds located within the district are already enrolled in an ECE facility, making for limited growth opportunities within that age group.

Further, Parkway itself only serves 14-16 percent of the children within its borders with its preschools. Part of the issue, the study found, is an abundance of capacity. There are 236 license daycare facilities within the district that have the ability to serve 8,982 children, but there are only 7,105 available 0-4 year olds, according to the 2010 federal census.

Because of this and other factors, one of Landes’ recommendations was for Parkway to increase its collaboration with other ECE providers in the area and offer quality professional development for their staff.

“The quickest way to make a difference is to collaborate,” he said. “They already have them and it’s going to be tough to get them away.”

Other recommendations from Landes included lowering the cost of part-day preschool tuition, which ranked highly compared to surrounding providers (including the Rockwood School District). This could potentially be offset by a reduction in the large amount of scholarships the district offers.

Possibilities for Future Facilities

While the study found that the marketplace for ECE services is highly competitive, one area that is potentially underserved is the number of children the district reaches with its screening services. Landes said their research showed “a need and a desire” to expand the program.

In commissioning the study, one of the district’s major goals is looking ahead to see what, if any, opportunities there might be for expanding their ECE program and key to any such consideration would be where to locate any facilities constructed to serve that purpose.

The massive amount of data allowed for Landis’ team to create a kind of “heat map” that illustrated the geographic areas in the district where an ECE facility would be most in demand.

After the presentation, Marty indicated that it would be delivered to additional groups, such as the district’s Facilities 202 Advisory Team.

“They really need to know a lot of things about this report, the demographics, where children are located, the potential growth of ECE programs, so if we do anything with our facilities, what would be appropriate.”

No Immediate Action

For now, Marty told the board that he, his team and other stakeholder groups would analyze the data contained in the study and its accompanying opinion survey with the goal of eventually bringing a set of clear recommendations before the board.

“We have a program that is already very good,” he said. “We just want to get better and be prepared for whatever changes are out there and whatever opportunities we have.”

Landes added that he believed the data would continue to serve as a “competitive advantage” for the district going forward.

“I don’t think many districts have invested in this kind of work to really understand what the opportuntities are, particularly in early childhood education,” he said. “I think you have something that is very valuable.”

You can view the study in its entirety and several other highlights here:


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