A program developed in the 1960s to aid immigrants to Israel is improving academic success for some of Milwaukee’s at-risk children.
Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, or HIPPY, gets parents involved in their children’s education, Tom Schneider, executive director of Milwaukee’s Children’s Outing Association or COA, explained. Together with Milwaukee’s Parenting Network, COA oversees HIPPY in Milwaukee.
“There are HIPPY programs throughout the United States and around the world,” Schneider said. “In Milwaukee, the program has been in place for over 15 years.
“Several studies have shown that the single most important factor in a child’s education is parent involvement.”
In Milwaukee, among COA’s key HIPPY partners is the local affiliate of the National Council of Jewish Women, or NCJW. It was NCJW who brought the program to the United States. HIPPY was created by the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the late 1960s. HIPPY USA has since become an independent organization.
HIPPY was originally developed primarily for immigrants to Israel. Just as the program does around the world today, it taught them how to interact with their children in a positive way and prepare them for success in school through a language-rich home environment.
“I think all parents want the best for their children,” Marjorie Margolies,chair of the HIPPY USA National Board of Trustees, stated. “HIPPY provides parents who have limited resources with the tools they need to prepare their children, aged three to five, for success in school.”
HIPPY parents read to their children daily and engage in thoughtful extended conversations with their children through HIPPY books and guided age-appropriate activities. These cover pre-reading, math, and science concepts, fine and gross motor skills, and other aspects of preschool-age development.
There are currently 250 city of Milwaukee families enrolled in the program, Schneider said, and 100 families on the waiting list. The program, provided to participating families at no charge, costs HIPPY approximately $1,000 a year per additional family, he said. He also noted that if the funding existed, a thousand families could be enrolled.
COA raises most of the program’s funding, Schneider said. “HIPPY receives local support from much-appreciated organizations, foundations, and individuals who understand that HIPPY is a good investment in the future of Milwaukee’s children,” Margolies added.
Margolies, a Chicago-based practicing attorney and long-time resident of Milwaukee, came to the program through her involvement in the National Council of Jewish Women.
“This program would not exist in Milwaukee without Margie,” HIPPY Co-Director Jessica Namaste said. NCJW, spearheaded by Margolies, Linda Frank, and others, brought the evidence-based program to Milwaukee in partnership with COA and Milwaukee Public Schools. NCJW supports the program in many ways, including providing volunteers and programming for monthly family gathering nights.
NCJW members and friends made extra contributions to HIPPY this year so that some additional families from the waiting list could participate in the voluntary program.
HIPPY provides weekly home visits by professionally trained peer educators, who are also known as parent partners, to empower parents who may have little formal education. The peer educators, often prior participants in the program, share what they have learned, to help newly enrolled parents become teachers for their young children, Margolies explained.
According to the HIPPY website, “all HIPPY programs around the world follow the HIPPY model: a developmentally appropriate curriculum, with role play as the method of teaching, staffed by home visitors from the community, supervised by a professional coordinator and with home visits interspersed with group meetings as the delivery methods.”
Role-play is the preferred method of instruction, Namaste said. The parent partner, who is essentially a mentor, teaches the parents how to work with their children to lay the foundation for educational success, and the parents practice the skills they learn. Parent partners spend approximately one hour per enrolled child every week with each family, Margolies said. Each parent partner has a caseload of approximately 25 families, Namaste said. The parent partner brings books so the parents can read to their children daily.
Numerous national studies show that children whose parents read to them will have greater success in school than students whose parents don’t.
“There is research over 25-years showing that this evidence-based program is effective in boosting the academic success of children and families,” Margolies said.
A 2006 Marquette University study found that 71 percent of HIPPY kindergarteners and 73 percent of HIPPY first graders in Milwaukee were reading at or above grade level, Schneider said. That’s compared to 51 percent of non-HIPPY kindergarteners and 58 percent of non-HIPPY first graders, Schneider said.
“I believe that HIPPY can play a key role in closing the achievement gap,” Margolies said.
***
Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, or HIPPY, provides weekly home visits by professionally trained peer educators, who are also known as parent partners, to empower parents who may have little formal education. The idea is to help newly enrolled parents become teachers for their young children
Loading ...