Getting Ready to Learn Program: An Early Intervention in Development & Learning

The Getting Ready to Learn (GRTL) program is an early intervention program for improving the developmental skills and learning capacity of Native American children in the Northwest Arctic region of Alaska. Early intervention programs can decrease high-school drop-out rates, and increase employment rates which result in better health outcomes. The Northwest Arctic is a remote area that lacks many resources and experiences various disparities. In the Northwest Arctic Bureau of Alaska (NWABA), high-schools experience a large dropout rate of approximately 7.2%, which exceed the state-wide level (4.9%). The GRTL program will complete three full years in May 2007. Unfortunately, this program is only being offered in 4 of the 11 villages in the NWABA. This project will analyze the data that has been collected by the GRTL program from three survey instruments that are currently used to measure: development skills of approximately 170 participating infants and children, standardized test scores, and parental involvement. The project will also implement 15 interviews of the various program employees and community members to help understand the results from the secondary data analysis, how the program has been tailored to the Native community, and how to implement programs in rural communities that address the specific needs of Native families. The GRTL program can serve as a model program for other Native communities. Programs such as GRTL can provide new resources to a community that is isolated, and can lessen the gap in developmental disparities among children in the rural communities of Alaska.