Despite Wisconsin's growing image as a national leader in 4K programs, though, there's something missing — Madison.

The state's second-largest school district remains unable to solve a puzzle figured out by two-thirds of the school systems.

An estimated 40 percent of Wisconsin's 4-year-olds are enrolled in state 4K programs, up from 36 percent last year, the head of the National Institute for Early Education Research said last week.

"This is a year we are very worried about state budgets, and any states that are making progress in the coming year, we think that's terrific and shows some resolve," said Steven Barnett, director of the institute at Rutgers University.

Educators and policymakers generally agree that research nationwide shows that enrolling 4-year-olds in well-run early childhood programs is a key step to raising student achievement levels and graduation rates, particularly among children from low-income families, and that it ultimately saves taxpayers money.

In Madison, where schools Superintendent Art Rainwater in a 2004 memo described 4K as potentially "the next best tool" for raising students' performance and narrowing the racial achievement gap, years of study and talks with leaders of early childhood education centers have failed to produce results.

"It's one of the things that I regret the most, that I think would have made a big impact, that I was not able to do," said Rainwater, who is retiring next month after leading the district for a decade.

"We've never been able to get around the money," said Rainwater, whose tenure was marked by annual multimillion-dollar budget cuts to conform to the state's limits on how much money districts can raise from local property taxpayers.

A complicating factor was the opposition of Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers union, to the idea that the 4K program would include preschool teachers not employed by the School District. However, Rainwater said he's "always believed that those things could have been resolved" if money had been available.

Starting a 4K program for an estimated 1,700 students would cost Madison $5 million the first year and $2.5 million the second year before it would get full state funding in the third year under the state's school-funding system.

In comparison, the entire state grant available to defray Wisconsin districts' startup costs next year is $3 million — and that amount is being shared by 32 eligible districts.

One of those districts, Green Bay, is headed by Daniel Nerad, who has been hired to succeed Rainwater in Madison.

"I am excited about it," said Madison School Board President Arlene Silveira, who is envious of the 4K sign-up information that appears on the Green Bay district's Web site. "He's gone out and he's made it work in Green Bay. That will certainly help us here as we start taking the message forward again."

National model

Madison's inability to start 4K has gained the attention of national advocates of 4K programs, who hail Wisconsin's approach as a model during the current national economic downturn. Milwaukee, the state's largest district, long has offered 4K.

"It's been disappointing that Madison has been very slow to step up to provide for its children," said Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, a national nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., that campaigns for kindergarten programs for children ages 3 and 4.

"The way 4K is being done in your state is the right way."

In Dane County, 4K remains a rarity but that's changing.

Marshall and Wisconsin Heights are the only two of the county's 16 school districts now offering it.

Three additional county districts — Monona Grove, Stoughton and Deerfield — plan to start 4K programs in the fall. Cambridge abandoned a similar plan after the Department of Public Instruction rejected the district's request for a startup grant.

Wisconsin is among six states that will expand 4K funding in the coming school year because of previously approved boosts in the biennial budget, and four states whose school-funding formulas, a relatively stable funding source, support kindergarten for all 4-year-olds.

Doggett and Barnett praise Wisconsin's emphasis on establishing 4K programs under what's known as a "community approach."

School districts are in charge of setting up the system in each community. They collaborate with public and private child-care providers, an arrangement that can strengthen ties between those providers, including Head Start, a federal anti-poverty program for young children, families and the school district.

Districts are free to set up classrooms in school buildings — an arrangement that works if there are no child-care centers or if classrooms are empty due to declining enrollment — but also to rent nontraditional places such as for-profit and nonprofit child-care centers, including some owned by churches. Those contracts provide crucial economic support for many child-care centers.

The 4K programs usually last about three hours per day.

Attendance is voluntary and free for families.

Many parents, in turn, choose to leave their children at the child-care centers for the rest of the day while the parents are at work, reducing the amount of time children are shuttled from place to place.

The 4K teachers must hold at least four-year degrees and are certified by the state Department of Public Instruction. Some split their time between two classrooms, working closely with early childhood teachers, who aren't required to hold degrees.

Districts may hire the 4K teachers, just as they employ teachers for other grade levels, or they may contract with child-care centers who have licensed teachers on the their staffs.

"It brings pieces of quality together from all of the programs," said Jill Haglund, DPI early childhood consultant, who works with districts throughout the state.

Although the teachers find playful ways to further the curriculum, it follows state educational requirements to help prepare children to meet the state's academic standards throughout the rest of their schooling.

Big payoff

Done right, 4K also can lower the number of children who wind up being classified as special education students — an effect that improves their quality of life and saves taxpayers money in the long run, Barnett said. He noted that a study of Chicago child-care centers found that the percentage of students referred to special education declined from 25 to 14.

State education leaders and educators in districts already operating 4K programs say that although it's too early to statistically analyze the impact upon students' academic performance, they already know the investments of effort and money are paying off.

Libby Burmaster, state superintendent of public instruction, who has made 4K one of her top priorities, said it's the right thing to do for moral, social justice and economic reasons.

To compete in the global economy, "we can't afford to leave any child behind," said Burmaster, adding that studies have shown an investment of $1 in early education can yield $7 in economic benefits for society.

"If we don't do this, we're going to keep falling behind as a state and a country."

4K programs

Paula Wainscott, early learning coordinator in the Eau Claire School District, which is in the third year of its 4K program, said the district oversees classrooms in 17 child-care centers — a combination of places run by churches, for-profit and nonprofit organizations — and five sites in Head Start classrooms. About 550 of 750 eligible children participate, she said, and a survey indicated that nearly all families opting out of the program were satisfied with other child-care arrangements.

To anyone who doubts whether children really are learning, Wainscott offered assurances that teachers are using research-based methods to help children learn the foundations of academic and social skills — even while they're playing house or playing with blocks.

"I would just really hope that every child would have the opportunity to take part in a program like this," Wainscott said. "I'm just really surprised that Madison hasn't come on board yet."

Like educators in other districts, Julie Burmesch, principal and coordinator of the Wausau School District's early childhood and pre-kindergarten program, said that teachers of 5-year-old kindergarten students are able to tell who was in 4K because they're more advanced.

"I have seen students increase their vocabulary significantly regardless of their socioeconomic status" in 4K, she said, "and gain significantly in social skills."

Wausau's program involves 550 students in 16 sites.

In the Edgerton School District, which is completing the second year of its 4K program, the most difficult challenge has been transportation, said Shari Badertscher, principal for the district's 4-and 5-year-old students and for an elementary school.

To streamline bus routes, families living outside the city were asked to sign up for morning 4K sessions, while families living within the city were asked to sign up for afternoon sessions.

The program is popular with parents and staff, Badertscher said.

Two classrooms are in sites owned by a church and a crucifix hangs in one of the classrooms.

"We don't talk about religion," Badertscher said. "In two years, the kids have never asked, never wondered what it is."

In the Lake Mills School District, 30 miles east of Madison, 4K is in its second year and is growing rapidly — 62 students the first year, 85 now and 101 next year, said Superintendent Dean Sanders and Pam Streich, an associate principal.

One afternoon last week, music flowed from a room full of tiny children supervised by Jenny Hans, a DPI-certified teacher.

They were just down the hall from the sanctuary of a Methodist church. The lyrics, though, were earthly rather than religious: "We can count by 10s, up to 100. We can count by 10s, ready here we go. Ten, 20, 30...40, 50, 60...."

"To be honest with you," Sanders said, "the biggest concern when we started out was, 'What if there's a funeral that afternoon?' But we've worked it out."

In another part of town, parent Crystal Johnson picked up her daughter, Cate, at the end of the 4K day. Cate had spent the previous three hours in a privately owned, for-profit child-care center, with taxpayers paying the licensed teacher, support staff and building rental.

Cate is in a wheelchair because of her physical disabilities, yet in this program she and other students with special needs attend school alongside their classmates — one of whom delighted Cate with a freshly picked dandelion.

Johnson, who years ago traveled with parents and local educators to other districts to lay the groundwork for Lake Mills' program, said the inclusion is a priceless benefit for her daughter.

"Definitely worth it, huh Cate?" Johnson asked.

Cate smiled.