COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – For the first time, a Columbus area nonprofit is carrying out a test to see why so many children in Franklin County are not ready for kindergarten.

Right now, Future Ready Five says kindergarten readiness in the area is a significant crisis: more than half of kids in Franklin County are not ready for kindergarten.

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Future Ready Five is hoping to change that, and this week their first pilot assessments kicked off. These will work to figure out why kids are falling behind and how they can be helped.

This has been in the works for months and is something Columbus City Council invested in earlier this year.

This week pre-k students in 14 child care centers sat down and took a test that will help experts figure out where kids are struggling and what will be the best way to help them improve.

“We’re testing the theory that if we focus on the first five years of life and really do what we can, we think it can make a difference, not just with third-grade reading scores, graduation rate, career attainment, college attrition rate,” Future Ready Five CEO Mario Basora said.

A mom of a child who went through the test this week spoke with NBC4. She said she is glad her child had a chance to participate.

“I thought it was pretty cool because it’s getting the kids ready for kindergarten,” Pre-K Mom Charity Dimalata said. “So I think it’s a good program.”

A Blessed Child Learning Academy was one of the centers carrying out the assessment.

“We have learned that this area definitely needs help all day long, hands down,” Owner and Director of A Blessed Child Learning Academy Stephanie Walker said.

65% of children in the county are not ready for kindergarten, but that number is even higher for minority communities.

“That means we have a universal problem. So universally, we need to make sure that kids are getting adequate exposure to basic literacy skills, and particularly the science of reading,” Basora said.

The next step is to review this data and create intervention strategies for each center.

“The fact that this is a new pilot program we’re all learning together is exciting as well because of the fact that we can all put our heads together and share what needs to be done as far as what’s next for the kids and what’s best for them academically,” Walker said.

The goal is to get to a place where there is a plan for each child that Future Ready Five works with.

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