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A review of CTBS reading, language and math scores in the third and seventh grades emphasizes the necessity for additional support needed to increase the education and skills level of students in Santa Ana in general and in our target neighborhood specifically. All CTBS scores fell below the 51 percentile for the state, with the aggregate score for the 94/95 school year being 35 for our target elementary school and 27 for our target intermediate school. More encouraging however, is that the trend in test scores is up for third graders, reading proficiency at our target school went from the bottom 10% in 92/93 up to 28% in 94/95 and math scores more than doubled from 21% to 51% over the same period. Santa Aha has consistently rated below the national average in SAT test scores over the last nine years. For that time period, California and national scores on the average are more than 100 points higher than Santa Ana's test scores. The Reading Readiness Program has revealed that many parents in the target are unaware of how they can help their children learn and to become excited about school, and in fact tend to have the opposite effect. Parents generally respond to their children in a very negative manner rather than encouraging and supporting. It is not difficult to see that these children, as young as three years old, will soon develop a negative attitude toward learning because learning is correlated to negative, verbally abusive responses from their parents. RISK FACTOR: INDICATOR: RISK LEVEL: Lack of Commitment to School School Enrollment by Age High The most significant indicator for this risk factor is that citywide only 25% of three- and four-year-olds are enrolled in a preschool program, the number drops to 14% in the target neighborhood (graph//35). Studies connected with the national Head Start program clearly correlate academic success in kindergarten through twelfth grade with a positive preschool experience. Again, the Reading Readiness confirms this factor. The majority, if not all, of the children enrolled in this program have never had any contact with pre-school activities either outside or in the home. Many of the children don't even know their full name, colors, shapes, or other basic concepts that they should know by the time they start the program. These children are starting at a significant loss and will be behind their grade level even before they start school. This risk factor has also been very evident in the target area at Willard Intermediate School. The principal at Willard attempted to offer assistance to a large group of parents in response to their children's low scores on proficiency tests. He offered special tutoring to those students who were failing. He also asked parents to get involved by working with their children at home and by attending meetings to learn how they could help their children to improve. There was an extremely Iow parent turn-out to meetings and an extxeme sense of