This commentary is part of a series of articles prepared by Voices of Educators, a nonprofit coalition designed to foster debate and public policy change within Hawai'i's public education system, in partnership with The Honolulu Advertiser. It appears in Focus on the first Sunday of the month.

Voices of Educators comprises some of Hawai'i's top education experts, including: Liz Chun, executive director of Good Beginnings Alliance; Patricia Hamamoto, superintendent of the state Department of Education; Donald B. Young, of the College of Education, University of Hawai'i; Joan Lee Husted and Roger Takabayashi, of the Hawaii State Teachers Association; Sharon Mahoe, of the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board; Alvin Nagasako, of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association; and Robert Witt, of the Hawai'i Association of Independent Schools. Visit their Web site at www.hawaii.edu/voice.

In a few weeks, principals and early-childhood education leaders will gather to plan how they will work together to improve school readiness and continuing success of Hawai'i's keiki. The focus will be on the young learner — from birth through third grade — with a shared goal of improving reading skills, literacy and instilling a love of reading.

The concept is called "P-3," and it means connecting the learning of a very young child (P being provisions for early learning) through the third grade. This connection creates meaningful educational experiences for children and a solid foundation for lifelong learning.

This comprehensive approach builds bridges between early and elementary education. It integrates the child-development focus of early-childhood education with the subject matter focus of elementary education. P-3 comes at a critical time, because Hawai'i is facing two significant challenges in keiki learning.

First, a significant number of young children in Hawai'i do not possess the necessary skills for success and lack access to high-quality early-learning experiences before kindergarten.

The 2006 Hawai'i State School Readiness Assessment report reflects that at the start of the school year, in only one out of every five kindergarten classes did the majority of the children possess adequate early literacy skills, such as knowing the names of some letters and sounds and showing familiarity with books. And, while 61 percent of entering kindergarten children attended some preschool or formal early learning experiences before kindergarten, a significant percentage of children had no such experience.

Second, according to the 2006 Department of Education data, only 52 percent of our third-grade children across the state are reading at grade level. Put together, this means that many children are not entering school ready for success, and not enough children are reading at grade level by third grade — a critical benchmark.

Learning begins at birth and happens in everyday moments whether at home, in an early- education setting, or playing with friends. This natural desire to learn marks the exciting potential for every child and the foundation upon which all later education is built.

As educators, we must offer environments where children's learning is nurtured, where children question what they see and hear, look for solutions to problems and engage in conversations with adults who are educated to foster the developing child's natural desire to learn.

We know perseverance, curiosity and problem solving are what create the conditions for success in the workplace. The basis for growing these attitudes and skills starts before a child enters a classroom. Therefore, we start early.

Research shows that children from low-income households who enter school without high-quality early education experience fall farther and farther behind their middle-class peers — a gap that widens throughout their school years.

Third grade is important because we know that by fourth grade, children must learn from what they read and write. Literacy is the building block for gaining new information and the forming of new ideas. If children cannot read at grade level by then, the ability to succeed in these and future learning tasks is at risk.

To boost and sustain children's learning success, we must provide families and communities with resources to encourage their support of children's language and developing literacy. We must create networks of communication and cooperation among early-childhood programs and elementary schools. We must increase resources for high-quality early learning. This approach is like a three-legged stool requiring the thoughtful collaboration of families, early education settings, and elementary schools, their principals and teachers.

We now need communities and policymakers to commit to this approach. This means they will: