Countdown2K wins Rep. Morgan McGarvey’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Kentucky’s Third District

When asked what inspired the creation of Countdown2K, the student said, “In our schools, I have noticed some students have difficulty keeping up with academic content on grade level. This problem seems to begin as early as elementary school and continues into middle school and high school. After doing more research, I discovered that a lack of preparedness in academic, social and emotional areas in early education affects students all the way through their school career and beyond.

48% of the children entering kindergarten in the US are not academically, emotionally and socially ready for kindergarten by age 5. Studies have shown that children who do not have sufficient readiness capabilities by the third grade are 4 times less likely to graduate high school than their peers.

The number of children without proper early education has become normalized and widely accepted in our society for a variety of reasons. This does not bode well for our future at all.

This inspired me to create a mobile app to help preschoolers and their families get children ready for kindergarten. My app is currently bilingual and is in both English and Spanish, to cater to both English and non-English speaking communities.

As kids grow older, a lack of kindergarten readiness makes it much harder for them to catch up since the knowledge gap keeps growing at each grade level. To combat this problem, my school district, the Jefferson Country Public School system, which is made up of almost 100,000 students, has made early education and kindergarten readiness a huge priority.

To gain an in-depth understanding of the problems faced by our school district in the area of kindergarten preparedness, I interviewed 2 leaders from the Early Childhood Education Department, Mrs. Gratz and Mr. Whalen, to learn more about the challenges facing young children in early education. They validated a lot of my research and confirmed the need for an app like Countdown2K and confirmed its benefits in helping young children and their families.

Even though there is a wider gap in the level of preparedness for children based on socio-economic levels, my research found that most people from all backgrounds still have access to Smartphones. So I decided to build Countdown2K as a mobile app that works on phones as well as tablets.

Countdown2K app has interactive modules that align to the school district’s learning criteria. This app also serves as a resource for parents or caregivers to engage actively with the children.”