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Re: Report Estimates 1/3 of kids not ready for K
MH and I were talking about this the other day. I started reading right at 4 or a little before b/c I wanted to and was interested. According to my mom I basically taught myself b/c she didn't know how to teach me, but read to me a lot. It was definitely outside the norm, though, b/c I remember getting extra books to read in my early grades and going to reading groups a few grades above me in 1st.
K was all about the Letter People. I do remember that.
Does anyone think that pushing our Kindergarteners has resulted in the failure of the older grades? Obviously our high schoolers are not being pushed to learn and grow at the same rate.
Are we setting our kids up for struggles or failure because we are so disapointed that they don't know what they need to know in K?
**Meaningless Anecdote Warning**
DS is almost two, and we work on colors (to him, everything is blue, but occasionally he will pick out yellow and white). We had a teacher over for supper last week and she, I and DS were playing with blocks. I asked him what color the block was, and he said "Blue!" She expressed that some of her K and 1st graders didn't know all of their colors.
My aunt has also expressed that her 4K kids aren't always potty trained when they come to school (she has one parent who still puts her daughter in diapers when she is home).
Are we focused too much on teaching skills that can be tested on, rather than creating a solid base of skills and potential for life long learning?
Zeus and Bubba
This is my thought, especially when it comes to boys.
Redshirting isn't an option for us, but if these are the standards we are up against I can see a parent feeling hesitant because their bright, newly 5 year old boy isn't ready to sit down and read a book and properly construct a sentance. But if standards were more developmentally appropriate he would be more than prepared for the rigors of K.
Exactly. That 1/3 of students aren't ready demostrates to me that these are not developmentally appropriate standards, not that we need to push kids even harder. FFS, they are FIVE!
LOL. Agreed
T went to a church-run daycare, so between the daycare and what I taught her, she was probably over-prepared for K. In fact, we ended up with a few talking during class issues because she was bored. But, I will say that her teachers in K and 1st grade were AWESOME. Her 1st grade teacher, a veteran teacher, made sure that the kids had down time in class because too much emphasis was placed on testing. Not all teachers are like that, but I am sure that many find ways to balance these things out for the kids.
32704_Helper - part of the reason that funding hasn't increased for pre-k is because of the stats you listed. Many legislators feel that because the gains seem to vanish around 3, 4, 5th grade, that the program isn't worth the money being poured into it. But, I wonder if they recognize that the big issues start in middle school - 7th and 8th grade is where the achievement gap really hits.
DD #1 passed away in January 2011 at 14 days old due to congenital heart disease
DD#2 lost in January 2012 at 23 weeks due to anhydramnios caused by a placental abruption
Actually I don't know if I think all the standards mentioned are completely inappropriate. While I don't think they should be able to read to enter kindergarten, I also don't think it is developmentally inappropriate for a child to know basic shapes, colors and to count to numbers greater than 10, writing their names, etc. prior to kindergarten. I do think however, that if we are no longer viewing kindergarten as a year for everyone to get on the same playing field, and it will be viewed as curriculum driven similar to other grades, then mandatory pre-K should allow for that time of catch-up.
Yes. But hey, at least no child is being left behind, right?
See these are the things I think are very appropriate for an incoming student. And was always my impression was what a student needed to have a firm grasp on. This article made me think it has gone waaay beyond that. I am not comfortable with that.
I am the 99%.
The article says they are being required to know how to count to 100, read pronouns and recognize 2 vs 3 dimensions.
I was here first.
So I will preface this by saying I am not a teacher.
Reading pronouns I assume is recognizing "sight words". Many pre-K programs do that and I don't think that is unreasonable for a pre-schooler to recognize sight words. I don't think it should be required, but I don't think it is developmentally inappropriate or scarring kids to introduce it. My four year can count to 100 and skip count. I don't think he is a genius or anything, they just happen to cover it in his program. There are 18 kids in the class and all of them are on the same page. They also have only an hour of "learning" during the day and the rest is play time and art projects. So I don't think these things are impossible to learn or require chaining kids to a desk. I do think a lot of it is memorization versus understanding concepts though, so from that perspective I will say their "knowledge" of these topics definitely needs reinforcement.
2 to 3 dimensions I do think is a little weird mostly because I thought that was part of the 3rd and 4th grade math? So I do think that is developmentally inappropriate.
Anyway, I am not saying I think all kids should know this by kindergarten, but I don't think all of this is necessarily beyond their capabilities either. There is a difference between a child not being capable or ready to learn a particular topic and a parent choosing to have a different focus for their kid (which is completely fine by the way).
I am perfectly okay with kindergarten being a year for all kids to get on a level playing field and for it to be enjoyable like it was for me. But if they are going to change the rules then they need to give all parents the option of pre-K.
My kid, who was born on 9-2, was due on 8-27. My OB tried to talk me into an elective induction on 8-30. I was hesitant about resorting to that only three days after the EDD (but I did later agree to one on 9-6 if she didn't arrive before then)
OB pointed out that waiting until after 8-31 would mean I would *gasp* miss the cutoff and have to wait until the next year to start her in school - as if that would be a problem. I politely ignored this because I think that kids are being pushed too early and that mine will benefit by being a little older when she starts.
ITA you know these kids are being drilled in letter recognition and not having any idea how to listen for the sounds in a word or predict what will happen next in a story. They're the real bases of literacy, and by building those instead of pushing academics before they're ready they would be able to build on the gains. Because as I told my oldest the other day, learning to read is just the barest beginning of you education, then you need to learn how to read critically, and once you can do that you need to be able to read critically, mush the ideas around in your head, make connections and write those connections and ideas down. And from what I can tell, American schools stop well before that third stage.
Here lies Huber.
I'm okay with some of the standards presented. However in general, schools just scare me all around.
I remember in my old district, there were elementary schools that took away recess so kids could practice bubbling in answer sheets correctly. Then, there were kinder classes were they spent each week identifying 1 letter of the alphabet. That's not okay either. Where is the happy medium?
Yes, this is kind of what I was trying to say. I think there is room for kids to learn more than what we did without crossing into developmentally inappropriate category or taking away the "fun" of kindergarten.
This is part of what I don't get. My state is usually ranked close to last in education and yet we have full day kindergarten, yet my friend recently moved to NJ to what is considered a very good district. It is a 1/2 day program and there is no emphasis on reading. NJ is ranked much higher in public education than TN so what do they know that TN isn't.. or what is TN chasing and not doing right?
Above Us Only Sky
This is one of the things about the system here that I just don't get.
So, big city public school kinder.
If you, personally, are eligible for free or reduced lunch, you can attend full day kinder for free. Also, if more than (I think the number is) 55% of the kids in the particular school are free/reduced lunch eligible, then full day kinder is also free. Half day kinder is free, regardless. Otherwise, full day kinder is like $300/month.
BUT (and here's the big but) the programs are designed for full-day kids. So if you want your kid to go half time, it's often very difficult getting support from teachers and admins (down to some telling you, point blank, it's "not available" even though the school system swears it is).
It's a mess.
I am the 99%.
Ok, this makes sense. It just seems that having high standards before entering K is insane (not to mention preparing for standardized tests, the thought of kids skipping recess to fill out bubbles makes my skin crawl), but by the time they leave K to be counting to 100 and visually recognizing basic words is not unreasonable. Also, ITA that there needs to be a time to "level the playing field" and I think that time should be Kindergarden, I see no benefit to moving it back a year to pre-K.
I miss you lite-brite!
I assume NJ better funds education than TN. I haven't looked at per pupil funding amounts, but our probably taxes would be at minimum 5x more expensive in NJ than TN.
I'm not addressing the difference funding. There seems to be a fundamental different approach to Kindergarten in NJ than Tn and yet NJ has overall better schools.
BTW: I'd be all for longer days/longer school year, but only if it meant I didn't have to drag my kid around to Cello, Mandarin and Science classes after school.
Above Us Only Sky
This. It makes me want to cry, it's so pathetic and sad.
A lot of the deanery schools in my hometown are moving to year round school this coming year. I think the archdiocese is pushing them into it - as far as I know, of like 8-10 schools, only one is a holdout and it's because they use the public school busing system and their district is not year round.
Two of my best friends work in one of the schools that is planning to move to year round and they are very happy about it. My BFF's mom is the principal for the grade school of a district that went to year round - probably 10 years ago? - and LOVES it. Based on the fact that I really respect their opinions (esp my BFF's mom), I would be fine with it. My BFF's mom said she'd retire if they ever move away from year round, haha - she never wants to go back to the traditional schedule.
Only problem with your questions is that year round school has the same number of school days, they're just distributed differently.
6 off, 10 on, 2 off, 10 on, 2 off 10 on 2 off 10 on = 10 weeks off in summer, one at Christmas, one at easter. It's just arranged to give kids a chance to absorb the information by having breaks, and making sure they don't forget how to read over the long break.