Kindergarten Readiness

A recent opinion post on CNN's School's of Thought blog by Donna McClintock offered a one-sided take on the question of when to start children in Kindergarten.

Her arguments in favor of starting almost all kids in Kindergarten at age five boiled down to two points: first, that the brain develops regardless of grade, and second, many reasons parents start children a year late have to do with their adult needs rather than the child's needs, such as peer choices, future sports success, or anxiety about separation. While she seems to have a good sense of what makes a good Kindergarten program, her view is best summed up in the line "If the program is not a true hands-on, positive, developmentally appropriate program, then perhaps redshirting is a good choice or choosing a different school might be an even better one."

For the sake of fairness, let's look at what she didn't acknowledge in her post:

-Many families don't have the financial or social capital to choose a different school other than the one their child is assigned to. Those that do are usually upper-middle class and white -- exactly the demographic that is often choosing to delay their child's start in order to try to maintain the academic and other advantages that come with white privilege.

-The curriculum in Kindergarten has been accelerated to become what First Grade used to be - a phenomenon well documented in both the academic literature and news media, including articles in Newsweek (2006),  The Washington Post (2007), and The Chicago Tribune (2010). So pushing children who may or may not be ready for Kindergarten into First Grade academics makes little sense.

-The research of the impact of redshirting is extremely mixed, despite her claims: some research suggests that boys and low-income students have significant benefits to waiting a year, and that starting Kindergarten too soon can have significant negative effects.

-Brain development is not only regardless of age, it is also unique to every child. Simply because a child is five does not mean s/he is neurologically ready for the work of Kindergarten. And simply because five year old child spends a year in a preschool or bridge-K program does not mean that it is a wasted year for neurological, academic, intellectual, social, and/or emotional development.

That these and other important factors were left out of the piece is predictable; what truly annoyed me was the style of the piece. I'm all for substantive conversations that encompass differing opinions on important topics, but let's be honest about how we are approaching the discussion. Although initially positioned as an objective perspective, starting with the "Kindergarten redshirting different for each child" title for the post, the piece is in fact an unstinting push to get age 5 children into Kindergarten, right up to the very last line that tells readers who choose to take another year for their child "While it may be too late to get him into the original kindergarten program you wanted to, do not allow him to waste this critical year of opportunity." I'm glad that Mrs. McClintock recognizes the characteristics of a good Kindergarten, but I wish she could have been more transparent and direct about her views at the outset of the article.

At TBS, we believe that age is not the determining factor in Kindergarten readiness, and that's why we have a Transitional K program at our Early Childhood Center. We recognize that Kindergarten readiness means ready child, ready family, and ready school - a chronologically young child may thrive in Kindergarten, while a chronologically old child may do better in the TK program. Our "cut off" date is September 1, and we work closely with each family of a child with a fall birthday to determine whether the Explorers program or our Kindergarten will be a better fit.

An inside look at a day in Blackberry Creek

I unexpectedly spent half of the day subbing in Blackberry Creek, a K/1 classroom. Here are a few things I re-learned during this time:

-Teaching K/1 requires extraordinary patience

-K and 1st grade students have a very wide range of knowledge and skill in most disciplines, even at this mid-way point of the year

-Incorporating choice into the work allows kids to have a feeling of agency, and thus motivation, which in turn makes them more open to the targeted learning experience

-Testing or opposing authority is a natural developmental characteristic of the age

-Fine motor control in writing and other small movements is often still awkward

-They both need to move and be physical, and yet tire easily

-Children this age love to ask questions, but may not yet be able to see or understand other viewpoints

-The approach to work is just beginning to coalesce; their ambition, response to critique, and knowledge base don't often align

-K/1 play to learn about the world and people around them, and learn effectively through techniques that incorporate play (games, riddles, songs, poems)

Sunday Reading

Federal attention to the need for early childhood education waxes and wanes. The Washington Post's recent article illustrates the complexities of addressing the topic; I find it problematic that someone would define a good ECE program as one that develops "skills and knowledge in language and literacy, math, science, social studies and the arts, while also addressing social, emotional and physical development." That sounds like a good approach to elementary school, but not to early childhood, where students are 3 and 4 years old. How about nurturing a love of learning, developing a sense of inquiry, providing opportunities for creative self-expression, and giving children the chance to play?

Public education in this country is under attack from all sides, and there's no easy answers to how to fund all the necessary programs. The Governor taketh and the Governor taketh again; he's cut $3 billion in funding (on top of about $18 billion cut by Arnold in the previous three years), and he lets schools charge fees for after-school sports - fees that function as an equity barrier for many students who find not only community connection and self-esteem, but also a reason to continue to pursue their academic studies, in the context of those sports teams. For an in-depth look at the value of non-academic programs on student learning, check out this article by June Kronholz on EducationNext.

Singapore Math has many similarities to the TERC: Investigations in Number, Data and Space curriculum that we use at TBS. As The Columbus Dispatch points out, at the core is a focus on understanding why an answer is what it is, not just what that answer is. It's a focus on process, not product, and it allows for the multitude of strategies that allow children to develop the necessary number sense to understand why the efficient, standard algorithm works.

I shared this blog post on digital citizenship by Mary Beth Hertz with the K-8 faculty, because it has a good perspective on what can and should be teachable, and resources to support that view.

Stateimpact from NPR offers a critique of flipped classrooms. I heard Salman Kahn of Kahn Academy speak last year at the NAIS Annual Conference, and I blogged about it then. Using videos of instruction that students can watch repeatedly is wonderful; for those who struggle to absorb all the necessary information the first time through a lesson, this is an enormous help. Likewise, having a benchmark standard to determine mastery of a concept, and an infinite number of problems to with which to practice that concept, is useful. And, the data analysis tools that Kahn Academy provides to teachers allow a detailed level of insight into the child's approach to tackling problems and returning to the instructional video for review. In fact, I was so excited when I returned home that one of our 4th grade teachers began experimenting with integrating Kahn Academy into the classroom for teaching math, and I watched several videos with my 8-year-old daughter. But there are deep issues with the flipped classroom as well, starting with the fact that all lessons are delivered as didactic lectures. There's no room for inquiry and discovery in this model.

Here's an inspiring post from Dave Saltman about the deeper legacy of Steve Jobs (hint: it's not the computer).

Bridging the Gap

Today I met with Nancy Lieblich, who has worked at TBS for over two decades as an Early Childhood Campus teacher. This year Nancy has moved out of the full-time classroom to take on a series of special projects uniquely suited to her 20 years of working with Kindergarten age students. She'll be splitting her time between the ECC and the University Campus, and along with me, Mitch and Andrea, will be an integral part of supporting the programmatic bridge between the campuses that we are constantly trying to strengthen.

At the ECC, Nancy has five foci. The first is running the ECC-5 program, for the oldest students on campus. Once a day, for an hour a day, the nine children in this program are pulled out of their classrooms and given special small group time together under Nancy's tutelage. The second is working with the ECC faculty to develop a comprehensive curriculum and calendar, as part of the curriculum review work that we are doing this year. The third is to assist teachers and administrators in observing and identifying children who need a higher degree of differentiated support than others. The fourth is designing and coordinating an outdoor program that addresses the needs of young children and enhances their outdoor experience. And the fifth is to support the follow of curriculum and ideas back-and-forth between the ECC and K/1 faculty.

That's a pretty hefty set of tasks, and so our meeting today was to discuss the scope of the work that she'll do with the K/1 faculty. A wide range of possibilities emerged as Nancy and I talked about what she might do on the University Campus, including being available to talk about kids, work directly with the K/1 students, providing curriculum support, and subbing for teachers as they observe at the ECC. Ultimately, we decided that for the first few months, Nancy will focus on supporting teachers and students as they make the transition into school, and observing and contributing to the math curriculum by connecting what the K/1 teachers are doing with concepts and materials that are in use at the ECC and in the Montessori tradition, and cross-pollinating those across the levels.

I'm excited to have Nancy's insight available as a resource for the K/1 program, and I'll post updates about her work as the year continues.

Who's Ready for Kindergarten?

Here's an interesting little piece in the NY Times about one of our favorite topics, Kindergarten readiness! My take on the five commentators' pieces is that no one really seems to disagree: current K curriculums are getting pressure to be more academic and contain more literacy and math than is appropriate for a genuine K program; that "kindergarten readiness" is by necessity relative to the curriculum of the potential class placement; and that while children of upper/middle class people may not need the early start in kindergarten because of literacy-rich environments at home, those of lower SES or disadvantaged or minority backgrounds do need the early kindergarten experience in order to avoid later equity traps.

Thanks to Andrea Gordon, ECC Director, for passing along the link.

The disproportionate impact of budget cuts

An interesting thread runs between these articles.

In this op-ed, Kathleen McCartney makes clear the importance of funding Head Start, and the value of pre-school programs.

This article from Katy Murphy at the Oakland Tribune looking at how budget cuts will impact school layoffs, as new teachers get fired first in a "last-in, first-out" process.

And this article, by Wyatt Buchanan at the SF Chronicle, details how a new bill in the CA state senate would let school districts raise taxes within their own districts.

What's the thread? Equity. Head Start - and the prison system - enrolls primarily non-White, socio-economically disadvantaged people. Urban schools with high numbers of new teachers tend to serve the same population. And suburban school districts with high income earners will be more likely to vote for further taxes to support their schools than those with lower income earners (ex: what happened with last year's voting in Berkeley and El Cerrito on the same issue).

Why preschool shouldn't be like school

Alison Gopnik, co-author of the must-read book The Scientist in The Crib, has a recent article on Slate.com reporting on two studies coming out soon that show direct instruction can limit children's learning, because children come to depend on the teacher to show them what is worth knowing or exploring about a given topic. As Gopnik write, "These assumptions [that what a teacher explains is only what is worth learning] lead children to narrow in, and to consider just the specific information a teacher provides. Without a teacher present, children look for a much wider range of information and consider a greater range of options." This makes inherent sense to me, and has important implications about the transference of cultural values and biases between generations, but because I also believe that there is a role for direct instruction in a classroom, I look forward to looking at the actual research itself to understand the design of the experiments.

On a related note, here's an article on play from the NY Times that I was just forwarded.

Preschool Director's Luncheon: School-Parent Communication

Today we hosted the second of a series of luncheons for preschool directors and teachers, dating back to last spring, designed to provide a professional community for preschool directors (raising awareness of TBS being a secondary benefit, of course). The topic of today's conversation was school-parent communication, with an emphasis on understanding how neurobiology influences our communication patterns. The half-dozen attendees relayed anecdotes of scenarios in which they had successfully and unsuccessfully talked to parents about difficult issues as they ate a vegetarian meal. Head of School Mitch Bostian then delivered a quick presentation called "Neurobiology .101", in which he went over the various process and tasks for which different regions and structures of the brain are responsible.

For the final 1.5 hours, special guest Amy MacClain (www.amymacclain.com) lead the participants in an investigation of the struggle parents today face given the structures and values of modern society, and methods administrators and teachers can use to acknowledge their own emotions heading into and during conversation, as well as how to safely hold a space for parents to feel heard. Strategies were discussed to help attendees ground - and stay - in a reflective, rather than reactive, frame of mind when in a potentially loaded conversation. As is wont to happen in a lively group, the conversation also strayed into other topics, such as the perils of enforced sharing; suggestions for future luncheon topics by the participants include multicultural education, cultural inclusion, and classroom management.