As Indiana pushes ed reform, pre-k lags
There may be a lot of talk about education reform in Indiana right now, but it’s become increasingly clear that Tony Bennett, the new superintendent of instruction, won’t be emphasizing early childhood. And he’s citing the usual issue: lack of money. Indiana has long trailed other states when it comes to public support of pre-kindergarten; it’s [...]
With cuts looming, defense of Head Start
Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is expressing concerns about the potential cuts to the national school readiness program Head Start, considered, in her words, “one of the lasting legacies of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty.” In an essay for CNN.com, McCartney notes that “early childhood education is the single best investment we can [...]
All work and no play? No way, kindergarteners say
Just how hard should kindergarteners be pushed to learn? For years, the debate has raged about whether kindergarten has become “the new first grade.” EarlyStories has seen countless studies and articles on the topic, and listened to many arguments about why the new accountability and standards in vogue in education mean that the youngest learners [...]
How does movement (or lack of it) help pre-schoolers learn?
It’s hard to imagine a group of pre-schoolers or kindergartners sitting still for hours at a time, listening intently — to just about anything. Yet in many cases that is what their teachers are expecting in the age of accountability. And yet, research shows that children who engage in regular physical activity perform better in [...]
High Stakes Testing and Little Learners: Is a Second Chance Fair?
In the days of high-stakes testing, it’s hard to imagine the stress for parents who want nothing better than to send their progeny to private school, starting in kindergarten or even earlier. Actually, it’s not at all hard to imagine: the insanity of the process in New York City was documented brilliantly a few years [...]
Tennessee pre-k and the third-grade fade: truth or politics?
It’s been interesting to watch reaction in the state of Tennessee to research showing that students who participate in pre-kindergarten programs do better than their peers for their first two years of school, but have no advantage at all by the time they get to third-grade. Stories in The Tennessean ‘s office on the effectiveness [...]
New rules, role for Head Start lauded with release of new research
EarlyStories examined some suggested new rules for Head Start recently, and now a leading expert on early childhood is lauding the Obama administration in a Washington Post op-ed for proposing a new system he says could force much-needed improvements to the $8 billion program for 3- and 4-year-olds. The op-ed makes it clear that what [...]
In California, no more four-year-olds in kindergarten
For years, parents and educators have debated the starting age for kindergarten, and it still varies widely — sometimes from state to state, and sometimes within different districts in the same state. Parents with children close to the cut-off date for turning five (as late as Dec. 31st) in some states have long agonized about [...]
Why is a kindergarten kid roaming hallways?
It’s often frustrating to read stories about mix-ups involving the littlest learners, especially when it’s hard to know exactly what happened and why. Today’s New York Daily News, for example, carries a heart wrenching tale of a five-year-old boy wandering the hallways of his overcrowded elementary school in Queens after his mother fought to get [...]
In Minnesota, big push for kindergarten readiness
Lots of states in financial stress are struggling with ways to maintain pre-kindergarten programs — or any publicly funded programs at all that help parents and children get the skills they need to start school. Minnesota is one of those states with a budget deficit and big ambitions. A group known as Ready 4 K [...]
