EarlyStories » RLeeColvin

Teachers: Preparation begins in pre-school

RLeeColvin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:29:40 +0000

Some fascinating findings came out of a comprehensive survey of U.S. teachers, released this morning at Scholastic headquarters in lower Manhattan. The results of a questionnaire on American education sent to some 40,000 teachers found many teachers have doubts about the ability of their students to succeed after high school.
Nine out of 10 teachers said that not all of their students could leave high school prepared to succeed in college. The teachers had lots of ideas and recommendations about how to better prepare them, and the 100-page report that came out of a collaboration between Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is filled with strategies and ideas for moving forward.
The report should be required reading for all education journalists, but EarlyStories was particularly interested in what the findings mean for the way the U.S. does — or does not — educate children well before they even set foot in a classroom. Beth Prince, a kindergarten teacher at Hearst Elementary School in Washington, D.C. was on hand to share some of her thoughts on the topic.
“If you get it right in the early years, from pre-kindergarten to third grade, and look at early learning styles, you can get that spark and love for learning going early on,” said Prince, who has worked with young children in private child care and public school settings for over 19 years. Prince said she always notices the difference when children arrive in kindergarten without having attended a pre-school, nursery school or a Head Start program.
“They don’t have that letter and number recognition, or that sense of having been read to,” she said, adding that children who start kindergarten without any formal sitting have particular difficulty sitting still.
Francie Alexander, Scholastic’s chief academic officer and a former kindergarten teacher, noted that the findings of teachers confirm the importance of establishing trust with parents early on. “It really starts in kindergarten,” she said. “Parents really want to know how my child is doing.”
One finding that supported that view came from teachers, who said family support is a critical part of keeping students engaged in school. Teachers cited a lack of encouragement from family and friends as a major obstacle to student success.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was on hand to hear the results of the survey and called it “one of the most reveting conversations I’ve experienced. Teachers will tell you their real world experiences if you listen.”
While the survey was anonymous, excerpts of their remarks appear throughout the report from both elementary, middle and high school teachers that provide insight into their thinking on everything from student achievement to standards, performance pay and retention.
Harris Interactive conducted the survey, which also provides an in-depth look at state-by-state data that show how teachers in different states view the issues.
Vicki L. Phillips, the director of education, College Ready at the Gates Foundation, said the findings show that teachers support a stronger curriculum that relates to the establishment of clear academic standards and reliable data on student learning.
“The survey tells us that what’s good for students and student achievement is good for teachers too — in fact, it’s what they want,” she said.
One other interesting note about what teachers think is important to keeping good teachers in the classroom: good leaders. More teachers say it is absolutely essential to have supportive leadership (68%), time to collaborate (54%), and quality curriculum (49%) than it is to have higher salaries.

The growing world of dual language learners

RLeeColvin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:22:11 +0000

Early Ed Watch is taking on a critical and vastly undercovered issue in a series of blog posts on dual language learning in early childhood. The blog hopes to address ways that both policymakers and educators can improve dual language education in the U.S.
“The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2030 Latino children will constitute 25 percent of the total student population.” a recent post notes. “As of 2007-2008, approximately 26 percent of children enrolled in Head Start Pre-K programs speak Spanish and are classified as dual language learners. And, beyond the booming Latino population in the United States, other immigrant populations are growing too, posing a challenge to teachers in the early grades who provide these students with their first exposure to school and, sometimes, their first exposure to the English language as well.”
Think of all the challenges these statistics recognize. Early childhood issues get little coverage in the media, and even less space is devoted to how immigrant children will be prepared in U.S. schools as their numbers continue to grow. The list of questions posed in Early Ed Watch are ones journalists across the U.S. should be asking of educators and policy makers. The blog raises lots of good ones.

From England, with worries: toddlers need more support

RLeeColvin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:24:43 +0000

Some troubling research emerged last week from the think tank Demos in England, including a frightening finding: More than one in 10 children begin primary school unable to learn and unwilling to build relationships with their peers. The research has enormous implications for their ability to function in school in years to come and shines a spotlight on how crucial the early years are.
The study finds a “disengaged generation waiting in the wings” and recommends far more early intervention even before children enter school. Proper pre-school support, the report says, can help younger children concentrate, connect with others and behave better. The children of parents who are poorly educated and have low income levels gave a greater chance of lagging cognitive development, the report found.
Some of the data should not come as a surprise to U.S. researchers who have found similar connections between poverty and early school success.
According to the Demos report, the difference between in the success of children from the poorest and the richest families is stark, with a fifth of those identified as “starting school without the behavioral skills” coming from the poorest section of society, and only 4% coming from the richest.
The report criticizes the government for not spending enough on pre-school children, according to an article in The Guardian
“We have seen from programmes in the US how effectively these schemes work, and there’s plenty of evidence now that the first few years are influential in forming habits later on,” Anne Longfield, chief executive of children’s charity 4Children, told The Guardian.

Demand dips — just a bit — for pricey NYC kindergarten

RLeeColvin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:22:43 +0000

After years of frenzy, it appears that the insane world of New York City private kindergarten admissions is finally ebbing, just a bit.
A baby boom, some good years on Wall Street (before the bad years) and a new vibe of hipness around raising kids in the city contributed to years of unlimited demand for schools that could charge close to $35,000 annually for kindergarten, according to Bloomberg News.
The demand started in pre-school, as documented by the hilarious “Nursery University,” documentary that portrayed the insanity as — well, insanity.
New Yorkers are hardly shunning private schools entirely and flooding into the public system, the largest in the U.S. But with the economy tanking and the city’s 9.7 percent unemployment rate, the Bloomberg story notes, fewer children are taking entrance exams for private school and applications in some private schools declined.
Does this mean just anybody can get into private kindergarten in New York City? Hardly. The exclusive Trevor Day school still interviewed about 400 applicants for only about 30 to 35 open seats, the story notes.
The Bloomberg story did a good job of quantify the issue in the city, but EarlyStories always finds something missing when reading — and writing — about this issue.
And that question is as follows: What can these private schools do so much better to prepare and education children?
They do offer smaller class sizes and quite often better facilities, including gyms and swimming pools and science labs. But the number one factor that contributes to improving a child’s education is known to be the quality of the teacher.
What evidence is there that private school teachers are better qualified, trained or do a better job? EarlyStories would really like an answer.

The cost of kindergarten in China? More than college

RLeeColvin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:23:48 +0000

This news may not be shocking to New Yorkers or those who reside in other urban centers where the cost of attending private kindergarten can be upwards of $30,000 a year. But a Christian Science Monitor story on the price in China may draw some gasps.
The Monitor reports that kindergarten prices in China have now eclipsed the cost of college, and the supply, of course, does not meet the demand as the country’s economic power grows. Beijing education authorities have already increased class sizes to 40 and added classrooms for another 12,000 places, but even a planned expansion of 12,000 seats won’t be sufficient.
“It is almost impossible, according to parents and teachers, to find a reputable kindergarten in Beijing that charges less than 1,000 renminbi ($150) a month, which is a quarter of an average salary in the capital,” the paper reports. “Some charge five times that, putting intense strain on the budgets of even better-off young parents already burdened by heavy mortgages.”
While a baby boom is fueling the demand, the story also cited a newfound sense of competition (familiar to New Yorkers of means) about how early childhood education shapes a child’s future and has become equally important to some Chinese — despite daunting costs for kindergarten.
“We don’t want to spend that much, but if we have no choice, we will have to,” one parent told The Monitor, who added that he did not want his son to be behind once he entered elementary school.
It would be fascinating to know more about what Chinese programs are considered high quality, what expectations exist for the curriculum and what kind of training kindergarten teachers get. Stories about competition for spots in both public and private programs in the U.S. rarely detail what actually happens inside the classroom.

Baby steps and tests: What they show later on

RLeeColvin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:19:15 +0000

Can how well a baby crawl yield information about how well they learn once they reach kindergarten? A recent story from the BBC about new research on the topic in England found that babies who did not reach expected milestones in areas like crawling and holding objects were more likely to have learning and behavior problems once they started school.
The research from London University’s Institute of Education looked at 15,000 children in the United Kingdom and concluded that delays in the first year of their lives had a significant impact on their behavior and cognitive development. The researchers also found a gap in ability “between children growing up in persistent poverty and those in families that had never received means-tested benefits.”
The researchers noted that similar conclusions had been reached in previous research, but said their new work showed for the first time that development delays — along with the “psychological characteristics of the mother and the quality of her relationship with the child,” are tied into both cognitive and behavioral development, even in poor families.
Some of the research is included in a new book by The Policy Press, Children of the 21st century, available here:

What really saves children? A college degree

RLeeColvin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:32:18 +0000

In an unusually blunt answer, the founder of Harlem Children’s Zone recently described how he defines success at the anti-poverty program he started in Harlem in 2004.
“The only benchmark of success is college graduation,” Geoffrey Canada told Helen Zelon of City Limits magazine, where Zelon’s excellent series appears this month. “That’s the only one: How many kids you got in college, how many kids you got out. Everything else is interim.”
Canada’s remarks were particularly instructive because the “cradle to college,” program he began in Harlem in 2004 has been cited as a model for President Barack Obama’s “Promise Neighborhoods.” Obama wants to see 20 poverty reduction campaigns in areas around the country that, like the Harlem Children’s Zone, offer services to new parents even before the child sets foot in a school. The best programs support children all the way to college.
There’s a great deal of interest in how Canada’s program works, and the best source for truly understanding both the ideas behind Harlem Children’s Zone and the difficulty of succeeding are described in “Whatever it Takes,” by Paul Tough, a former New York Times writer.
Journalists throughout the U.S. should be learning more about Canada’s programs as the communities they cover contemplate similar models, and Zelon’s pieces are another great jumping off point. Hope or hype? Zelon asks.
Zelon perfectly captured the lockstep approach to Canada’s pro-college philosophy in an interview with Patrice Ward, who teaches ninth-grade English language arts, African-American film, and college prep.
“Everyone is here for the same greater purpose,” Ward said. “Everyone exudes it and will support you in it. So the students, from every person they encounter, are going to get the same message: That they can succeed, that they can go to college, and here’s what you need to do. No, you’re not going to fall apart—no, we’re not going to let you have a bad day—we want you to succeed, we’re going to push you in that direction.”

Education, equity and the stimulus — Pennsylvania style

RLeeColvin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:21:34 +0000

It was interesting to hear Gov. Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania kick off The Campaign for Educational Equity,” symposium at Teachers College, Columbia University this week. Rendell didn’t actually attend the conference, but his words — captured on a live video feed — conveyed a passion for boosting education and a commitment to education, including pre-kindergarten, that not everyone in the state shares.
Rendell likes to tout how Pennsylvania has morphed from one of the nine states in the country that failed to fund pre-kindergarten to a national leader in early childhood investment, including full day kindergarten programs. He’s also clear that this comes a tough time for the state economically.
This week, Rendell proposed a $29 billion spending plan for the state that would devote more money to schools, prisons and health care for the poor but would also increase the sales tax on some goods and services. His budget relies on nearly $2.8 billion in federal stimulus money, some of which has yet to be approved by Congress.
It will be interesting to see how much continued support there will be for his education agenda while the state’s fiscal difficulties are so real. Rendell has been praised for his leadership on pre-kindergarten; but can the funding continue?
Not if you ask Steve Miskin, spokesman for Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Sam Smith (R., Jefferson), who told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Rendell’s “only solution [for improving education] is money, money, money. . . . There comes a time when Pennsylvanians have to say, enough is enough.”

A tragic tale of learning and punishment

RLeeColvin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:42:29 +0000

Tuesday's New York Daily News carried one of the saddest pieces EarlyStories has ever seen about parental expectations gone wrong.
In a story that is likely far more complicated than meets the eye, a U.S. soldier was arrested for waterboarding his 4-year-old daughter because she wouldn’t say her ABC’s.
Army Sgt. Joshua Taylor admitted that he punished his daughter by holding her down on the kitchen counter of their home and pushing her head backward into a full sink of water, according to the story.
This is probably not a tale about societal and/or parental expectations for pre-schoolers. It’s may be more illustrative of the problems an Iraq war veteran is having adjusting to civilian life.
‘He would lay her down on her back and push her head into the water right up to her eyeline. He was open about it,” Todd Stancil, the police chief in Yelm, Washington, is quoted as saying in the story. “He did it all the time. To him, that was an acceptable form of punishment – because she wasn’t able to say the alphabet.”
Tabor will be arraigned next month, and is out on bail and restricted to his base. It’s difficult to fathom what the father expected of the child and if she had real learning issues that might be identified.
Again, this is a story that is far sadder — and more complicated — than a few sensational paragraphs about learning the ABC’s might convey.

A sorry scam in Wisconsin keeps kids from learning

RLeeColvin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:08:55 +0000

EarlyStories was both horrified and heartened by an expose in the Journal Sentinel of Milwaukee that looked at ways thousands of children from low-income families in Wisconsin are being kept out of kindergarten.
The horrifying part were the facts laid out in the story, which found that the $350 million Wisconsin Shares program lets parents keep their 4-, 5- and even some 6-year-olds in day care centers all day – at taxpayer expense – rather than enroll them in accredited kindergarten programs.
“In some cases, unscrupulous parents are participating in an easy scam,” the story noted. “They sign up their children with friends or relatives who provide child care. The state then pays the providers roughly $200 a week, and providers give parents a kickback.”
The story found that the state’s neediest children “often wind up in loosely regulated environments where little learning takes place. Day care providers aren’t required to meet the standards of teachers, nor are they accountable for what children learn.”
Naturally, by the time they do start school, they are lagging way behind.
The heartening part? That newspapers are still able to produce the kind of journalism that brings situations like this to public attention.