This article originally appeared in the September-October 2000 issue of the Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.
This article is part of a special section on school readiness. Use the links to jump to one of the sections below or to read other related articles.
| School Readiness | What is readiness? | School readiness public policy goals | Ready Schools | School readiness resources | Preschool builds school readiness according to studies | Parents: What you can do to help your children get ready for school | Learning through play | Parents: What to look for at child care or preschool |
Everyone is talking about "school readiness."
A growing emphasis on standards and testing in public schools is putting pressure on preschool programs to prepare kids to hit the ground running in kindergarten. Meanwhile new research shows that young children's experiences have a powerful effect on their brain development and that children do better in school if they've attended quality preschool programs (see p. 10).
Are kindergartners "ready" for school? A recent federal report says one-third are not. Kindergartners whose families have less money and education, and those whose families don't speak English, are more likely to be considered "not ready."
A nationwide trend to promote school readiness includes
A focus on school readiness is very positive "if it provides enhanced quality of experiences for children and families," says early education expert Sue Bredekamp of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). But, she adds, it's harmful "if it means blaming kids because they don't all meet the same standards of readiness."
Advocates for young children say a focus on school readiness has already translated into increased public resources for early childhood education.
Greater public support for preschool education promotes equity "by bringing more resources into that end of the continuum of education," says Bredekamp. "It shouldn't be just a matter of what parents can afford because [early education] makes such an important contribution to educational success."
And more public funding is necessary to improve child care quality, which is now undermined by "underfunding of staff salaries," says Bredekamp. "Even middle-class parents are having a hard time finding quality child care," says Faith Wohl, executive director of the Child Care Action Campaign. And the cost of child care "is a great burden to many families." We need universal preschool, says Wohl, to "lower cost, increase quality, and bring children together."
Many early-childhood experts are worried, however, that the push for "school readiness" leads to "push-down" of elementary school curriculum and methods. Many preschools are asking children to sit quietly working in workbooks and drilling them on math and reading facts.
By using methods that aren't appropriate for young children, preschool programs miss out on ways to tap into the power of children's natural ability to learn, says Bredekamp. "Three- and four-year-olds are very active," she says. "Play is their natural mode for learning. It's a tremendous context for language development–children acquire and practice language in a play setting more than sitting quietly and listening to the teacher."
Faced with pressure, drill, and worksheets, children may
"The danger comes when you start expecting children to have acquired a certain amount of knowledge when they enter kindergarten. We can't start punishing children before they enter school," says Paula Young-Shelton, early education expert at the National Black Child Development Institute.
Already many parents are advised to keep their children out of kindergarten for an extra year so they can be more "ready" when they enter, although parents have a legal right to enroll a child in kindergarten if that child's fifth birthday comes before December 2 of the school year.
Some schools are creating separate remedial kindergartens for children who are not "ready," but testing and sorting young children on the basis of "readiness" doesn't make any sense, say experts in young children's learning.
Promoting dropouts? Two-track kindergartens, holding kids out for a year, and other such approaches can have devastating effects on children, experts warn. Labeling and tracking kids early can start them on a school career of low self-esteem and failure. "The danger is promoting dropouts," says June Sayle, early childhood expert at Pacific Oaks College.
Labeling kids? "If children are late talkers, or more active, or not yet interested in reading, they may get labeled as needing special education," says German Walteros, early childhood expert at the Instituto Familiar de la Raza in San Francisco, "and a disproportionate number of children in special education are African American or Latino." Boys, who tend to be more physically active and to develop school skills later, are particularly at risk.
English only? "Ready" also usually means English-speaking, says Dora Pulido-Tobiassen of California Tomorrow. "A child can have lots of 'readiness' in the home language but still get stuck in a 'slow' track because he doesn't know English." And, she adds, "School readiness alone is not going to enable children to be successful. The institutions also need to address issues of bias and racism within their own systems."
Each child should have
Each family should have
We should help children get ready for schools, but "schools must also be ready to meet the needs of all children, including those who are less ready than we would like them to be," writes the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). "Children come with different learning styles and challenges," says Walteros. "The school needs to provide the learning environment that meets the children's needs, not ask the children to meet the institution's needs."
Instead of making preschools more like elementary schools, many experts in early childhood education say elementary schools should be more like preschools, based on knowledge about young children's learning.They say "ready schools":
"Developmentally appropriate curricula for all students would significantly reduce the need for special education and remedial and gifted programs," SREB concludes.
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