LITTLE ROCK — In the mythic Parenting Handbook, this must be, at least, an entire chapter. Making decisions about our children’s education can be stressful emotionally, logistically and financially. No, we’re not talking about college. We’re talking about kindergarten.
When to begin is the first dilemma.
What is the ideal age to send a child to kindergarten? Long-standing theories run deep - and disagree - on this issue. We’re advised by peers and elders to send a childto school “early” if he is ready. If we wait to send such a child, he might become bored. Or, we should wait to send a child to school if he needs more time to mature, so he can catch up physically or to simply give him a little more time to be a little kid.
Often, the “wait a year” approach when applied to boys is called “redshirting,” after the term used to describe college athletes, usually freshmen, who are kept out of competition for a year to extend their eligibility to play another year so, presumably, they will have grown stronger or more skilled or recovered from an injury.
Many people have the perception that boys don’t mature as quickly as girls and can lag behind in the early school years. Some think that by redshirting a boy, he’ll be better equipped to handle schoolwork and will eventually benefit (in academics or sports) from being older than his classmates.
Tonya Russell, director of the Arkansas Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division, does not think that there is a difference in school readiness between kindergarten-age girls and boys.
“Children are all ready at different times. I think there are some limitations in the research. In my own experience in preschool classrooms, working with other preschool teachers, and working at the state level, I have not seen any evidence of girls being ahead of boys in general,” she said.
Arkansas Code 6-18-207 states that the minimum age a child can be enrolled in kindergarten is 5. The cutoff date has been moved in recent years, from Sept. 1 in the 2009-2010 school year to Aug. 15 for the current school year. For the 2011-2012 school year that begins this fall, children must have had their fifth birthday by Aug. 1. The law applies to all Arkansas public schools, and some private schools have made it their policy, too.
Russell says that the “social-emotional readiness of children was of some concern” when the decision to change the cutoff date was made. “Certainly there are some children who are socially and emotionally wellequipped at an earlier age, but it’s difficult to assess that.”
On a personal level, Russell said that if she had it to do over again, she would have waited to enroll her two (now grown) daughters, who have birthdays in May and June, until the following year. “You can’t see [the maturity gap] when they’re 5, but you can see it when they’re 15.”
For those students who narrowly make the age cutoff, Karen James, director of Elementary Literacy and Early Childhood for Little Rock School District, says the district advises parents who are considering holding theirchild out an extra year that “Our schools are prepared to help students [adapt] ... The school makes the adaptation rather than the child, so that the child will be successful no matter what their level of readiness when they enter the program.”
Private schools have more flexibility in deciding when a child should start kindergarten. According to Kenda White, director of Early Childhood Education at The Anthony School in Little Rock, the Arkansas Nonpublic School Accrediting Association gives private schools the choice between using the same age cutoff date as public schools, or staying with the Sept. 15 deadline.
Arkansas Baptist School System of Little Rock is adopting the Aug. 1 cutoff while others, including The Anthony School and Pulaski Academy, also of Little Rock, are keeping a Sept. 15 deadline.
White says that at The Anthony School, the decision when to start kindergarten is made per individual child. “Some are very young whenthey enter kindergarten and have absolutely no problem, and others really struggle.”
Regardless of the age a child begins kindergarten, there is no doubt that the classroom is dramatically different from the one today’s parents experienced in their first year of school. “Kindergarten has changed,” James says. “Students are leaving kindergarten able to read and write. Learning and assessments are occurring in kindergarten classrooms.”
White agrees. “We ask, ‘Are they prepared for working independently and keeping themselves on task ?’Every year there is more required of them. So you have to look more at whether the kids are ready for it.”
Deciding whether to hold back a child is a difficult choice, and there’s still a third option: no kindergarten at all. Arkansas Code 6-18-201 states that children who are not age 6 before the cutoff date can file (well, their parents can) a waiver form with their local school district to elect to not attend kindergarten.
When the child is enrolled the next school year at age 6, he will be assessed and placed in either first grade or kindergarten, based on the assessment. The waiver is available online at the Arkansas Department of Education’s website arkansased. org/parents/preschool. html.
PRE-K PROGRAMS RISING
While the number of kindergartners has not increased dramatically over the past 10 years, preschool programs have exploded. According to Russell, in 2002 there were about 8,000 state-funded preschool slots available in Arkansas. For the current school year, 25,000 slots for 3- and 4-year-olds were available - an increase of more than 200 percent. Arkansas’ preschool program is ranked as one of the 10 best in the nation in a report released this month by the National Institute for Early EducationResearch at Rutgers University.
In addition to the state’s preschool program, there are more than 600 other state-approved preschool programs in Arkansas. A searchable database of these programs can be found online at arkansas.gov/childcare.
One reason for the increase in demand for good preschool programs is the great results these programs have, James said. The preschool program in Little Rock School District is partially state funded, and with 1,500 slots available, it is the largest in the state. James, who oversees the program, says: “About half of our incoming kindergartners participate in our Pre-K-4 [short for prekindergarten for 4-year-olds] program. At Chico Elementary, we have seen a dramatic increase in students’ abilities to meet readiness indicators since the Pre-K-4 programwas added to their school site four years ago.”
Some preschools offer a transitional kindergarten class designed to serve as a bridge between preschool and kindergarten. This can soften the blow of missing the age cutoff date, or provide a viable option for parents who aren’t sure if their 5-year-old is ready for kindergarten.
At The Anthony School, the transition class is part of the preschool, White said. “The transition class’s curriculum is different - they move a little more quickly and do a little more. What they do academically looks a lot like kindergarten, but the classroom is set up and managed more like preschool to help facilitate growth of maturity-type skills.”
Russell says that: “Six years ago there were a lot fewer children entering kindergarten prepared to learnor what we call ‘developed.’ We think the improvement has a lot to do with quality pre-K programs.”
HOW TO DECIDE
As parents, unless we own a crystal ball that sees into our child’s future, making the decision when, or if, to begin kindergarten can be nervewracking. However, there are some tools available to help parents decide.
On the Arkansas Department of Education’s website mentioned earlier, there is a list of 38 indicators for kindergarten readiness. The list begins with “Speaks in complete sentences” and ends with “Runs, jumps, hops, throws, catches, and bounces a ball.”
According to Russell and James, children entering kindergarten are not required or expected to be able to do all 38 items on the list, but being able to do most of the indicators is a clue for parents thatthe child is ready. “Parents should know that children do not have to be screened to enter a public preschool or kindergarten program,” James said.
Russell notes that children in state-funded preschool programs are assessed at least three times throughout the year. In addition, students entering public kindergarten take an early-learning screening, which allows teachers and parents to see strong and weak points in the child’s development.
Some private schools do an assessment before a child begins school that can help parents decide on placement into preschool, transitional kindergarten or kindergarten. “If parents are on the fence, I encourage them to be conservative,” White says.
“If we say they really need preschool or transition, and we get a month into the school year and find that’s not what they need, we can move them up. Pulling back from kindergarten to preschool can be traumatic to everybody. We want to see them be successful. Our first priority is to have them where they need to be. We don’t redshirt for redshirt’s sake. It’s not just about birth date.”
THE NUMBERS
In 2010, 37,696 children entered public school kindergarten, according to the Arkansas Department of Education. Over the past decade, the number of kindergartners has fluctuated annually, but overall, the kindergarten population hasgrown 11 percent.
The age of kindergartners has stayed relatively steady over the past 10 years - about 9 percent of Arkansas students are 6 years old when they start kindergarten.
Family, Pages 33 on 04/20/2011