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Rethinking expectations for universal prekindergarten programs

October 14, 2015
Peachtown Elementary opened a prekindergarten program in 1999. After a few years of experience, we established a flexible age requirement of 4 1/2 for enrollment. We found slightly older children made much greater gains in our academically oriented program, and those gains were significant. Time and again, we have seen the benefit of giving children that extra year to learn the routine of school and grow in their social maturity, while exploring an academic environment without rigid achievement goals.
This past month a widely reported study called into question the value of state funded voluntary prekindergarten programs in Tennessee (Lipsey, Farran and Hofer). Essentially, the study determined through testing and teacher reported evaluations that VPK gave students a significant edge in kindergarten, but by the end of their first year they were losing that edge. By second grade, the VPK cohort was surpassed by students who had not attended VPK. The results were provocative and added to the ongoing controversy over the efficacy of pre-K programs. Proponents of other large universal pre-K initiatives cite contradictory results, while in New York City, Mayor de Blasio is busy rolling out a city-wide UPK program. Obviously, the benefits of early education for at-risk children are widely accepted, but critics are still out there questioning assumptions that others take for granted. Caution should be taken with how we assess studies of UPK programs and what public policy decisions are made.
Studies always have limitations, but there are a few obvious things to consider. First, voluntary applications for enrollment are problematic, as the reasons for choosing or not choosing pre-K are difficult to address within the study methodology. Second, the question of what kind of experience the non-enrollees had must also be considered. Estimates by pre-K critic Bruce Fuller that 40-58 percent of the first year NYC pre-K enrollees would otherwise have attended private preschools (Marcelo Rochabrun, Pro Publica) raise the possibility of alternative enrollments as a meaningful variable. Last but not least, what kind of program did the VPK offer, and are the assessments meaningful?
Prekindergarten students who are deemed prepared for kindergarten, but fail to sustain their advantage, are quite possibly in programs that are too heavily focused on the acquisition of a narrow set of academic skills, rather than broader school readiness. When those skills are played out, the advantage is gone.
Kindergarten, and hence UPK, requires so much more of students today; achievement expectations have been pushed down into the lowest grades. Head Start programs are now being assessed by similar school-readiness standards, and being deemed deficient. At what point do we question the school-readiness standard? An insidious consequence of the Common Core is a tacit assumption that higher standards are always good. What is it we expect of 4-year-old students? They need nurturing, diverse experiences, good health care, good nutrition, creative play and, yes, some letters, numbers and scissor skills.
Did the non-VPK students in the Tennessee study remain at a preschool they had attended for several years, in a program that provided a more creative and developmentally appropriate program? Ironically, this is not a subject of analysis. Maybe the VPK program was great, maybe it was not. But at what point is the fault laid at the door of skewed expectations? If the hyper-focus is on school readiness and readiness is measured by precocious and narrow learning, rather than rich developmentally appropriate experience, we not only condemn successful programs like Head Start, we condemn all future programs. Good UPK and preschool programs that cultivate social readiness, inquisitiveness and enjoyment of school will be a thing of the past, not because they failed children, but because they failed an inappropriate assessment tool, designed to measure inappropriate school standards.
Once again, we are building educational programs around narrow assessment tools, rather than with intelligent, qualitative design. It's a dismal prognosis. This time, if we are not careful, we literally run the risk of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Let's rethink what long-term, healthy school readiness is. News flash: Your Kindergarten student doesn't have to read 50 sight words by Thanksgiving to be an intelligent, literate, accomplished adult.

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