One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to learning
WORCESTER — Jessica Savankham did something yesterday that she couldnÂ’t do in any of the towns surrounding this city: She enrolled her 4-year-old son in kindergarten.
Carlos J. Acevedo, or C.J., hasnÂ’t been to preschool, but he knows his letters and numbers and likes to practice writing his letters, his mother said, as C.J. sat next to his father, Carlos M. Acevedo, and traced the alphabet in the waiting room of the James L. Garvey Parent Information Center. When asked about kindergarten, C.J. answered with his big brown eyes and shy smiles, but his parents put their thoughts into words.
“He’s so smart,” Mrs. Savankham said. “He’s definitely ready.”
“He is really, really happy to go to school,” Mr. Acevedo added.
In Worcester, kindergarten students must be 5 by Dec. 31, while surrounding districts require students to be 5 by Sept. 1. That has helped Worcester attract school choice students from other districts — and their state aid to kindergarten slots here, but the policy has also been a recent topic for debate.
Last week, the School CommitteeÂ’s Standing Committee on Teaching, Learning and Student Supports discussed a motion to consider changing the cutoff date to Aug. 31.
(It was an illustration of just how slowly some suggestions move through committee: The motion from John F. Monfredo and Brian A. OÂ’Connell came four years and two superintendents ago.)
Their backup information referred to data showing pros and cons of early kindergarten enrollment. In Worcester, kindergarten students who started the year at 4 years old were not more likely to be referred to special education in kindergarten, but they were the age group most likely to repeat kindergarten, first or second grade.
Former kindergarten teachers said theyÂ’ve seen the issue come up before, and while they know the challenges of younger students, they reached the same conclusion as Jeffrey J. Mulqueen, the districtÂ’s chief academic officer.
“One size does not fit all students. However, preventing access to all students who are considered ‘young’ can have a negative educational impact for some of our most vulnerable students,” Mr. Mulqueen wrote in a memo to the standing committee.
Almost 600 of last yearÂ’s kindergarten students had birthdays between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, according to Robert Vartanian School Choice Coordinator. Helen Panagiotopoulos, a retired kindergarten teacher who works part-time as a kindergarten literacy tutor at Grafton Street School, said some children who donÂ’t turn 5 until the end of the calendar year have a harder time sitting still and focusing even when they have the academic knowledge they need for kindergarten, she said.
M. Susan Zack, who taught kindergarten for 36 years before retiring in 2009, likened a child’s education to building a brick wall. The youngest students could even arrive knowing how to read, but they might be missing a brick or two at the bottom when it comes to social or emotional maturity. Still, she said, “In many cases, children gain a lot from being in a school situation.”
Mrs. Panagiotopoulos said parents’ socioeconomic status and opinions also seem to play a major role. When she worked at Flagg Street School, parents would choose to keep their children out of kindergarten until they were older, a practice known as redshirting. When she was at Belmont Street School, some parents sent their children to kindergarten as early as possible, even if they suspected the child would have to repeat the year. “They’ve told us, they send their kids because it’s free,” she said.
With parents taking opposite tacks, teachers can end up with 6-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the same classroom, a developmental difference that is far wider than that between a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old, Mrs. Zack said.
The two former teachers prefer that full-day preschool be brought back.
While the school system once offered it, it now has half-day preschool at 23 schools, according to Mr. Vartanian. Mr. Monfredo has asked that the administration consider offering four full-day preschool programs, one in each of the districtÂ’s quadrants. He would also like to see the state fund full-day preschools at the same rate as full-day kindergarten. The time might be right, he said, with federal education officials offering an early learning version of the competitive Race to the Top grant.
His motion, he said, wasnÂ’t so much to change the age of eligibility as to talk about how to better serve the districtÂ’s youngest students.
“We really need to look at children coming into the system, children that are at that age of curiosity to get them to be as successful as possible,” he said. “The achievement gap starts with our 4-year-olds.”
Mr. O’Connell concurred. “We’re not focused on a simple change in kindergarten age unless we’re able to look at other options for children who need to be in some other environment,” he said.
Dianna L. Biancheria, the third School Committee member who is on the standing committee that discussed the issue, said she would love to see more preschools if the district could find new funding sources for it.
Boston public schools offer a different solution, albeit one that requires space and money. They have both a kindergarten 1, for 4-year-olds, and a kindergarten 2, for 5-year-olds. Kindergarten 1 is optional, and students are not guaranteed a seat, said Matt Wilder, director of media relations for Boston public schools.
The stateÂ’s only age-related requirement is that a student attend school beginning in September of the calendar year in which he or she turns 6.
In Worcester, the issue will mature for a few months. The committee will discuss it again in November, when its members expect to have more information on the issue.
By then, C.J. will be 5.
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