I Knew It!
From the April 4th Edition of Education Week:
I’ll push the rule even if I am the exception. My birthday is August 29th and I always did fine in school, but in my work with our Student Success Team I can tell you that 75% of the kids we see during the retention meetings in May are kids who have summer birthdays. The children that the kindergarten teachers struggle with the most are the ones who just turned five and get pushed into the school before they’re ready.
Parents, if you have the means, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with keeping your child (especially your son) out for an extra year if they’re not ready. Take if from someone inside the system: the money you pay for preschool for an extra year is an investment that you’ll be back a hundred times over. If you have doubts about whether your child is ready for school or not, ask to meet with your district psychologist or one of the kindergarten teachers so that they can do an evaluation. Talk with the child; if they’re excited about school, that’s a positive sign, but if they don’t have the desire, you’ve got some work to do. Look at their sleeping pattern; if Little Johnny goes down for a nap every day at 10:00 and 2:00, will he be able to give everything he needs to be successful?
Education Week also had another article on Kindergarten readiness recently, here.
Bottom line: Just because the state says you can doesn’t mean that you have to, or that you should. It’s a big, big decision, one of the most important you’ve made in your child’s development so far—give it the diligence it deserves.
Researchers from the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have come up with some intriguing findings on the effect that a child’s age has on achievement—a timely topic as more states consider moving their kindergarten-entrance cutoff dates so that children are older when they start school.
Older children do better in kindergarten and also do better if they’re surrounded by classmates of the same age or older, according to a study presented by Darren H. Lubotsky, an assistant professor of economics. But that performance isn’t because the older kindergarteners have a greater ability to learn—they do better because of their experiences before kindergarten.
“Policies that delay kindergarten entry but do nothing to address prekindergarten learning are not likely to be successful in raising the achievement level of children from families that provide poor learning environments,” the authors wrote.
I’ll push the rule even if I am the exception. My birthday is August 29th and I always did fine in school, but in my work with our Student Success Team I can tell you that 75% of the kids we see during the retention meetings in May are kids who have summer birthdays. The children that the kindergarten teachers struggle with the most are the ones who just turned five and get pushed into the school before they’re ready.
Parents, if you have the means, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with keeping your child (especially your son) out for an extra year if they’re not ready. Take if from someone inside the system: the money you pay for preschool for an extra year is an investment that you’ll be back a hundred times over. If you have doubts about whether your child is ready for school or not, ask to meet with your district psychologist or one of the kindergarten teachers so that they can do an evaluation. Talk with the child; if they’re excited about school, that’s a positive sign, but if they don’t have the desire, you’ve got some work to do. Look at their sleeping pattern; if Little Johnny goes down for a nap every day at 10:00 and 2:00, will he be able to give everything he needs to be successful?
Education Week also had another article on Kindergarten readiness recently, here.
Bottom line: Just because the state says you can doesn’t mean that you have to, or that you should. It’s a big, big decision, one of the most important you’ve made in your child’s development so far—give it the diligence it deserves.
posted by Ryan at 9:42 PM
2 Comments:
Very interesting!
I observed similar cognitive stall points in middle school and early high school.
Kids who hit the concepts of parts of speech (middle school) or geometry (high school) before their age permitted struggled.
Age/physical development does seem to affect cognitive ability.
jl
And this has long been the argument against the "graded" school; it's efficient for teachers and administrators, but not so much for the kids. You're right to take it to the other end of the age spectrum; if not every kid is K ready at age 5, it also stands to reason that not every kid is college- or career-ready at age 18.
God bless the skills centers and community colleges!
Post a Comment
<< Home