Archives for category: Childhood, Pre-K, K
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Can You Advise This Parent?

By dianeravitch
October 18, 2013 //
95

I received the following comment this morning. I don’t have the answer to everything, and I am not sure what I would do in her place, but this is my advice. Organize the other parents of kindergarten children. Go as a group to the superintendent and tell him this is wrong. Get parents of children in first grade and second grade to join you. Others may as well. Speak on behalf of your child and other children at the school board meetings. Ask to meet your local legislators: the mayor, the member of the Assembly, the State Senate. Do not be afraid or intimidated. You are parents. You vote. Build a strong and united parent group and don’t let the powers that be shut you up. If you don’t advocate for your child, no one else will. Moving won’t solve your problem. You will encounter the same things in other states. Organize, inform yourself. Defend your child’s precious childhood.

She writes:

Dear Diane,

Until September of this year, I only had a fleeting knowledge of what the Common Core was all about because I didn’t have a school aged child. This year we eagerly put our oldest son in kindergarten in our upstate, rural New York district. The uneasy feeling in my stomach started on the first day when the parents were ushered into the auditorium and the principal started preparing us that we would find stressed out teachers. Parents with older children began asking questions about why the kindergartners needed to participate in the dreaded testing. Upon returning to my son’s classroom, I did indeed find a stressed out teacher, saying things like, “we are all going to have to work together if we are going to get through this curriculum.” This is when I first encountered the word “module” as well, as I looked at my five year old’s schedule and noticed that he would be doing ELA from 10:45-12:25 every day. He is in full day kindergarten, and the day is packed with Fundations, Writing, ELA, ELA modules, and Math modules. To say alarm bells went off would be an understatement, but we continued thinking, “how bad can kindergarten get?”

Back to school night was a presentation by all five kindergarten teachers, which quickly turned into, “we know this sounds awful, but we promise are going to remember that your children are little.” Within a month of school starting, we were told that they needed to do away with the children’s rest period because there simply wasn’t enough time for it with the curriculum. The more I heard these comments from school, the deeper I dug into the EngageNY modules and started following your blog.

I’m sure you get letters like this every day. I listened to your Town Hall phone call the other night (thank you for not interrupting the questions like Commissioner King in Poughkeepsie) and heard lots of sound advice about what parents and teachers can do to fight back against these ridiculous standards. My question is more basic: Do I send my son to this school tomorrow?

I read educated assessments of the EngageNY curriculum that find it “developmentally inappropriate.” Why should I subject my 5 year old to this when kindergarten isn’t even mandatory? I have the unique situation of living in New York state on the Massachusetts and Connecticut border. As renters, we have options, and I have already decided that my son will not attend 1st grade in the state of New York. But what do I do about today and tomorrow? I fear that he will fall behind in this intense academic environment, but I also fear sticking with it. What do parents do right now?

Sincerely,
Rosemary XXXX
Copake, NY

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York

Child Abuse in New York: Bubble Tests for Kindergarten

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2013 //
93

The mighty machine that Leaves No Child Untested has now arrived in kindergarten, as tots in New York City encounter their first standardized tests.

Children are now learning what matters most in school and getting ready for the Common Core tests, which will place them on a sure path to college- and career-readiness. No more nonsense about sharing and caring. Our nation is falling behind other nations because we have not started cracking the whip when they started school. It is never too soon to start test prep!

According to the story,

“Administering the exams is a complete headache, teachers said. “They don’t know how to hold pencils,” said a Bronx kindergarten teacher whose class recently took the Pearson exam. “They don’t know letters, and you have answers that say A, B, C or D and you’re asking them to bubble in . . . They break down; they cry.”

“Because the little test-takers don’t know their numbers, teachers direct them to find each question by an image printed next to the answers.

“Education Department officials insist that the 32 early elementary schools don’t have to give the kindergarten test yet — though they are required to administer it by this spring. But officials also acknowledged schools may not realize they can wait a few months.

“At the same time, officials defended the use of multiple choice as an an easy way for even kindergarten teachers to learn how much their students know at the beginning of the year.

“Teachers should have access to multiple tools that they can use in a variety of ways to diagnose what students already know and what they need help with,” said Nancy Gannon, executive director of academic quality for the Education Department.

“But teachers said testing this way is slow and traumatic. Trying to get a proper answer was next to impossible. “We said to color it in with a pencil, so they were taking out crayons,” said a veteran teacher on Staten Island. “I can tell when a student needs help. I don’t have to give them a test.”

When Bill de Blasio is elected mayor, he must clean house at Tweed and hire people with classroom experience who value children more than test scores.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K

Your Sunday Gift: Time to Laugh Out Loud

By dianeravitch
September 29, 2013 //
11

This is one of the
funniest satires of current education thinking that I
have read in a long time. It was written by Russ Walsh of Rider
University. Russ describes the development of a new assessment
program for toddlers, to determine if they are career-and -college
ready The acronym for the new program is TIT for TAT. No experts in
early childhood education were involved in developing the new
assessments. They were annoying. They asked too many questions.
Read and enjoy!

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Humor

Does “College-and-Career Readiness” Begin in Pre-K?

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2013 //
37

When should children get on track for college and careers? Is third grade too late? How about kindergarten? Or pre-kindergarten? Or in the womb? It is never too soon, according to those with products you must buy now.

This teacher describes the latest sales pitch:

“The other day I received an email from Pearson promoting their PreK curriculum: OWL: Opening the World of Learning (2011). While the program may be good (I have not seen it to review it), the promotional materials on the website just set me off: “College and Career Readiness Starts in Pre-K”. That section heading infuriated me.

“I am so sick of hearing how we preschool teachers have to prepare kids for Common Core in kindergarten. All of my students need intensive support for their developmental delays in communication, motor, readiness, and/or behavior.

“I am more focused on assisting them in their play explorations, language and counting development. The LAST thing I need to be reminded of is that they are on the track to college and career readiness!”

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core, Education Industry, Pearson, Race to the Top

A Last-Minute Bad Idea from NYC Department of Education

By dianeravitch
September 19, 2013 //
15

In its ongoing effort to destroy neighborhood schools and communities, the NYC brought out a plan to centralize kindergarten admissions. This paren activist says it is time to fight back now:

“Last week, the DOE announced the roll-out of a new $800,000 kindergarten admissions process, known as Kindergarten Connect.

“Kindergarten Connect, like the centralized system currently used for high school admissions in the city, asks parents to submit a list of their school choices, ranked in order of preference. The DOE will then process this application and determine where the child will attend kindergarten. For most districts, this differs significantly from the current, school-based system in which parents who apply to multiple schools learn of acceptances or waitlists from each school individually. It is then up to the parents to decide where to enroll their children.

“Of course, there are many ways our admissions policies can be improved, but any policy that moves from press release to Panel for Education Policy vote in one week—and that affects thousands of families—deserves our close attention. This is especially true since the last time the DOE tried to centralize kindergarten admissions (in 2008) over a thousand parents, from all 5 boroughs, signed petitions to stop the policy from becoming a reality.

“Despite this, there has been no opportunity for public comment on Kindergarten Connect. So we at NYCPublic.org are taking things into our own hands and creating a place for the public to weigh in and ask questions about this policy.

“Please visit this page to see what parents are saying about Kindergarten Connect, and to add your two cents by filling out the form on this page. Our hope is that these stories will find their way into the press and be heard by decision makers.

“Even if you are not quite sure what to think about this policy change, we ask that you consider writing the Panel for Education Policy today to request that they table a decision on Kindergarten Connect until there has been a public hearing and period for public comment.

“In May of 2014, parents will receive kindergarten admissions letters with only one school placement (a big change from years past). They will likely have very few options to move their child to another school. Please don’t wait until then to mobilize around this policy.

“Sincerely,

“The NYCpublic.org Team

—
Liz Rosenberg
Executive Director and Co-founder
NYCpublic.org
917-697-1319

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, New York City

Parents: How to Advocate for Your Child

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2013 //
7

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor emerita of early childhood
education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
prepared this short
guide for parents about child-rearing. It was written in
collaboration with United Opt Out.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Parents, Testing

Rothstein on Duncan: Test-Based Accountability Has Failed

By dianeravitch
September 6, 2013 //
23

Here is the transcript from the Diane Rehm show and its interview with Arne Duncan. This is the interview where Duncan said he was “not familiar’ with the Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block vouchers in Louisiana because they will undermine court-ordered desegregation.

Two others were interviewed about Duncan’s policies: Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Richard Rothstein of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

Rothstein was asked whether Duncan was the most powerful and influential education secretary ever:

“Oh, yes, he certainly has because he’s had enormous flexibility without congressional authorization as a result of the stimulus bill and the Raise to the Top funds. The problem is that he’s got an entirely incoherent approach to education policy which, as I said, is doing enormous harm. He ended his comments before with promoting the importance of early childhood education. I fully agree with that.

“Everybody who studies student achievement knows that the one most important factors affecting student achievements is whether children come to school in the first place prepared to learn, whether they’ve had good literacy experiences in early childhood where they’ve had high-quality care. He promotes that. It’s very important. It’s wonderful that he promotes it.

“But then he turns around and advocates and implements an aggressive accountability policy which holds schools accountable for the same results whether or not their children have had high quality early childhood instruction. If early childhood is really as important as he says it is, and I think it is, how can you hold schools accountable for high standards and high accomplishment if children haven’t had those early childhood experiences?

“So, on the one hand, he advocates all the right things, early childhood. He advocates health clinics in schools. He advocates after-school programs and has promised neighborhoods program.

“But when it comes to actually implementing an accountability system, it makes no difference. It has no effect whatsoever.

“His Race to the Top program, for example, gave states no points for whether they had early childhood programs or health clinics in schools or after-school programs. And so he talks a good game when it comes to all of these important influences in education, but when it comes down to the actual accountability policies that he’s promoting, they have no effect whatsoever.”

Rothstein said earlier in the exchange:

“Well, the key point he made, which I think has been lost in the debate, is there’s a big difference between having higher standards and the consequences of those standards. Nobody objects to having higher standards, the common core or if they are higher and to the extent they are higher. The real issue is that what Secretary Duncan has been advocating is tying accountability to the tests that are based on those standards. We’ve had 10 years now of accountability tied to tests based on so-called lower standards, and they’ve completely corrupted our education system.

“They’ve made the system much worse. Teachers have had incentives to narrow the curriculum to the things that are tested. Students have been trained to take tests rather than to learn the underlying curriculum. The same thing is going to happen if we tie tests to these higher standards. Teachers will learn what kinds of things are going to be on the test. There’ll be a lot of test preparation going on. The tests will not reflect what children really know but rather how skilled they are at taking tests.

“And it won’t account for all of the other things besides classroom instruction that affect how high student achievement is. So the common core standards are one thing, but the real issue is the attempt — the misguided attempt to have very high stakes attached to tests to measure those standards. Those will corrupt education just as much as now as they have in the past, and it’s unfortunate Secretary Duncan and his colleagues haven’t learned the lessons from No Child Left Behind and are preparing now to implement the same kinds of mistakes that were done in the last 10 years.”

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Duncan, Arne, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

Rich Néw Yorkers Offended by de Blasio Plan to Fund Pre-K Education

By dianeravitch
September 5, 2013 //
51

Bloomberg News reports that the city’s corporate leaders and super-wealthy are offended by mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio’s plan to raise taxes on those earning over $500,000 a year to fund universal pre-K and after school programs for middle school kids.

The head of the business leaders’ group was astonished by de Blasio’s indifference to the needs of corporate executives. ““It shows lack of sensitivity to the city’s biggest revenue providers and job creators,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a network of 200 chief executive officers, including co-Chairman Laurence Fink of BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s biggest money manager.”

Some predicted an exodus of rich people from the city.

What has de Blasio proposed?

“De Blasio’s plan would raise the marginal tax rate on incomes above $500,000 to 4.4 percent from almost 3.9 percent. For the 27,300 city taxpayers earning $500,000 to $1 million, the average increase would be $973 a year, according to the Independent Budget Office, a municipal agency.

“For those making $1 million to $5 million, the average extra bite would rise to $7,793, the budget office said. At incomes of $5 million to $10 million, it would climb to $33,518, and for those earning more than $10 million, it would mean paying $182,893 more.”

Here is the reaction of one hedge fund manager: “E.E. “Buzzy” Geduld, who runs the hedge fund Cougar Capital LLC in the city and is a trustee of Manhattan’s Dalton School, where annual tuition tops $40,000, said de Blasio’s plan “is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard” and “not a smart thing to do.”

Think of the billions that Bloomberg squandered on technology projects that fizzled (like the $600 million Citytime project), the failed merit pay plan ($53 million wasted), the failed plan to pay students to get higher test scores, etc.

The business executives said nothing because no one suggested that they would be taxed to pay for it.

De Blasio is proposing research-based programs. Those who care about education and kids should be cheering and should gladly pay an extra $973 (or more if their income is higher) to do what is right for kids.

Oh, and one more thing. The article says:

“The city’s richest 1 percent took home 39 percent of all earnings in 2012, up from 12 percent in 1980, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group in New York.”

Don’t cry for me, Argentina.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Economy, New York City

Gesell Institute: The Common Core Standards are Wrong for Young Children

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2013 //
32

The Gesell Institute of Human Development issued a statement in 2010 that was completely ignored, but its warning bears hearing.

In March 2010, the Gesell Institute released this statement. It fell on deaf ears.

 

The core standards being proposed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers are off the mark for our youngest learners. We at Gesell Institute call for a new set of standards for Kindergarten through Grade 3 that adhere to solid principles of child development based on what research says about how and what young children learn during the early years, birth to age eight. The proposed standards for Kindergarten through grade 3 are inappropriate and unrealistic. Policy must be set based on hard data and not on unrealistic goals surrounding test scores.

If the achievement gap is to be closed, child development must be respected and scientific research surrounding how children learn must be taken into account. Research clearly shows that early readers do not have an advantage over later readers at the end of third grade, and attempts at closing the achievement gap should not be measured in Kindergarten based on inappropriate standards.

The work of Gesell Institute has long been focused on research and best practice in child development and education – our legacy is based on the ground-breaking work of Dr. Arnold Gesell, a pioneer in the field of child development who observed and documented stages of development with normative data reflecting what children typically do at each age and stage. Currently, our national study collecting developmental information on over 1400 children across the country is in its final stages of data collection. This data, to be released in Fall 2010, is expected to further support what we know about how children develop and what they know at various ages, as well as the importance of focusing on appropriate methods for teaching young children.

We urge the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to respect the individual developmental differences of children and revise the K-3 standards based on research and the advice of experts in the field of early childhood. Having endorsed The Alliance for Childhood’s Joint Statement of Early Childhood Health and Education Professionals on the Common Core Standards Initiative, we support the call to withdraw the early childhood standards and create a consortium of experts “to develop comprehensive guidelines for effective early care and teaching that recognize the right of every child to a healthy start in life and a developmentally appropriate education.” (http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/) 

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Common Core

Her Last Day of Teaching First Grade

By dianeravitch
August 24, 2013 //
62

This came in my private email:

 

As many of you know, I just retired from teaching, having spent most of my career in first grade. Over the last few years, my teaching had become gradually more restricted. Instead of running a center-based day, I was required to run scheduled periods of Fundations, Writing Workshop, Reading Workshop, and (this year) of Envision math. To encourage me to retire, my district had made a financial offer that was difficult to refuse. Almost simultaneously, my daughter had announced that she was pregnant with twins. The decision became easier and easier. As the pressures in New York State increased,  I decided what I wanted to do after retire: support families, fight the tests, tutor children to learn DESPITE the tests. That would mean running workshops for parents about curriculum. But that’s not what I want to write about tonight. I want to tell you about my last few weeks of teaching, and about my last good lesson.  

The district isn’t replacing me next year due to shrinking numbers. Once I announced my retirement, the vultures began to circle – teachers  seeking furniture, leveled books, left over supplies. (All of a sudden, my hoarding had value!) Gradually, my room became emptier and emptier. You’d have thought that my teaching would have suffered, but — I LOVED IT, AND SO DID THE KIDS!!! Painting, gluing, research, math projects; WE ALL RELISHED THE CHANGE! It was a very special time – though teary, for some. I’m not sure why my retiring should result in so many sad children (since I wouldn’t have been their teacher the following year), but there you have it. 

Driving to school on my last full day, I thought about what I could teach that day in my empty classroom. All I had was art paper, scotch tape, and crayons. The kids had already taken home their markers. I thought about how I could say good-bye. I wanted to help them gain some perspective. I wanted them to know they had each other. (I’d already told them they could email.)  I thought about how our paths had crossed and come together so arbitrarily, but how being together in this class had changed all our lives. And then I knew what I’d do! 

I gave each child one piece of 12″ x18″ paper. I told them that each child was to draw a path across the paper. It could be straight across or curved or jagged – whatever. We agreed that the paths would be about a fist wide, and had to be drawn in purple. The rest of the paper was to be decorated with whatever else they thought might have been on their paths this year. 

Everyone did as I requested after a few false starts. Some of the drawings were quite thoughtful and charming.  I then told the kids that we were now going to connect our paths together. I was having a small get together that night, and I told the children we needed something on the wall. Immediately, some of the kids became excited, and tried to put their papers together. I suggested that the kids get on the floor and connect their paths like a puzzle, assemble their work on the floor, and that we’d move it to the wall later. I’d never done this activity before, and had no idea how it would turn out. Over the coarse of the next half hour, I kept telling myself: Remember, it’s process over product.  

As the kids worked, I gradually stepped back. The children were making decisions about which paths connected, which looked best together, which should be moved to a different spot. There were no arguments, even though there were differences of opinion. I handed the kids scotch tape dispensers as needed. I mentioned to one little boy that it was great that there were no fights. He said to me, “Well, remember when I invented a game for the playground and then we all had a fight because I wanted to make all the rules? Remember how you explained to me how a true leader doesn’t make all the rules, but helps others to join in? Well – maybe that’s what we’ve all been doing.” 

I was absolutely floored. 

That’s when I knew how much I’d miss teaching. That feeling of molding a group and helping them become better together than singly – that’s amazing.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Teachers and Teaching
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