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The Policy Challenge - How to Address Gaps in Kindergarten Readiness

Over the past few years as a Kindergarten teacher, I have noticed a lack of options for quality early childhood education. This means that many students are entering Kindergarten at Lone Rock with little to no preschool experience. This is affecting their behaviors and academic readiness in the classroom. Kindergarten has become increasingly structured and academic over the past 10 years, so it is absolutely necessary for students to enter with a higher degree of readiness. This readiness needs to involve both social-emotionally maturity and academic.

In addition, the district gets a lot of phone calls every year inquiring about early-entry, which is the process of students past the September 10th cut off date being approved for Kindergarten. These requests are accepted or denied by the School Board based on specific circumstance. Parents are interested in early entry for a variety of reasons. Some of these include wanting to enter their child early due to lack of options for childcare, or feeling their child has academically excelled in a preschool program, so a Kindergarten program would challenge them.

We've seen that with our past early entry students, even if they excelled academically in an early learning environment, most start to struggle by mid-year in Kindergarten or have slower academic growth than other students (see evidence below for details). So the issue has become two-fold: How do we address gaps in Kindergarten Readiness while also serving students who might be academically ready, but not mature enough?

EVIDENCE

I started by looking at scores of students who were early entry from the past two years (just with letter-sound acquisition). Typically, we only allow these students to enroll if they have solid academic skills or their birthday is extremely close to our cut-off date. Because of this, these students typically enter academically higher than students who are already a solid 5 years old. However, as you see on the graph to the left where I compared their progress, these students still acquired new sounds at a slower growth rate than those who entered Kindergarten at age 5.

I then looked at scores of students who did not attend preschool from the past two years (again, just with letter-sound acquisition). I compared their progress with with students who did attend at least a full year of a preschool program. As you can see on the graph to the left, these students entered Kindergarten with more knowledge and had a higher growth rate on average than those who did not have any preschool experience.

INCORPORATING DIVERSE STAKEHOLDERS

I included diverse stakeholders in the exploratory committee, but also by making sure others were informed. The committee included a behavioral specialist, teachers from lower and upper grades, a counselor, a parent, and a substitute teacher who will be student teaching with me in the fall. However, administration will receive all the notes from our meeting and a board member has requested to stay informed during the process.

It is important for them that this challenge be addressed because it affects them all in unique ways. For example, the behavioral specialist and counselor are involved because if we had a TK program, they would most likely see less extreme behavior issues in the future. Teachers from quite a few grades are involved as Kindergarten sets up the educational journey for many of their students, so if the students do not enter 1st grade with a solid academic background, then it is hard for them to regain the ground needed to be successful. The parent is excited to address this as they are involved in the local homeschooling community, and thinks that more would attend public school if shorter programs were offered for younger ages. The administration and the board think it needs to be addressed because they think this program might attract more students to the school.

promoting equity

Addressing this challenge will promote equity as more students from low-income households would have access to the educational opportunities that their peers already have. Presumably, this program would also start exposing children to culture and diversity at a younger age, making it more likely that students will retain the information.

implementing policy

It is my intention to implement a new policy and a new program, one that revolves around furthering education for younger students. This new program would cater to children who turn 5 years old in the summer or winter months, so presumably anytime from June-December. It would be a transitional Kindergarten, possibly half-day, and would help students get prepared for the academic challenges of Kindergarten in a low-pressure environment. The program would focus on social/behavioral skills as well as academic. In order for this new program to be implemented, a new policy must be written (or current policy amended) to address how these students would enter and if they need board approval.

This policy and program might by a viable solution for my challenge as it addresses the question I asked above; How do we address gaps in Kindergarten Readiness while also serving students who might be academically ready, but not mature enough? For students who are usually considered early-entry, this would provide an opportunity for them to explore Kindergarten material while also having time to mature enough to handle the rigors of Kindergarten. For students who lack preschool experience, if they have a birthday from June-December they can enter the program to be introduced the social/behavioral skills and academic prep necessary.

Overarching Competencies

  • Interpersonal Effectiveness

This competency is relevant to this challenge as I will be working with many of my colleagues as well as administration, and I need to build these relationships in order for us to create a shared vision.

  • Group Processes

This competency is relevant to this challenge as I will need to work with and lead a diverse group of stakeholders to not only understand this issue more thoroughly, but also to make sure the right changes are made that best serve the students.

  • Explore and Challenge Inequity

This competency is important to this challenge as the issue involves inequity as its deepest issue. I need to respond to this inequity and strive to implement equitable policies for our youngest students.

  • Advocacy

This competency is relevant for this challenge as I will be advocating for a new policy to address this inequity. If something is going to change to address this challenge, it needs to happen at a district level.

When looking at the competencies, I put a star by the areas I needed to work on to grow as a leader. A picture of this can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PUQx4a-Bny92UNpdXyQ43ypzfoQ1r3u8/view?usp=sharing