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Getting It Right from the Start

Some educators believe increased academic rigor in the pre-K years is the answer to the achievement gap, but others say it's too much too soon

By Carolyn Kleiner Butler | Photographs by Jean-Christian Bourcart

Back in 2000, when Claire Cohen received her Teach For America corps assignment-teaching kindergarten in Franklin, La.-she was excited to teach her young students how to read. However, on the first day of school, it became apparent that other lessons had to come first. Few of the children could recognize letters, let alone words, and many others lacked the vocabulary to identify common objects such as chairs or pencils. Cohen noticed, too, that many of the students had trouble following instructions to line up while others had not learned how to play cooperatively or share.

Setting aside her reading curriculum, Cohen devoted the first half of the year to playing catch up-teaching her students the basics of school readiness, such as letter recognition and sounds, number sense, and social skills. "These kids, at 5, were already so far behind," says Cohen. "I just kept thinking, 'I've got to get them earlier.'"

Getting to students sooner is a notion that has gained momentum in the education policy world in recent years. With mounting research showing the ongoing benefits of preschool, more educators, legislators, parents, and advocates are calling for increased access and improvements to early childhood education.

In fact, the new focus on pre-K may well stem from the No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, which begins testing students for math and literacy proficiency in the third grade. Educators and politicians are banking on early intervention to better prepare students to meet the law's requirements-and preempt the achievement gap. Forty states now fund pre-K programs, and they have allocated $1.2 billion in new support in the last two years alone. Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma offer universal pre-K to 4-year-olds, and others, including Illinois and Massachusetts, are moving in that direction.

There is little disagreement that the situation is particularly urgent in low-income communities, where children may have less exposure to experiences that help prepare them for reading. According to a 1995 study on children's language acquisition by psychologists at the University of Kansas, vocabulary exposure and growth varies sharply according to class: By age 3, the children of parents on welfare had less than half the vocabulary of their peers with professional parents.

"Studies have shown that low-income children start kindergarten up to 18 months behind," says Ellen Frede, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University and associate professor of early childhood education at the College of New Jersey. The effects typically snowball from there. But early intervention can help: "There is a large body of research that shows the beneficial effects of high-quality preschool for all children but for low-income ones in particular," Frede says.

So, what does excellent early childhood education look like? Availability and access aside, educators remain staunchly divided over what, when, and how our youngest students should be learning. One camp supports a more play-based approach that focuses on socioemotional development and learning through exploration, while the other maintains that children benefit most from a more academically rigorous approach that incorporates standards-based instruction and greater accountability.

Tiffani Curtis (L.A. '92) is the executive director of the Academy for Early Learning, a nonprofit program in Inglewood, Calif., that favors the more play-based route. "We've now turned preschool into 'pre-K,' a very academic approach ... and I think this is doing a disservice to children," Curtis says. "At 4, are kids really ready to sit down at a desk and have homework packets and standardized exams and tests? Or even at 5? What's the rush?"

"What we know is that children learn best through play," says Meredith Lewis, co-director of the Center for Early Childhood Professionals in the division of continuing education at Bank Street College in New York. She warns against falling into the trap of thinking children from disadvantaged backgrounds need a different model. "It's almost more essential for low-income students to learn through play," she says, "and for teachers to be in tune with individual children's needs and to ask open-ended questions and use a lot of rich vocabulary and to vary language experiences and to encourage creativity and questioning, so children gain those skills in a way that's right for them."

While Lewis is not opposed to standards and accountability, she does question the need for strict benchmarks of student achievement in the early years. "All children aren't ready to read at any given time. You can't say 5 [years old] is the right time, the mandated time, because all children are going to develop at a different rate," she says. "Research alerts us to the fact that it's possible for children to do more, but we need to make sure it's based on when children are ready-not when we say they should be ready."

Along these lines, the teachers at Curtis's school encourage children to explore, engage, ask questions, and figure out lessons and problems at their own pace. While the school does have standards and a core curriculum, teachers make adjustments when necessary to allow for individualized learning. "A true developmental approach," Curtis says, "offers all of the academic concepts-like learning the alphabet by sight and sound, learning your colors, learning your numbers and how to write them, learning your animals and the sounds they make-from an approach that speaks to what stage a child is at to grasp this information."

Teaching 2- or 3-year- olds about the color red might involve munching on red apples, discussing the fruit's color, and then painting with red watercolor. Curtis says this promotes communication skills, builds arm muscles, and improves hand-eye coordination. Tic-tac-toe and matching games can help develop pre-math skills, and a free-for-all with marshmallows and wooden blocks reinforces the concept of hard versus soft. "Let me let you touch it, feel it, taste it, experience it-then you'll hold onto it and grasp it longer," says Curtis.

There is also lots of time for playing, running, and jumping, which Curtis says is necessary to develop gross motor skills, burn excess energy, prevent obesity, and hone communication and self-regulation skills. "The value of play is significant in the life of a child, because children are naturally joyful, naturally inquisitive and playful," she says. Allowing kids to maintain this state enables them to "feel so secure they're able to soak up anything you give them-which is learning."

Although all of Curtis's charges do not leave the school able to read, she is confident that they are prepared for kindergarten-emotionally, physically, academically, and socially. "Every kid will have an interest in reading when they leave here, will have exposure to reading, and if we see they can read, we will encourage that," says Curtis. "But for that to be our goal-well, we would be highly disappointed. Not to mention the fact that we wouldn't have time for anything else. At 4, do kids even have an established language pattern yet? Let's try to get them to speak properly and to appreciate language. The rest of it will come."

While the school does not formally track its graduates, Curtis notes that the majority of families stay in touch and let her know how children are doing. "[Families] say that their teachers love them, that they're active, they're involved, they're reading, they're very well-adjusted socially and emotionally-that they're just very prepared for the standards of kindergarten. But most importantly, that they love school."

Cristin Fiorelli (Metro D.C. '98), a principal-in-training fellow with the St. Hope Public Schools in Sacramento, echoes this sentiment. "Part of early childhood is preparing children to be successful in school later on, preparing them to love the process of learning," says Fiorelli, who is designing a structured, play-based program called the Triumph Center for Early Childhood Education, which will launch in September. "If this is their first formal experience at a school, engaged in the process of learning, and if that process is worksheets and the teacher talking at them for extended periods of time, then that's their vision of what learning means. In my opinion, at ages 3 and 4, that's really sad."

Yet proponents of the more rigorous academic approach contend that play-based learning and academic rigor are not only perfectly compatible, but, in fact, can be more effective when combined. Moreover, many say, the commonly evoked image of toddlers filling out worksheets and cramming for tests is stereotype rather than reality.

Aaron Brenner (R.G.V. '95) leads KIPP SHINE Prep, a Houston pre-K through first grade school where last year the average kindergartner-with no exclusions for disabilities-was reading at the second grade level. Brenner's students are in school from 7:45 a.m. until 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. every day. The preschoolers have a packed schedule of at least two hours of literacy, an hour of math, a Spanish immersion class, science, and social studies. Yet they also have an hour of naptime, recess, and 90 minutes of art, music, or soccer-as well as plenty of time spent working on core beliefs and community. "It's very rigorous, but at the same time balanced," says Brenner. "You don't see kids who are tired, sad, or exhausted-they're happy and energized.

"You're not going to walk into SHINE and see a traditional setup, with kids in desks and rows," he says. Preschoolers move throughout the day, from sitting at tables in small groups to the story carpet to various learning centers where they work with materials from crayons to computers. "You are going to see lots of moments where they are collectively thinking and talking as a team with a teacher. Most of the time that learning is going to be facilitated by the one or even two teachers in the room, to combine some form of direct learning and teaching with a lot of self-discovery, either in small groups or on their own."

And students at this age are ready, according to Sue Bredekamp, director of research at the Council for Professional Recognition, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that oversees the credentialing of early childhood teachers. In the past, she says, there was a strong conviction that pre-K and kindergarten were primarily for social and emotional development-for helping children to learn to make friends and follow directions. "What we've come to understand is [that] when you change the task and the context, they are more capable of doing things than we realize."

Bredekamp believes all children-regardless of background or ability-need exposure to engaging and intellectually stimulating experiences in all areas, including literacy, math, social studies, and art. Kindergartners, she says, are perfectly ready to tackle phonological awareness, vocabulary and oral language, the concept of print, and simple addition and subtraction.

Furthermore, she argues, we have a moral obligation to make pre-K as rigorous as possible-especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who may have fewer opportunities for enrichment. "If we don't push kids in this way, then we are certainly shortchanging those who don't have those experiences at home," she says. "The more you can intervene in the earlier stage, the more effective, more efficient, and frankly, more humane it is than waiting for a child to fail later on."

Brenner agrees that the stakes are too high to waste time. "We have to have rigorous expectations," he says, noting that his school adopted a first grade curriculum in kindergarten and a second grade curriculum in first grade. "The reality is, if kids are coming in, the majority at a deficit in terms of vocabulary and the ability to read, write, and speak fluent English, then it's our responsibility to do whatever it takes, in a developmentally appropriate way, to achieve high levels of success in all standards."

SHINE's principal also believes that, taught in the right way, a wide range of content can be appropriate for early education. In January, SHINE preschoolers increased their phonetic awareness and vocabulary by tracing the roots of their neighborhoods and communities; they talked about Houston's historically African-American and Latino districts and the new Chinatown; they role-played about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and performed a "peace rap" at the school's annual candlelight vigil. Art class had them painting self-portraits by mixing white, brown, yellow, and red paint to match their skin tones. This activity set the stage for a conversation about diversity and acceptance, as well as for vocabulary enrichment-learning the basic terms of facial anatomy.

SHINE pre-K teacher Zarabeth Parker Davis (Delta '00) is used to employing creative strategies to teach her standards-based curriculum, all while taking cues from her students. "I gauge the appropriateness of my instruction by the reactions of my students," she says. "If they are happy and learning, it's going well. If they're frustrated or off-task, I probably took it too far or went the wrong way." Davis often uses games to introduce more advanced concepts. For example, she teaches early reading skills through a paper dice exercise that allows the kids to use their muscles and bodies. "They have fun with it, even though it's sounding out and blending sounds, which is an early reading skill that's often not done with this age group," she says.

Another lesson, about the digestive system, entails students cutting out paper body parts and discussing how the teeth, tongue, and saliva work together to break down food. This culminates in a full-blown reenactment of the digestive process-complete with a piece of chocolate cake, a bag of green water representing digestive juices, two rows of children squeezing each other to simulate esophageal contractions, and a chorus of enthusiastic "gushing" noises from the class. "It's not the full concept, but it's the beginning, at their level," says Davis. "It's something that they'll remember and that will come into play when they're in a fourth grade classroom."

To Brenner, this kind of active learning supports a deeper understanding than scripted, direct instruction, which can yield superficial progress without developing complex comprehension or children's voices. Says Brenner: "If you ask a 4-year-old at SHINE, 'Who's Dr. King?' 10 minutes later, he or she may still be talking."

Seven years after her corps experience, Claire Cohen, the kindergarten teacher from Louisiana, is the director of early learning for a Head Start and preschool program called the Community Education Alliance of West Philadelphia. All the traditional day-care elements-naptime, recess, and play-are there, but the program has a decidedly academic focus. Children are encouraged to study the shapes of buildings and draw a plan before building with blocks. At the kitchen play station, students must write a grocery list and figure out how much money they can save with mock coupons.

The children are read to at least three times a day and have homework every night, whether it's reading with a parent, a name-writing worksheet, or an assignment to see how many forks it takes to measure their kitchen table. "This also helps parents realize they can work with their children at home," says Cohen, who further encourages family involvement by providing a free book bin for adults. At ages 3 and 4, she says, children enjoy extra help and attention rather than being discouraged.

Still, Cohen admits she wishes there was more time for the kids to be, well, kids. "Ideally, they would be playing more, to be honest, because it's an important and valuable way to learn at this age, and they need that social interaction and positive social experience," she says. "Unfortunately, our kids don't have that luxury."

Yet as she sees her current preschoolers reading, most of them already at a kindergarten or first grade level, Cohen feels certain that this is the right path. And she can't help but think of her first class of students back in Louisiana. "We are leveling the playing field," Cohen says, "not catching them up, but helping them stand on solid equal footing right from the beginning."