The State Board of Education voted Wednesday to have fewer 4-year-old children entering kindergarten. The plan, which still needs approval by the General Assembly, moves up the kindergarten cutoff dates three months to Oct. 1 and will be phased in over four years. The current cutoff is Jan. 1.
The board says that there is now too wide an age range in kindergarten classrooms. The span is 4 to 6½ years old. Less variation in age makes teaching more focused and developmentally appropriate and could help address the state’s achievement gap.
"I think it would be a good change," says Susan Zanone, a kindergarten teacher at Columbus Magnet School in Norwalk who has been teaching for 20 years. "Kindergarten has changed so much. The expectations and requirements are more demanding. Some 4-year-olds are just not ready."
In addition, the state board wants to require parents who are considering delaying their children’s kindergarten entry a year to get approval from local boards of education. Some parents hold back their children because they are not mature enough or to give them an advantage in sports. Alternatively, the change will worry some parents because it means an extra year of preschool fees or inadequate childcare.
Superintendent Susan Marks agrees with changing the age to enter kindergarten, provided that there are good preschool options available. "It's good to start the kids older, as long as there is universal preschool with quality programs," she says.
Currently, Connecticut has one of the latest kindergarten cutoff dates in the nation. The proposed date change would bring the state in line with the rest of the country.
Friday, December 3, 2010
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This is long overdue and important to get CT up to speed. I am especially glad to hear parents who choose to delay their kids' entry to for advantage sake will have to aswer to higher authority. I wish it went into effect for the upcoming school year.
ReplyDeleteWhy October? Why not September?
ReplyDeleteI rarely see any reference made to the Headstart program on this thread. Norwalk has many children enrolled in this pre-school program and I wonder,if the Headstart program were more rigorous and challenging perhaps that would help close the gap of the underacieving students. Are children that don't have English as their primary language taught it at all in Headstart? I'm kind of on the fence about children beginning school earlier. So many of our youngsters from the inner city have negative influences in their lives (and no solutions ahead) will they bring down achievement earlier? Just a thought, please enlighten.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI can easily why someone in CT who has kids with a November or December birthday would hold them back because the differences are pretty staggering between Jan/Feb kids and Nov/Dec kids - at least what I've seen from kindergarten to third grade. Maybe the differences even out by middle school, but Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers leads me to think otherwise. I guess somebody always has to be the youngest in the class, but at least we'd be closer to par with NY and NJ, and it would even the playing field a bit when it comes to college applications.
Why is it going to take 4 years to implement this? Is Hartford afraid of a few angry parents who prefer to redshirt? We are one of the the last 3 states with post-October cut offs. I think it's not only a GREAT idea, but late. Come on, CT. Get up to speed with the rest of the country, on education and more.
ReplyDeleteWe held back our December born daughter for social reasons - would rather her be one year older than some of the other kids than potentially 1.5 years younger than some. Now she is in kindergarten I feel for her teachers and for the kids who are still not five. Glad I did not push her through a year ago!
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