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A Standardisto View of Kindergarten
Ohanian Comment: So who makes the rules about what a kindergartner needs to know? Do they really need to know anything? Isn't learning things what school is about? The article title (listed below) indicates we "lose" if six-year-olds can't write their names when they start kindergarten. Lose? Lose what? Why do we let the corporate-politico goons turn school into a pressure cooker? It's past time to take back our schools!
We lose if 'preparation gap' not closed
By JAMES T. CAMPBELL
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Jared (not his real name) is a 5-year-old, African-American boy with a captivating smile and a curious mind. He enters kindergarten at an HISD school this week. Like most 5-year-olds, he's excited at the prospect, even though he can't spell his first or last name, knows he's 5, but can barely count to 10, and has no clue about his home address or phone number. Jared's also a mumbler. And, at times, his words are barely comprehensible.
In football parlance, Jared will be starting elementary school 20 yards behind his peers -- at some Houston Independent School District schools. But at this particular HISD school, in a part of town some would politely described as being "not so good,"Jared could very well be 10 yards ahead of some his peers.
Meanwhile, William (not his real name), also black and 5, will enter kindergarten at another HISD school located in a "good" part of town. William also has a great smile and keen mind. As well, he's excited about kindergarten. He can spell simple words, including his first and last name, count past 100, knows his home phone and address and will assertively articulate them when asked. When William and his peers are seated in their classroom today they likely will be on near even terms, save the exceptional kindergartener who is already reading Harry Potter books.
So, what gives? What, so far, has been the difference-maker in the lives of these two black boys? The answer is simple: It's called "preparation gap." Hugh Price, former president of the National Urban League, in his noted book, Achievement Matters: Getting Your Child the Best Education Possible, identifies the "preparation gap" as: "The gap between what poor and minority children know vs. what they need to know in order to meet state academic standards, move from one grade to the next, and eventually graduate from high school."
Price contends that unless this preparation gap is closed, low-achieving minority students "will stay stuck behind the eight ball, woefully unqualified for higher education and the increasingly demanding world of work."
In other words, forget defending affirmative action or any other hand up if minority kids aren't adequately prepared to take advantage of educational and professional opportunities.
Jared is illustrative of a Carnegie Corp. report that found that "as many as one-third of American children enter kindergarten already behind their age group." Why? Because either they didn't attend pre-school or the one that they did attend was lousy, providing little more than a meal and a diaper change -- maybe. Jared did not attend preschool because his single mother said she couldn't afford it. More telling, however, she said she was unaware of services, like Head Start, available to help her.
Conversely, William was fortunate enough to have parents who could afford $10,000 a year to send him to a well-regarded preschool starting at age 2, where he began developing the foundational skills to prepare him to compete on day one of kindergarten.
Jared is already behind the eight ball. Even sadder, the preparation gap that separates him from William likely will not narrow. Indeed, it is likely to widen as ill-prepared kids like Jared move through elementary, middle and perhaps high school, if they get that far.
What to do? Part of the answer lies in the home. Of course, more two-parent minority households would help, but those parents must be engaged in helping to educate their children. I know of some two-parent homes where the children aren't so accomplished. I also know several single moms whose kids are high achievers.
Organizations like Preschool For All (www.preschoolforall.org), a joint effort between the Center for Houston's Future and the Greater Houston Collaborative for Children, holds the other part of the answer. The group rightly recognized the existence of a preparation gap here and in Texas when it involved more than 100 members of the Houston business, early childhood, public education, government and philanthropic communities to examine the benefits that a quality preschool program can provide to 3- and 4-year-olds in this region.
They found quality preschool programs here lacking. The group's co-chair, Rob Mosbacher, was on target when he wrote in a Chronicle op-ed last April that "With the increased demands of the new TAKS test and a high school dropout rate that is unacceptably high, we must work to ensure that the young children of Texas can access a quality preschool program and obtain the critical foundational skills they need. "
We as a community can do nothing. Or, as Mosbacher challenged, we can "make a commitment to all of our community's children that quality preschool education is an important first step" and set about to make it available to the needy. While it would be easy to assign this as just a "black" or "Latino" problem, know that "we" all lose if the preparation gap is not closed.
— James T. Campbell
We lose if 'preparation gap' not closed
Houston Chronicle
2003-08-18
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/2050205
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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