THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512030057
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
There are kindergartners in Pasquotank County who don't know it's dangerous to tumble off the top of a slide - something most 3-year-olds have learned.
Some first-year students view book lessons as nothing more than a random event, while most of their peers understand they're learning to read.
A handful of kindergartners don't even know their own names, says district Assistant Superintendent Mack McCary.
These are among the most troubling examples of children coming to kindergarten without the skills needed to succeed in school. Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools officials say that roughly one in five kindergartners in the district lacks the ``smarts'' needed to learn on a level playing field.
That means four or five kids in each kindergarten classroom are behind before they even start.
These numbers are the result of a new study district educators developed this year to measure children's skills. The test, replacing an earlier measure officials weren't pleased with, was worked out over several months by kindergarten teachers, administrators and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
``We really wanted to find out and let the community know what children need to know before they start kindergarten,'' said Lillie Perry, early childhood coordinator for the district.
The test is ``a start for trying something different,'' Perry said. ``It appears to be telling us what we need to know.''
The study measured whether students were performing to expectations in 32 skills reflecting seven broad categories of intelligence, or ``smarts'': words, numbers, music, pictures, body, people and self.
Conducted through observations of the district's 526 kindergarten students this fall, the study shows that the majority were able to communicate basic needs, feed themselves, play safely, control their body functions, take turns and share.
But the key areas in which many students lag - following directions, comparing and sorting, learning in groups and understanding the purpose of school - ``are areas that are much harder to do something about than teaching a kid to read,'' McCary said.
Teachers are noticing that gaps in those basic skills, which must be addressed before more academic pursuits can take place, are becoming more common.
``We're finding the children coming in more immature at 5 years old now,'' said Beverly Thomas, a kindergarten teacher at Pasquotank Elementary who helped develop the readiness test. ``I think it has a lot to do with drugs, young parents, teenagers having babies.''
The problems these children face generally result from inattention by parents who don't take the time in formative years to deliver a basic understanding of how the world works and relates to their kids.
In many cases, district officials said, it's because parents don't know what to do. Some keys to development, Perry said, are:
Read to your children every day.
Take children on errands such as grocery shopping and let them talk about what they see. Ask them questions that make them think about what they're saying.
Train children to memorize their telephone numbers and other important personal information.
In addition to the overall picture provided by the district's study, evaluations of each kindergartner will help teachers target the specific skills students need to catch up on, officials said.
``It will make our people much more aware,'' Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools Superintendent Joe Peel said. ``And it may have some program implications at the kindergarten level and maybe at the first-grade level.''
The information also should benefit the whole community, Peel said. The system plans to share results with parents, pediatricians and local administrators of Smart Start, the state's early intervention program targeting pre-kindergarten children.
The district's pre-K program and the efforts of Pasquotank's fledgling Smart Start operation ``really have helped,'' Thomas said. But the information needs to go further.
``We need to . . . get out into the community,'' Thomas said, ``talking with the parents and helping them to understand what's expected of their children.'' by CNB