Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The report shows that in the first grade children who have attended junior kindergarten or transitional first grades fall behind children of the same sex, race and socioeconomic status who attended regular kindergarten and went on to first grade. The report was based on data from 55 school divisions.
The study also showed that extra-year programs are disproportionately full of males, minorities and children from low-income families.
Transitional first grade is designed to help children deemed developmentally slow by giving them an extra year after kindergarten to catch up with their peers. Junior kindergarten is a prekindergarten year for 5-year-olds.
Extra-year programs proliferated along with a rise in the number of children failing kindergarten in Virginia and elsewhere in the mid-1980s, often in response to what critics have said are overly academic first grades.
"There's no doubt, we've pushed down the curriculum, and we have very academic first grades," said Jan Adkisson, supervisor of early childhood education in Arlington, where there is only one transitional first-grade class and no plans to add more. "When you're a kindergarten teacher, you say, `I don't want this child going on to that.' "
Proponents say children will see success in transitional first grades and junior kindergarten. They will not only be better equipped for their future schoolwork but will be less likely to drop out of school later, say supporters, whose ranks five years ago included the Department of Education.
The new study signals a change in department emphasis, according to state officials.
"What we'll be trying to do is redirect our efforts toward prevention rather than remediation by keeping students with their peers" instead of retaining them, said Assistant Superintendent Callie Shingleton. "There may be more productive ways of approaching developmental differences between children."
Shingleton and other educators say the best strategy is to redesign kindergarten and primary grade programs so they are less academic and more flexible.
Findings in the Virginia study parallel those in at least a dozen others published elsewhere within the last several years.
Virtually all show that students not only fail to make academic strides in the extra-year programs, but often see their two years there as "flunking." Research shows many students who are held back subsequently drop out of school.
by CNB