in the lifeboat trying to save the kids in the water. You know that 6
of the kids can swim and 8 of them can't. You jump in the water and
start pulling kids to the lifeboat. Which kids do you save first? That
is the choice kindergarten teachers in high-poverty schools face. They
want to save all of them but, because of the dire circumstances, you
have to decide on your priorities.
If I were teaching
Kindergarten in a high-poverty school and had 6 students from Head
Start who already knew many letters, who could get along with peers,
and whose parents were supportive and participated in their child's
education (a Head Start requirement) then I might focus all of my
energies on the 8 kids in my class who didn't know any letters when
they got to school, who were socially delayed, and whose parents were
not supportive of their learning. It is a matter of priority. Just
because a kid enters kindergarten ahead of their peers doesn't mean
they have to leave ahead of their peers. The Head Start kids'
instruction is sacrificed for the progress of the rest of the class.
The Head Start Impact Study
final report released on January 13th found that there were few
benefits by first grade from attending Head Start. This isn't really
surprising to me. Many of the benefits of high-quality pre-k are "time
release" benefits. They don't surface until they are necessary. The
role of Head Start is to level the playing field and to me the report
confirms this function, almost too well.
The
study also had a finding that is very important to advocates of open
access to preschool all over the country. The report states "60
percent of control group parents enrolled their children in some other
type of preschool program in the first year." This suggests that access
to preschool programs was a priority for most of the sample families.
Parents want their children in center-based early childhood settings,
whether they are Head Start or not. It is up to our states to make sure
that these high-quality settings are accessible to all children who
need them.
has also cited the myth of fade as an aspect of Head Start students
being more likely to attend lower quality schools than those who do
not. I have two suspicions that I believe will, in two years,
contradict some of the recent criticism of Head Start brought on by
this study.
By
3rd grade, the higher vocabulary scores of students with Head Start and
pre-k experiences will affect the trajectory of reading ability and
academic success as suggested by Hart & Risley
out is that students who were in the 3 year old program will be
significantly less likely to be referred for special education
services, a cost savings for federal, state and local education
agencies that will outweigh the cost of providing the two years of Head
Start.
My cards are on the table, lets see what happens.
Image" http://www.whitbyweather.com/web_images/lifeboat2small.jpg
