What Happened to Kingergarten Being a Transition Year?

Whatever Happened to Kindergarten Being the Transition Year?

BY JIM LARICCIA, ED.D.

Nothing is more exciting than the first day of kindergarten, and nothing can be more disheartening than a depressed 5-year-old not wanting to go to school. Can this change happen within a 3-month period? Yes, it can and when it does, it is devastating to the parents, the teachers, and most of all, the child. What happens to the eagerness, the enthusiasm, and the fervor to go to school to meet new friends and learn new things? I believe it is more than a dopamine letdown. our country. The days of the kindergarten’s principal and teachers waiting to see who walks through the door on the first day school are long gone. Transition strategies must be data-driven, cooperative, proactive, and communal.

Data Driven: Research suggests that there are red flags for students entering kindergarten. Each flag can be better explained as at-risk factors.

The kindergarten letdown can range from not getting what was wanted for Christmas to jumping in a pool for the first time and the water is expectantly very cold. What parents haven’t told their children how much fun kindergarten will be? The days leading up to the first day of kindergarten include new clothes, new book bag, new pencils, and new crayons. The excitement seems to build and build. Why? Because many of those same parents had a positive kindergarten experience, and they remember the excitement of getting ready for kindergarten and what ensued that school year. So, there is puzzlement on the parents’ faces when Billy and Suzy don’t want to go to school anymore and want to stay home. As compared to today one thing is different from years ago when Billy’s and Suzy’s parents attended kindergarten—kindergarten is not the same kindergarten. Only in name is it the same.

How has kindergarten changed? Let’s start with the length of day. Most school districts have gone to a full day kindergarten. Instead of being there for half day, they are in school a full day from kindergarten all the way through senior year in high school. The structure of the school day is different. Daily schedules include transitions for breakfast, lunch, recess, nap time, computer lab, library, change of class (specials), and instruction. Billy’s and Suzy’s parents’ kindergarten classes were different. Once centered on how to be good listeners to the teachers and learning how to play together and share with peers, there was more time for social interaction between students and staff. Socialization was a lesson in the lesson plan book. Billy’s and Suzy’s parents were encouraged to be creative with toys and manipulatives. This leads to the difference in academics of the school day. Billy and Suzy’s parents were immune to today’s highpressure testing trickle-down effect. Today’s kindergarten students are expected to read by the end of their first school year.

46 principal navigator 2 Kindergarten is no longer the transitional year for first grade as it was intended to be. Will it ever come back? I doubt it. But for now, school districts can help create transition strategies to help the students in Entry Age: Research suggests older kindergarten entrants scored significantly higher academically than younger kindergarten entrants (Wiechiel, 1988). Kindergarten multilevel models show that the youngest students have consistently lower scores than the oldest students (Huang & Invernizzi, 2012). Studies suggest that children who entered at a later chronological age scored consistently higher on cognitive and non-cognitive skill sets than their younger classmates (Lubotsky & Kaestner, 2016). A recent study concluded that students entering kindergarten turning five after August 1 were as high as 63% more likely to be unsuccessful on MAPs testing (LaRiccia, 2018).

No Preschool Experience: Preschool provides cognitive and social development advantageous for kindergarten and beyond (Pianta, Barnett, Burchinai, & Thornburg, 2009). Preschool experience is a prerequisite to kindergarten success (Furlong & Quirk, 2011). Children who attend preschool are more likely to exhibit positive social interaction skills in kindergarten (Goble et al., 2017).

No Early Interventions: The earlier a child is identified with a disability, the earlier the disability can be addressed. Waiting for the child to be tested for a disability in kindergarten is a double whammy. Research shows early detection will lead to early results and students with learning disabilities having support services in place when starting kindergarten will adjust quicker to the rigor of kindergarten than unidentified students with disabilities. Another topic at our meetings is mental health. Concerns include depression (quiet, uninvolved, little motivation, “I don’t care”); anger (obstinate, attention seeking, oppositional, meltdowns); disoriented (unable to follow two-step directions, poor short-term memory); and unsocial (no self-space, hands on others, interrupting, not sharing or waiting for turn). Common triggers causing red flags are separated families, traumatic illnesses or deaths, parents in prison, and parental drug addiction. Clinical counseling before starting kindergarten may help lighten the burden of at-risk students in kindergarten.

Exposure to Kindergarten Rigor: Twenty years ago, if there was a kindergarten report card, the words read or reading were absent. Today’s report cards include the following:

• Prints own first name • Prints own last name • Reads kindergarten sight words • Reads and blends consonant-vowel-consonant words • Reads grade-level text • Identifies the beginning sound of the word • Identifies the number of syllables in word • Provides a rhyming word for a given word • Can identify rhyming words

Cooperative: The new best friends of kindergarten principals and teachers are the preschool staff. In my district, we created the Early Childhood Transitional Team which developed effective strategies for students, staff, and parents to prepare incoming kindergarten students. The team is comprised of preschool staff, kindergarten staff, community resource staff, parents, and the principal. We meet for breakfast twice a year to team build and develop relationships which opens the door to frank discussion and suggestions to better prepare 4- and 5-year-olds for kindergarten. Meeting sites vary to provide opportunities for area preschools to host. Preschool staffs are encouraged to use our district to offer a variety of preschool special education services.

Proactive: Each preschool has a designated Kindergarten Investigation Day in the spring. Investigation Day includes students and parents riding a school bus to school. The parents and students are separated for approximately two hours. The students are dropped off into a welcoming, well prepared, predetermined kindergarten classroom. They are buddied with kindergarten students and partake in activities including art, music, and physical education. The parents spend the morning meeting with me, kindergarten staff, lunch staff, and community resources. The morning ends with the kindergarten class and their buddies enjoying snacks in the cafeteria. Parents meet them in the café and return back to their preschool by school bus.

Communal: Any school district which hosts kindergarten needs to address the change in kindergarten expectations from yesteryear’s expectations. My district is in discussion to create and produce Northwest Local Schools’ sponsored Early Childhood Transition gatherings for area preschools and parents of children between the ages of 3 and 5. Topics not limited to, but may include: • 21st Century kindergarten expectations • Identifying atypical development • Grandparents raising children • Internet safety • Advantages of preschool • When is counseling necessary? • Setting standards at home • What you should expect from your school district • Is it okay to wait to send your child to kindergarten? • Home schooling is an option

addressed earlier, we may all have been created equal but not all children entering kindergarten are equally prepared for the challenges that await their young minds and bodies. In the attempt to address data-driven expectations, what about the following suggestions?

• Adopt a district policy to have the kindergarten entry cutoff date for August 1st instead of September 30th. • Adopt a policy for students turning five after August 1st and/ or having no legitimate preschool experience to attend half day kindergarten the first semester. • Create a Kindergarten Transitional Class of 20 students or fewer with an aide. Common characteristics of class members would include students without legitimate preschool experience, turned 5 after August 1st, scored below average on screener, and were identified by preschool as being at risk for kindergarten.

As educators and parents, we must accept the fact that kindergarten has changed over the years. To debate the change would be futile, but to embrace the change is necessary to advocate for the child. Nothing can be more exciting than the first day of kindergarten, but nothing can be more disheartening than a depressed 5-year-old not wanting to go to school. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Working together to meet the needs of our youngest is in everyone’s best interest.

Dr. Jim LaRiccia has served 41 years in education. He spent 21 years as a principal and 20 years as a teacher. He started at Northwest Primary in 2001. He was an administrator in public, private, and charter schools. He lives in Austintown, Ohio with his wife, Betsy. She serves at Heartland Christian School as the elementary principal. He received all his degrees from Youngstown State University including his doctorate in Educational Leadership in May 2018. You can contact the author via email at dr.lariccia@yahoo.com and via Twitter at @ laricciaj.

References • Furlong, M., & Quirk, M. (2011). The relative effects of chronological age on hispanic students’ school readiness and grade 2 academic achievement. Contemporary School Psychology, 15, 81-92. • Goble, P., Eggum-Wilkens, N. D., Bryce, C. I., Foster, S. A., Hanish, L. D., Martin, C. L., & Fabes, R. A. (2017). The transition from preschool. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 49, 55–67. • Huang, F., & Invernizzi, M. (2012). The association of kindergarten entry age with early literacy outcomes. Journal of Educational Research, 105(6), 431-441. • LaRiccia, J. A. (2018). A quantitative study on the relationship between kindergarten enrollment age and kindergarten students on reading improvement monitoring plans (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Akron, Akron, OH. • Lubotsky, D., & Kaestner, R. (2016). Do skills beget skills? Evidence on the effect of kindergarten entrance age on the evolution of cognitive and non-cognitive skill gaps in childhood. Economics of Education Review, 53, 194-206. • Pianta, R. C., Barnett, W. S., Burchinal, M., & Thornburg, K. R. (2009). The effects of preschool education. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10(2) 49–88. • Wiechiel, J. M. (1988). An exploratory study: Academic readiness based on age of entry at kindergarten.