Posts Tagged ‘All-day K’

All-day kindergarten is one of those issues that I just won’t ignore. In some ways it’s become a personal crusade of mine, because I had such a personal experience with it when my oldest son was in kindergarten and the experience I had in trying to actually exercise a choice as a parent to NOT have him in an all-day program.

I oppose “free” all-day kindergarten, because there isn’t any actual educational benefit to kids that last beyond the 3^rd grade. In fact, in my son’s case, his reading skills actually regressed as a result of not being at home with my wife working on reading one-on-one. The link above tells the more complete story.

So I was annoyed when I read this story about how school districts are grappling with what to cut in order to save all-day K. It really isn’t much more than a few hours of free day-care for parents. I know first-hand. I tried to get parents to sign a petition asking for a half-day option a few years ago and I couldn’t get one parent to sign it. The most common reason? “Oh this is great, I’ll have more free time.”

The bottom line is that I don’t want my tax dollars going to subsidize the free time of other parents. And don’t try to argue that is critical for working parents. Sure it helps them, but my wife and I figured it out when our oldest daughter had half day, so it’s not like it’s a new concept or something.

So this is a bit of rant, but like I said, it’s personal.

The Arizona Republic reports that the Deer Valley Unified School District will lay-off 73 teachers and 32 librarians because of funding shortfalls.  This isn’t very good news, but it isn’t unexpected either given the combination of revenue shortfalls and an actual decline in enrollment.

Interestingly, the Republic story didn’t report a fairly major development from the school board meeting – that DVUSD will continue to offer full-day kindergarten.  Below are excerpts of the email sent out by the district on Wednesday.

From: “DVUSD News” webmaster@dvusd.org

Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 4:02 PM

Subject: DVUSD News – DVUSD Saves Full-day Kindergarten

 

 

DVUSD Saves Full-Day Kindergarten

 

At the Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD) Governing Board special meeting held on Tuesday, April 7, the Governing Board recommended staffing reductions to the 2009-10 budget which did not include full-day kindergarten. DVUSD will continue to provide its kindergarteners with full-day curriculum taught by certified teachers.

 

DVUSD Superintendent Dr. Virginia McElyea said, “Keeping full-day kindergarten at no cost to our parents is important to the district. Our full-day kindergarten students have an academic edge over students in half-day kindergarten when measured at the end of the academic year.”

…

 

Families that live outside the district boundaries can enroll their child for a DVUSD school by filling out an open enrollment form and bringing it to the school of their choice.

I’ve already written about my feelings toward full-day K. Notice the caveat in the quote from Dr. McElyea, “Our full-day kindergarten students have an academic edge over students in half-day kindergarten when measured at the end of the academic year.”  What she doesn’t say is that by third grade, any measurable “edge” is lost and there is no difference in the academic performance between students who had full-day K students who had half-day K.

So we sacrifice teachers and librarians over the fad of full-day K.  This is just another example of what is wrong with public education.

The front page of the Arizona Republic on Friday led with a story headlined: “The Human Anguish Of State’s Budget Cuts.”  It is downright tear-jerking.

So, here are the choices.  The Legislature either keeps those cuts in place followed by even more cuts, or we raise taxes, or we cut education funding.

Of the three options, the least harmful to either the economy or poor children is cutting education – specifically All-Day Kindergarten.  There is plenty of evidence that All-Day K does not actually give children long term learning advantages.  In fact, there is both empirical and anecdotal evidence that All-Day K reduces learning.

The anecdotal evidence comes from my own experience with my son Adam.  When he was getting ready to start kindergarten, we lived in the Paradise Valley School district, which passed a bond election to fund “Voluntary All-Day Kindergarten.”

When we went to enroll him, we asked that he attend half-day in the afternoon, because my wife was in the routine of putting the two little girls down for a nap mid-morning and she would work with him on reading while it was quiet.

We were told that there wasn’t a half-day option, because now PV had all-day K.  I said that I didn’t want my son in kindergarten for a full day, and I was told by the admissions person, and then the principal, that half-day wasn’t an option.  I was stunned, and obviously a little irked.  I called the District and asked how it was that the bond campaign clearly said “voluntary” all-day K and now I didn’t have the option of half-day.  There was silence on the other end of the phone and then a suggestion that I talk to the Asst. Superintendent that was in charge of the all-day K curriculum development.

That call was right out of the twilight zone.  I tell the gentleman on the other line that I wanted to know more about all-day K and why, if it was “voluntary,” I didn’t have a half-day option.  He talked about how they spent the spring and early summer working with a committee to develop a wonderful curriculum for all-day K.  I asked him if there was any discussion at all about how to deal with families who would choose a half-day option.  His response? (This is his direct quote to me) “What parent, in their right mind, would choose half-day over full-day?”

Uh, well, maybe the parent on the phone with you, you snobbish, arrogant, elitist educrat!

I was shocked, and really, really angry.  But wait, there’s more!

After two appearances before the school board, two more meetings with the district and many discussions with the principal, we decided that because they were doing reading in the morning and math in the afternoon, we really didn’t have a choice but to keep him in all day.

A few months later it is Christmas break and I ask Adam to sit down and read to me.  To my utter horror, I realized that his reading had regressed.  A lot.

At that point, I’d had it.  This wonderful all-day K was actually hurting my child.  I wrote an email to every legislator at the state capital and Rep. Mark Anderson gave me a call and said that he was going to fix it.  And fix it he did.  It is now state law that if a school offers all-day K, they have to give parents a half-day option that includes all of the state-required curriculum.

So, when it comes to choosing between cutting DES, or cutting all-day K, the legislature should do the right thing and stop hurting 5 year-old kids.  Go back to half-day kindergarten.  As far as my experience shows, if we do that, everybody wins.