A fairer start for kindergartners?

Eighteen months separate the youngest and oldest students in Lynn Petersen's kindergarten class at Standing Bear Elementary in northwest Omaha.

Reading skills span from pre-kindergarten to the third-grade level. In between are students who work on three-letter words and construct sentences.

Some educators say that those gaps in ages and skills are too wide for today's rigorous kindergarten classrooms.

“We take them where they are, but we just see their struggles,” said Mary Yilk, elementary principal at Doniphan-Trumbull Public Schools, just south of Grand Island, Neb. “When you think what's really best for children, give them every advantage in the classroom.”

Yilk plans to testify today on behalf of Legislative Bill 1006, which would shift the kindergarten eligibility date from Oct. 15 to July 31. That means children who turn 5 in August, September and early October would have to wait a year to start kindergarten in public schools, giving them more time to mature.

Opponents worry that children who wouldn't make the July cutoff date would miss out on a year of learning, particularly children whose parents can't afford quality preschool or child care.

The question of when children should start school is by no means a new one, nor is it an easy one to resolve. The latest debate comes as some of the state's early childhood educators are raising concerns about the push for academics in kindergarten.

“This is one of those polarizing issues in education where my members will sit for hours debating,” said Michael Dulaney, executive director of the Nebraska Council of School Administrators, which has voted to back the bill.

Nationally over the past 30 years, states have trended toward earlier eligibility dates as a way to make sure that children are older when they enter kindergarten. The most common date, set in 18 states, is Sept. 1.

In Iowa, the eligibility date is 5 years old by Sept. 15. The state hasn't considered changing it in recent years, said Elaine Watkins-Miller, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education.

An attempt some years ago to change the date in Nebraska did not advance.

Dulaney said the latest measure, which if passed would take effect during the 2012-13 school year, has the support to move forward. But he's concerned that a $100,000 price tag in this year of no added spending may sideline it. The money would be used to develop a statewide assessment to gauge whether kids can enroll before the cutoff date.

Ready-or-not conversations for next fall are beginning among preschool providers, teachers and parents.

“It's a conversation I have a lot with moms (whose kids) have those summer birthdays,” said Liz Vokal, an Omaha mother of two and wife of former Omaha City Councilman Jim Vokal.

Liz Vokal said she probably will send her son, Will, to preschool again next fall rather than to kindergarten. He turns 5 in June.

Academically, he's ready, she said. He knows his address and phone number and recognizes letters.

But she worries he's not there socially and emotionally. He tends to stick to one friend and gets upset when that friend plays with someone else. He's also gotten upset when corrected.

Child development experts say a big concern in kindergarten is the ability to have the child sit down and attend to a task or story for a certain amount of time, to follow directions and to work with other children.

Five-year-olds, for example, generally have a harder time following those basic rules of school than do children ages 6 to 8, said Dr. Laura Jana, an Omaha pediatrician and owner of the Primrose School of Legacy.

A host of other social, emotional and mental skills, from planning ahead to sequencing numbers, also grow over that age span, she said.

Children, for example, shift from more concrete thinking, where learning stems from their ability to touch or see an object, to a greater ability to see things in the abstract, according to a state report on kindergarten.

Standing Bear, an OPS school near 158th and Taylor Streets, works hard to prepare children and families for kindergarten, Petersen said. The school hosts a curriculum night before classes start and sends home a letter listing expectations parents can share with preschools and child care centers.

But there is only so much time to teach those key social skills in kindergarten, given the focus on academics, said Petersen, who has been teaching kindergartners since 1987.

Petersen pointed to report cards dating to 1974. Back then, teachers checked off whether kindergartners could recognize eight basic colors. This year's version includes several categories for writing.

She said that changing the age at which students can start school is maybe not “the cure-all to the dilemma, but if we can add ... one more opportunity for children to be successful, why wouldn't we do that?”

Lynette Keyes, Standing Bear's principal, said she sees both sides: the increased demands in kindergarten and the need to get children in school early and learning. She leans toward the latter.

“If it means them just sitting at home and not being in a developmental setting, we'd rather take them,” she said of the younger students.

Research indicates that achievement differences among children who start school at different ages even out by third grade, said Melody Hobson, co-administrator of the Nebraska Department of Education's Office of Early Childhood. Younger children, just by being in a classroom, learn at a faster rate.

But not all teachers see it that way, Hobson said. Some say they easily spot age-based differences in classrooms. Others do not.

Principal Yilk, a former third-grade teacher, said she can spot it. Very young students often were followers rather than leaders and had trouble with written and verbal communication because of a lack of life experiences.

“I didn't see the catch-up at the emotional and social level,” she said.

Hobson noted that many variables play into children's development.

“I don't think you can say the younger the child, the more concerns there will be,” she said. “I think it depends on the child's learning style, the child's previous experiences, the environment in the classroom and the environment in the home and the community.”

State Sen. Greg Adams of York, chairman of the Legislature's Education Committee, acknowledged that the change wouldn't eliminate all gaps or solve all problems. “Not every kid's going to look alike coming into the classroom,” he said.

But it would help, he said.

The age change also would move back the eligibility for publicly funded preschool for low-income children, he said. Currently, students cannot, by federal rule, attend publicly funded preschools once they're eligible for kindergarten.

The change would allow some of those younger students to stay in preschool until they're ready for kindergarten.

Contact the writer:

444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com

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