“Read with sufficient accuracy and [...]]]>

Kindergarten has traditionally been a wonderful world of discovery and playful learning. It has been a place where young children grow in their independence, form relationships outside the family circle, and learn about the world around them in a thoughtful and [...]]]> You know something is wrong when a kindergartner asks: “Mom, can I retire from school?”

Kindergarten has traditionally been a wonderful world of discovery and playful learning. It has been a place where young children grow in their independence, form relationships outside the family circle, and learn about the world around them in a thoughtful and inviting environment.

If you are a regular reader of Empowered by Play, if you have a child in kindergarten right now, or if you are an early childhood educator, you know about the current crisis in early childhood education. The pressures of our high-stakes testing world has encroached dramatically on early childhood classrooms, taking away playful learning and replacing it with incessant assessments and developmentally inappropriate expectations.  I’ve heard from experienced teachers who are leaving the classroom because they can no longer, in good conscience, be a part of a system that is harmful to children. This weekend I heard about a mom whose son is struggling in public preschool. She isn’t sure what is going on, though he has been sent home from school a few times. When the mom asked the teacher what exactly is going on with her son, the teacher admitted that she just didn’t know since she doesn’t have time to talk to her students. The teacher is too busy trying to “get through” all the lessons and assessments she is mandated to keep up with, and revealed that she has a conversation with each child about once a week. Once a week!!!

It truly is time to stop the madness. Read below the recent statement signed by hundreds of early childhood health and education professionals. A deep thanks to the incredible folks at Alliance for Childhood, Ed Miller and Joan Almon, for making this happen. Please check out the Alliance for Childhood website, where a complete list of signers will be available soon. I urge you to help spread the word to parents, teachers, the press and politicians.

Joint Statement of Early Childhood Health and Education Professionals on the Common Core Standards Initiative

Issued by the Alliance for Childhood

March 2, 2010

www.allianceforchildhood.org

We have grave concerns about the core standards for young children now being written by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The draft standards made public in January conflict with compelling new research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhood education about how young children learn, what they need to learn, and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades.

We have no doubt that promoting language and mathematics is crucial to closing the achievement gap. As written, however, the proposed standards raise the following concerns:

• Such standards will lead to long hours of instruction in literacy and math. Young children learn best in active, hands-on ways and in the context of meaningful real-life experiences. New research shows that didactic instruction of discrete reading and math skills has already pushed play-based learning out of many kindergartens. But the current proposal goes well beyond most existing state standards in requiring, for example, that every kindergartner be able to write “all upper- and lowercase letters” and “read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.”

• They will lead to inappropriate standardized testing. Current state standards for young children have led to the heavy use of standardized tests in kindergarten and the lower grades, despite their unreliability for assessing children under age eight. The proposed core standards will intensify inappropriate testing in place of broader observational assessments that better serve young children’s needs.

• Didactic instruction and testing will crowd out other important areas of learning. Young children’s learning must go beyond literacy and math. They need to learn about families and communities, to take on challenges, and to develop social, emotional, problem-solving, self-regulation, and perspective-taking skills. Overuse of didactic instruction and testing cuts off children’s initiative, curiosity, and imagination, limiting their later engagement in school and the workplace, not to mention responsible citizenship. And it interferes with the growth of healthy bodies and essential sensory and motor skills—all best developed through playful and active hands-on learning.

• There is little evidence that such standards for young children lead to later success. While an introduction to books in early childhood is vital, research on the links between the intensive teaching of discrete reading skills in kindergarten and later success is inconclusive at best. Many of the countries with top-performing high-school students do not begin formal schooling until age six or seven. We must test these ideas more thoroughly before establishing nationwide policies and practices.

We therefore call on the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to suspend their current drafting of standards for children in kindergarten through grade three.

We further call for the creation of a consortium of early childhood researchers, developmental psychologists, pediatricians, cognitive scientists, master teachers, and school leaders to develop comprehensive guidelines for effective early care and teaching that recognize the right of every child to a healthy start in life and a developmentally appropriate education.

Defne Apul, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH

Cara Armstrong, Curator of Education, Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA

Ray Bacchetti, Vice President, Planning and Management, Emeritus, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Lyda Beardsley, Director, Child Development Programs, College of Marin, Kentfield, CA

Laura M. Bennett-Murphy, Associate Professor, Psychology, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT

Karen D. Benson, Professor, California State University, Sacramento, CA

Eugene V. Beresin, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Wendy C. Blackwell, Director of Education, National Children’s Museum, Washington, DC

Wil Blechman, M.D., President, Docs for Tots Florida; Past President, Kiwanis International, Miami, FL

Lila Braine, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY

Michael Brody, M.D., Chair, Media Committee, American Academy of Child and Adolescent

Psychiatry, Washington, DC

Stuart L. Brown, M.D., Founder and President, National Institute for Play, Carmel Valley, CA

Blakely Bundy, Executive Director, Winnetka Alliance for Early Childhood, Winnetka, IL

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA

Catherine Carotta, Associate Director, Center for Childhood Deafness, Boys Town National Research

Hospital, Omaha, NE

Sherry Cleary, Executive Director, NYC Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, City

University of New York, NY

Colleen Cordes, Executive Director, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Washington, DC

Milly Cowles, Dean, Principals’ Academy, Mobile, AL

Ellen F. Crain, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY

William Crain, Professor of Psychology, City College of New York, NY

Sara McCormick Davis, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas Fort Smith; President Elect,

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, Fort Smith, AR

Diane Trister Dodge, President, Teaching Strategies, Inc., Bethesda, MD

Georgianna Duarte, Professor, University of Texas, Brownsville, TX

Barbara Dubitsky, Director, Mathematics Leadership Programs, Bank Street College, New York, NY

Sean Durham, Director, Early Learning Center for Research and Practice, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

David Elkind, Professor Emeritus of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA

Ann S. Epstein, Senior Director of Curriculum Development, HighScope Educational Research

Foundation, Ypsilanti, MI

Beverly Falk, Professor, School of Education, City College of New York, NY

Stephanie Feeney, Professor Emerita of Education, University of Hawaii; Chair of the Advocacy

Committee, National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, Honolulu, HI

Margery B. Franklin, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY

Doris Fromberg, Professor and Director of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Hofstra University,

Hempstead, NY

Joe L. Frost, Parker Centennial Professor Emeritus, University of Texas, Austin, TX

Ellen Galinsky, author and work life researcher, New York, NY

Suzanne Gellens, Executive Director, Florida Association for the Education of Young Children, Tampa, FL

Roberta Golinkoff, H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Education, Psychology, and Linguistics and Cognitive

Science, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Elizabeth N. Goodenough, Lecturer in Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Rachel Grob, Director, Child Development Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY

Marcy Guddemi, Executive Director, Gesell Institute of Human Development, New Haven, CT

Darell Hammond, CEO and co-founder, KaBOOM!, Washington, DC

Jane M. Healy, educational psychologist and author, Vail, CO

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Professor of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

Craig Holdrege, biologist, educator; Director, The Nature Institute, Ghent, NY

Carla M. Horwitz, Lecturer, Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Carollee Howes, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Kim Hughes, Therapeutic Teacher, Trainer, and Consultant; 1999-2000 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Project Enlightenment, Wake County Schools, Raleigh, NC

Olga S. Jarrett, Associate Professor, Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Candace Jaruszewicz, Director, N. E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC

Jim Johnson, Professor-in-Charge of Early Childhood Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Constance Kamii, Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL

Lilian G. Katz, Professor Emeritus and Co-director, Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting,

University of Illinois, Champaign, IL

Ethan H. Kisch, M.D., Child Psychiatrist; Medical Director, Quality Behavioral Health, Warwick, RI

Robert H. Klein, Professor Emeritus of Physics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH

Tovah Klein, Director, Center for Toddler Development, Barnard College, Columbia University,

New York, NY

Edgar Klugman, Professor Emeritus, Wheelock College, Boston, MA

Alfie Kohn, author and lecturer, Belmont, MA

Linda Kroll, Professor, School of Education, Mills College, Oakland, CA

Linda Lantieri, Director, The Inner Resilience Program, New York, NY

Diane E. Levin, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Wheelock College, Boston, MA

Yeou-Cheng Ma, M.D., Developmental Pediatrician, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY

Fran P. Mainella, Co-Chair, U.S. Play Coalition, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

David Marshak, Professor Emeritus, Seattle University, Seattle, WA

Milbrey McLaughlin, David Jacks Professor of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Gillian D. McNamee, Professor and Director, Teacher Education, Erikson Institute, Chicago, IL

Deborah W. Meier, Educator and Senior Scholar, New York University, New York, NY

Mary Sue Miller, Lead Educator for Early Learning, Chicago Children’s Museum, Chicago, IL

Lowell Monke, Associate Professor of Education, Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH

Mary Ruth Moore, Professor, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX

Dorine Morese, Instructional Coordinator, NYC Office of Early Childhood Education, New York, NY

John Nimmo, Executive Director, Child Study and Development Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor Education Emerita, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Pedro A. Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education and Executive Director, Metropolitan Center

for Urban Education, New York University, New York, NY

Susan Ohanian, Fellow, Education Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State University, Charlotte, VT

Sharna Olfman, Professor of Clinical and Developmental Psychology, Point Park University,

Pittsburgh, PA

Linda Olivenbaum, Director, California Early Childhood Mentor Program, San Francisco, CA

David Osher, Vice President, Education, Human Development, Workforce, American Institutes for

Research, Washington, DC

Vivian Gussin Paley, author and teacher emerita, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Chicago, IL

Kim John Payne, director, Center for Social Sustainability, Antioch University, Northampton, MA

Helene Pniewski, M.D., Developmental Pediatrician and Child Psychiatrist, Providence, RI

Ruth Prescott, Professional Development Director, Chicago Metro Association for the Education of

Young Children, Chicago, IL

Baji Rankin, Executive Director, New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children,    Albuquerque, NM

Fretta Reitzes, Director, Goldman Center for Youth and Family, 92nd Street Y, New York, NY

Mary S. Rivkin, Associate Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD

Alvin Rosenfeld, M.D., Child Psychiatrist; Lecturer, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

A. G. Rud, Head, Department of Educational Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Eliza Russell, Director of Education, National Wildlife Federation, Reston, VA

Susan Riemer Sacks, Professor of Psychology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY

Lawrence J. Schweinhart, President, HighScope Educational Research Foundation, Ypsilanti, MI

Dorothy G. Singer, Senior Research Scientist, Dept. of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Jerome L. Singer, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Mary Stone, President, Missouri Association for the Education of Young Children, Springfield, MO

Maurice Sykes, Executive Director, Early Childhood Leadership Institute, University of the District of

Columbia, Washington, DC

Molly Thompson, Director, Early Childhood Programs, Breakwater School, Portland, ME

Arlene Uss, Director, Center for Early Care and Education, Bank Street College, New York, NY

Rosario Villasana-Ruiz, Faculty, City College of San Francisco, CA

Macy Welsh, Director, National Lekotek Center, Chicago, IL

Donald Wertlieb, Professor, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA

Frank R. Wilson, M.D., Neurologist (retired), Stanford University School of Medicine, Portland, OR

Marie Winn, Writer, New York, NY

Lisa Witkowski, Director, Future Workforce Unit, Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, Fort Worth, TX

Chip Wood, Author and educator, Courage and Renewal Northeast, Wellesley, MA

George Wood, Principal, Federal Hocking Middle & High School, Amesville, OH

Note:  Signers’ affiliations are listed for identification purposes only and do not signify the organizations’ endorsement of this statement. For a full list of signers, see www.allianceforchildhood.org. For more information about this statement and the Alliance, contact Executive Director Joan Almon (joan.almon@verizon.net) or Senior Researcher Edward Miller (ed@allianceforchildhood.org).

The above letter was mailed to all 50 state governors, 51 chief state school officers, and 88 state early childhood specialists. It was also hand delivered last week to the following offices:

At the National Governors Association–

Raymond C. Scheppach, Executive Director

Dane Linn, Director, Education Division

Ilene Berman, Program Director, K–12 Education

Rachel Demma, Senior Policy Analyst, Early Childhood Education

Kathleen Nolan, Director, Health Division

Mary Jo Waits, Director, Social, Economic and Workforce Programs Division

At the Council of Chief State School Officers–

Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director

Lois Adams-Rodgers, Deputy Executive Director

Scott Montgomery, Deputy Executive Director

Thomas Schultz, Director of Early Childhood

Melissa Zack Johnston, Director of Strategy and Implementation

I am worried tonight, though, because I know tomorrow will be tough for my two five-year-olds. Kindergarten these [...]]]> This weekend my sons had four days off from school. They played and built; wrote thank you notes and get well cards; did some baking with their dad and helped clean the house. An excellent time all around.

I am worried tonight, though, because I know tomorrow will be tough for my two five-year-olds. Kindergarten these days is not what it used to be, and my boys are not happy about it.

This weekend I also met other parents (from other schools) at the local playground. Their young sons, too, are  feeling the stress of not having time to play at school. With all the current mandated assessments, it is getting harder and harder for teachers to keep recess, let alone incorporate child-directed and playful learning into their “academic” day.

At best, good teachers struggle daily to balance what they know is appropriate for their students with what they have to do to keep their jobs. At worst, confused and misguided teachers label behavior problems as emotional issues – when in truth,  expectations are inappropriate and their students are visibly suffering.  These days, there are kindergarten teachers who believe “playful learning” constitutes  a few minutes playing “Math facts beanbag toss” or “Sight Word BINGO”.  However, I am advocating child-centered, adult-supported play that leads to questions and discoveries. I am talking about dramatic play and  block building that evolves over days and weeks, with the children making decisions. And the teachers involved can listen and ask questions in a manner that expands and deepens the play. These rich and playful moments in kindergarten classrooms are getting harder and harder to find.

Consider one kindergarten teacher’s story chronicled in the current issue of Rethinking Schools:

“The students in my classroom during the 2008-09 school year completed more assessments than during any of my prior years of teaching kindergarten:

• Milwaukee Public Schools’ 5-Year-Old Kindergarten Assessment (completed three times a year)
• On the Mark Reading Verification Assessment (completed three times a year)
• A monthly writing prompt focused on different strands of the Six Traits of Writing
• 28 assessments measuring key early reading and spelling skills
• Chapter pre- and post-tests for all nine math chapters completed
• Three additional assessments for each math chapter completed
• A monthly math prompt
• Four Classroom Assessments Based on Standards (CABS) per social studies chapter (20 total)
• Four CABS assessments per science chapter (20 total)
• Four CABS assessments per health chapter (20 total)

I recently learned that my students will also be expected to complete four benchmark assessments beginning in the 2010-11 school year.

This list does not include the pre- and post-Marzano vocabulary tests (which I refuse to have my students complete because the assessment design is entirely developmentally inappropriate) or the writing and math portfolios we are required to keep.”

Click here to read Kelly McMahon’s full story,  Testing Kindergarten.

Back in 2002 my friend Debbie Meier gave me a copy of Susan Ohanian’s book What Happened to Recess and Why are our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? I always remember the opening of the book where Ohanian talks about the protections that animals and insects have on Hollywood film sets. Apes on movie sets have time and space to play – and the American Humane Association is there to enforce the scheduled breaks. Why don’t our children have the same rights? Sadly, things have only gotten worse since Ohanian’s book was published.  With Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top and the push for national core standards, I worry how much worse things can get. For more food foe thought, check out Alfie Kohn’s essay in Education Week -  Debunking the Case for National Standards: One-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their Dangers.

The disappearance of play is a systemic problem, and I’ll do what I can by talking with district leaders and sharing the Alliance for Childhood’s report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. I am thankful for my sons’ teachers who are doing what they can to keep the learning playful, and I will do what I can to help kindergarten classrooms everywhere return to developmentally appropriate “kinder gardens”.

P.S. With the launching of the new Empowered by Play website (don’t you love it?!) I have crossed over from Blogger to WordPress. Some posts imported nicely, others are a little funky – with spacing issues, etc. If you see any links that aren’t working or anything else seriously amiss, please let me know. Thanks!

In the Sunday magazine [...]]]> This Peanuts cartoon, originally published in 1962, was reprinted this week. It was just another sad reminder about how much kindergarten has changed. The truth is, now there are many anxious and stressed-out kids in kindergarten. Sally wouldn’t be alone in her need for therapy. (She’d probably have to stand in line!)

In the Sunday magazine of today’s Boston Globe, the article Pressure-cooker Kindergarten describes the issues at hand. You can read about kids, teachers, administrators and child development experts who all understand the atrocities NCLB has inflicted on kindergarten. Time spent on test-prep and continuous assessments has taken away time spent playing. And playing is precisely how young children learn about the world around them.