There was a very important question asked during the candidate forum. Then we discussed it over at 281 Exposed, and now RAS is noting it in this article. Yet I am torn regarding how to accomplish it...
3. What strategies and investments will you support to ensure all children enter kindergarten prepared to learn?
Many Conservatives want Government to stay out of the Early Childhood Education business. They seem to think that if you can make a baby, you should be qualified and capable of raising a child and ensuring it is ready for Kindergarten. (ie Parent's Rights) Also, they seem scared that those Liberals will brain wash those young children into the Liberal fold. Finally they claim that the programs like Headstart are not successful...
I on the other hand believe in Geoffrey Canada's: A Child's Conveyor Belt. I mean how is "Headstart" to succeed when it starts too late and has the kids for so few hours. The question is how can we educate Parents, promote the nurturing of infants and toddlers, and prepare pre-schoolers in households where the Parents have been trained wrong by their own Parents ??? How do we help Parents to fight their own resistance to learning, and changing their ingrained beliefs and behaviors? (ie it was good enough for me...)
If we don't find a way, many of the uneducated poor will stay uneducated poor. Trapped by their own limiting beliefs, attitudes and behaviors... Which they will continue to pass on from generation to generation, by brainwashing their child during the most impressionable pre-K years. Remember, all pre-K kids think their house and Parents are "normal". It is all they have seen.
By the way, though poverty and poor parenting are often linked. I am very aware that poor parenting can exist in any household. (ie few folks think they need Parenting classes) The advantage middle and upper class homes have is that their pre-K kids are often in activities, higher end daycares, pre-schools, etc. The Kids and Parents are therefore exposed to many ideas and learn through exposure. Also, these Parents often truly believe the American Dream is attainable if you study and work hard enough. (ie they are living it) This brainwashing of HOPE and CONFIDENCE also sticks with those pre-K kids !!!
Thoughts?
Sun Sailor Achievement Gap Starts Early
281 Exposed Questions for Candidates
U of MN Ready for Kindergarten
Scholastic Ready for Kindergarten
Family Education Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
Education What your child should know...
Ready 4 K Ready4K Policy Doc
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My kids had the good fortune to start school in Mississippi, where there is not only no publicly-funded pre-K program, but no Kindergarten, either. So kids enter first grade with a very wide range of abilities, but the schools had a process. Students were separated into classes and sub-classes by ability, and the "best" teachers assigned to the lowest-ability class.
[How do they know these things? Easy. They don't pretend that anything but merit counts. They're politically incorrect.]
This process continues on entry to 2nd grade, with some kids moving "up" or "down" based on achievement. By third grade, all of these differences are sufficiently gone that no distinctions are made after that point. That Minnesota schools cannot manage this little feat doesn't argue for giving them MORE public funding and more responsibility.
J. Ewing
John you bring up good points especially about recycling the same people in poverty over and over and over. But, as a strong conservative I always ask the question; what are the limits or maximums that the government can provide? Where do you draw the line? Take something like unemployment (stick with me on this). I'm all for a safety net but first it was 13 weeks, then 26, then 52, and now 99 WEEKS, and maybe more! Does it ever stop? When do we say enough?
Let's bring it to education; we provide free busing, free and reduced lunch, free K-12, some school choice, early childhood ed etc. and all I ever hear is it's not enough, never enough, more, more, more. Again, when does it stop?
I believe in equal opportunity not equal outcome. We provide the opportunity and YOU have to do SOME work and take advantage of your chances. An education comes easier to some than others but you have to EARN it. In addition, I've found the same people who complain about the "education gap" or "poverty" never seem to offer any solutions other than more money. If Head Start and Early Childhood ED were working, shouldn't these problems be getting better not worse? Should we just create another similar program?
Again, I'm just curious where we draw the line between government help and parental responsibility?
Hi J,
You are absolutely correct that Mississippi has smaller gaps than Minnesota. The problem is that all of their scores are lower... NCES Achievement Gaps Checkout pgs 13, 21, 35 and 43.
Maybe we can make our gap smaller by having the white kids learn less... Do you know the song TREES by RUSH? It is excellent and somewhat applicable to this discussion.
Thank you for helping me make the case that Early Childhood Education is important.
Hi ritka11,
I personally have little patience for adults that do not strive to learn, work hard or get their hands dirty when necessary. (must be my farm kid background) You got laid off... So get learning or get another career. Don't just sit there living off the gov't.
You are going to be paid less? Well maybe you were paid too much at your last job and that is why you were let go. Adjust and get moving...
You can't make your payments... Maybe you should not have bought that high priced home and car... Sell them !!!
You get my point.
However, I am willing to bend over backwards for the innocent infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers that are born to irresponsible, uniformed, misinformed, etc parents.
My viewpoint is that society should require parents to be licensed...(unlikely) Or our society should help ensure these kids have a chance at a better life than their parents...
Not sure how... That is why the question and this discussion is so important.
Great points, Give.
I couldn't agree more--early childhood ed is the smart decision, and interestingly, the fiscally conservative one. Stitch in time saves nine, as our grandmothers said; spending money for a few years when kids are very small has been shown to save money exponentially down the road. Less academic intevention, higher graduation rate, lower rates of incarceration.
And the bonus is that comprehensive programs like ECFE--where both the children and parents receive education--subsequent children reap the benefits as well.
I've said this before, but sit in a kindergarten class and watch which kids arrive with a good base of preliteracy skills and an understanding of how to act in a group setting. Then go visit the same group of kids four years later--the same ones who started out behind are still struggling to catch up.
If conservatives really support equal access, then we need to give those underserved four year olds access to the same knowledge that their more affluent peers receive at home.
--Annie
John, what you say is true about Mississippi in general. The large concentrations of poverty produce schools which underperform national averages, despite whatever is spent on them.
BUT... When my kids came here (mid-year) from the Mississippi schools, my 2nd-grader was almost a full year ahead of her Minnesota classmates! It doesn't matter how much you spend or how soon you start or what educational fad you follow, if you aren't teaching, the kids aren't learning. Don't trot out ECFE and such as some kind of solution when some of our public schools still have graduation rates below 50%, with no solutions even remotely in sight. How about we solve that huge problem first, and then maybe we'll have more faith in the educational theorists.
J. EWing
J, you don't suppose your kids academic success might have had something to do with the fact that they had (I'm assuming) two engaged, involved parents who had them ready to learn in kindergarten?
And let's consider your statistic that some districts have a less than 50% graduation rates. Do you think that the areas with the highest rates of graduation might also have the highest levels of kindergarten readiness. Would it matter to you?
You share a lot of anecdotes and opinions, but it's more useful to talk about research-based best practices.
-Annie
I was looking for demographics of who participates in ECFE, assuming that it is the typical middle class socially engaged soccer Mom, Dad and kids, but did not find that yet. My rationale being that of course ECFE does not work for poor folk if they do not attend. I'll keep looking.
However, here is an interesting paper that relates Kindergarten readiness to income level. Pretty strong relationship.MDE Kindergarten Readiness 2009
Other interesting Links:
Early Childhood Advisory Council 2010
Urban Child Institute: Brain Growth
CDF Leg Scorecard 2010
MN Compass Early Childhood Links
Found it !!! Wilder Early Childhood MN 2008
Participation in ECFE by income:
Percent of participating families with household incomes of less than $30,000: approximately 21%
Participation in ECFE by race/ethnicity:
Percent of participating families identified as families of color: more than 18%
Wilder Research
My point is that putting the government in charge of kindergarten readiness is like putting the government in charge of K-12 education, and we all know how well that turned out. If you can find a way to encourage more school readiness in the population that lacks it, perhaps by some "voucher" system, and it actually helps, go for it.
My point with my example was that public schools don't need ECFE if they put learning first. It wasn't just my kids ahead of Minnesota kids, but EVERY kid that went through that program, by the time they got to third grade, and with no ECFE for many of them, and no Kindergarden, either.
J. Ewing
J,
Your perception of reality and the test score data does not match. Any idea why?
You have not started wearing those rose colored glasses... Have you?
ACT Scores 2010
SAT and ACT 2006
National Math Scorecard 2007
National Reading Scorecard 2007
My question is:
How can we encourage the people that need ECFE the most, and seem to be most resistant, to enroll and improve their Parenting skills?
For fun: I'm assuming Cousin Eddie did not attend ECFE... (Vacation Clip)
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