Compared to children whose kindergarten experience emphasized child-initiated learning, primary-grade teachers rated children from didactic, teacher-centered kindergartens lower in conduct and work-study habits, and perceived them to be more distractible, less willing to follow directions, and less prosocial (Hart, Charlesworth, Burts, & DeWolf, 1993). Later research suggests that these early concerns were warranted. They feared that short-term academic gains would be offset by long-term stifling of children's motivation and self-initiated learning. 120).īeginning in the 1980s, leading early childhood experts expressed concern about the wisdom of overly didactic, formal instructional practices for young children (e.g., Elkind, 1986 Zigler, 1987). When preschool was "reconceptualized as an appropriate beginning for primary schooling (especially for low-income children)," public school programs for 4-year-olds grew in number (Goffin, 1994, p. Goffin (1994) noted a downward movement of the debate between developmental and academic orientations from elementary education to the preschool setting. Escalating academic demands in kindergarten have clearly affected preschool programs for even younger children. Kindergarten retention rates have increased (e.g., Shepard & Smith, 1988), perhaps due to the downward shift in curriculum that introduces formal reading and mathematics instruction much earlier. Fundamental philosophical and political differences in beliefs about the purpose of schooling, value orientations, and cultural priorities are central to the debate on how to best prepare young children for formal schooling (Kessler, 1991). Although the goal of school readiness is widely shared among early childhood educators, parents, and policy makers, the strategies for achieving this goal vary greatly. Compensatory early childhood programs such as Head Start and state-sponsored pre-kindergarten for low-income families and preschoolers with special needs are designed to help children acquire skills needed for later school success. This trend is especially prevalent in programs that serve low-income children. In the ongoing debate over education reform designed to improve academic performance of American children, preschools are under increasing pressure to offer instruction in basic academic skills. Their progress may have been slowed by overly academic preschool experiences that introduced formalized learning experiences too early for most children's developmental status. Children's later school success appears to have been enhanced by more active, child-initiated early learning experiences. By the end of their sixth year in school, children whose preschool experiences had been academically directed earned significantly lower grades compared to children who had attended child-initiated preschool classes. By the end of children's fifth year in school, there were no significant differences in academic performance of children who had experienced three different preschool models. No differences attributable to preschool model were found for special education placement. Children whose preschool experience was more academically directed had been retained less often than peers. Academically, girls surpassed boys at the end of Year 5, and this difference persisted into the next grade level. The sample was 96% African American and 54% female, with 75% of the children qualifying for subsidized school lunch and 73% living in single-parent families. The study examined report card grades, retention rates, and special education placement of 160 children at the end of their fifth year in school and 183 children at the end of their sixth year in school. These children from an urban school district were studied again in Year 5 as they prepared to leave the primary grades and in Year 6 when they were scheduled to enter fourth grade if not previously retained. Editor's introduction to the discussionĪ follow-up study of children who began school at age 4 (referred to as Year 1 in this study) was conducted to examine the influence of three different preschool models on later school success.
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