Smithsonian introduces a new site where teachers can access local and national resources on education. With mandatory preschool and No Child Left Behind, states are tasked with writing their own guidelines to determine if their pre-k programs are successful.
See what preschoolers in your community will have to be ready to learn in kindergarten when you search your own "State Standards of Learning."
If you blog, or send newsletters, this is great information to share with parents in your program.
I can't help but feel squeamish over the whole thing, though. I'm torn somewhere between feeling sympathetic for parents who may feel overwhelmed by pressure to get their kids ready for school. At the same time, reality is, these standards are putting a lot of pressure on the schools themselves.
The balance, for me, is found in giving parents good information about what's ahead so they can truly be their child's first and most important teacher. Then, giving them access to programs and information that lets their child be a child, while preparing them for the world of idiots that lay ahead.
1 comment:
You know, one of the really sad results of NCLB is that an entire school can be classified as not making "AYP" (adequate yearly progress) simply because several children in the Special Education division didn't make AYP on the "average" level. (Why are they in special education, if not for the fact that they are already behinc anyway?) And, as a result, the "Connections" programs (read that: art, band, chorus, music, drama, technology, foreign languages)are the first to be impacted and cut. These are the very same classes that could aid a child in thinking skills that could, in turn, improve his learning abilites.
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