Author: Emily Norton
Over a dozen parents attended the first School Committee meeting of the year to urge the School Committee, the superintendent, and the mayor to implement full day kindergarten.
Parents offered a variety of reasons they want to see this change, but a recurring theme was that they had moved to Newton for the quality of the schools, and were shocked to find out that a school district with Newton’s reputation would not offer kindergartners a full school day.
Over 80 percent of Massachusetts school districts offer full day kindergarten. Newton is not one of them. Rather, Newton offers what they call a “hybrid” program, in which kindergarteners have a full day (until 3 p.m.) two days a week, and a short day (until 12:30 p.m.) three days a week. For many students this means they have a shorter day in elementary school than they had in preschool.
Two years ago the future looked bright in terms of making the switch to full day kindergarten:
- Our interim superintendent had established a full day kindergarten task force, and the then-deputy superintendent told teachers on the task force that full day kindergarten was coming so they should start planning for it.
- Our new superintendent expressed his support for full day kindergarten at his public interviews.
- Support for full day kindergarten–within Newton–was expressed 15 years ago when the Early Childhood Committee recommended it.
In fact, as a gubernatorial candidate, Deval Patrick campaigned on full day kindergarten in his first run for governor in 2006.
Yet now, two years after the task force, not only has nothing happened, but we’ve gone backwards. A senior Newton Public School administrator was quoted in the Newton TAB last spring saying that with 92 percent of students meeting the benchmark for first grade, there wasn’t a “huge need” for full day kindergarten.
I disagree with that assessment; there is a huge need. As was noted in a School Committee meeting last March, there are serious questions about what our current benchmarks even mean. Most kindergarteners are considered to be “meeting benchmark,” yet our 3rd grade MCAS scores are all over the map.
Consider our third grade MCAS results for reading in 2011:
- Underwood had 6 percent of kids not reaching proficient in reading–that’s not bad
- But Zervas had 30 percent of kids not reaching proficient in reading;
- Lincoln-Eliot had 32 percent of kids not reaching proficient in reading;
- And, at Countryside, 35 percent of 3rd graders were not proficient readers.
Overall 22 percent — over a fifth — of Newton 3rd graders were not proficient readers in 2011. There are schools in Brighton and Revere that outperform some of our schools. Yes, Revere! If this is not a wakeup call that we need to be doing things differently, I don’t know what would be.
It is important to keep in mind that our current model, which we call a “hybrid” because of the mixture of short and long days, was never based on kids’ learning. Rather, kindergarten used to be half day every day, and kindergarten teachers were paid an 80 percent salary. They wanted to be paid a full time salary, so the school day was extended, but only for half the class at a time. In other words, our current model was never based on what is best for kids; it was based on what was best for the adults.
The bottom line is this:
- Newton needs to replace the highly subjective and non-verifiable benchmarks currently in place, with something that would give a more accurate assessment of student progress in grades K-2
- It is time to finally do the right thing and implement full day kindergarten, so that there is time in the day “every day” to make sure every child is getting the educational supports they need. Not only can kids handle the extra time, they would thrive on it.
Emily Norton is a Newton resident with children in the public schools.