Standardized testing and scripted curriculum for preschoolers? Algebra and geometry standards for kindergartners? Times have changed drastically, and we're not just talking about Velcro.

 

Now viewed as a way to make students kindergarten-ready, preschool may be subject to both state and federal assessments. Kindergartners are under pressure to meet state standards and get ready for standardized testing by second grade. By year's end, they are expected to be reading.

 

Is the accelerated pace making kids smarter faster — or is it turning them off to learning? Concerned educators feel it may be the latter, and worry that the joy of learning is being quashed before it can even take root.

 

CTA is a strong believer in the value of preschool and kindergarten.

 

"Preschool is a place where children should learn to love school and love learning," says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr, a kindergarten teacher. "If they don't learn to love learning, they won't want to learn throughout their lives. If you cram facts into their heads all day long, they may learn to read in kindergarten instead of first or second grade, but it won't make them better or smarter as adults. There's nothing wrong with standards, but the rush to make children learn faster and faster is depriving them of their childhood."

 

Children aren't the only ones feeling overwhelmed. Conducting individual assessments and one-on-one observations is cutting into valuable teaching time.

 

Teachers are having to force-fit state standards into activities more likely to hold their students' attention. Students go from activity to activity at a frenetic pace that barely allows time to breathe. To fit it all in, some school districts are embracing all-day kindergarten.

 

When children have trouble keeping up with standards that many consider developmentally inappropriate, teachers have to find ways to keep them from feeling like failures.

 

The following articles look at all these issues as well as the push for universal preschool and why, if kindergarten is so important, it isn't mandatory. If it all seems a bit overwhelming, readers are encouraged to curl up with a blanket and enjoy a time-out between articles.

 

A ponytail atop tiny Devany Loera's head moves like a palm tree. A rub-on tattoo of the sun tenses on her arm as she pauses, bites her lip and narrows her eyes in concentration. In a tone that's barely above a whisper, she dutifully answers her teacher's questions. She's only 4, but she knows this is serious business.

 

"Why do we have stoves?" asks teacher Felecia Von Lewis.

 

"To cook."

 

"How do you use a coat?"

 

"When it's cold."

 

"Can you repeat 'June's cat likes to sleep in a chair'?"

 

Indeed, she can.

 

Even though Devany is just a preschooler, she's old enough to be part of the accountability movement. A Head Start preschool student at Chaparral Elementary in Palmdale, she is being assessed by her teacher. Soon she will undergo her first standardized achievement test.

 

Nearly half a million 4-year-olds in federally funded preschool programs must take standardized tests under a Bush administration mandate. It's not without controversy. "The largest standardized testing of such young children ever in this country, it has exposed a bitter divide between federal officials and many experts in early education," notes the New York Times.

 

"I think it's too much for students who are so very young," says Von Lewis, a member of the Palmdale Teachers Association. "And every year, it seems that different assessments are added to the program."

 

In addition to the National Reporting System (NRS) Direct Child Assessment, the feds have mandated that Head Start programs choose another independent standardized test to identify the individual needs and abilities of children. In Palmdale, it's the Brigance Assessment.

 

Both need to be completed in the first 45 days of school. Before the year is out, the NRS must be administered again to measure progress.

 

That's on top of yet another state and federally mandated assessment that takes place two to three times a year. The Desired Results Developmental Profile measures literacy, math, science, socialization, language skills, and physical development.

 

The assessments are time-consuming, requiring the teacher to administer them one-on-one and observe each child individually.

 

"It takes away from the teacher's time to interact with students. It takes away from teaching time. It takes time away from preparing activities for children," says Von Lewis. "And so much of it happens during the beginning of the school year when it's critical to form new relationships."

 

While she sits in the corner giving assessments, an assistant tries to control 19 other children and give them developmentally appropriate activities, says Von Lewis. "It's a challenge."

 

Her job is challenging enough without the assessments. In addition to coming from low-income families, some of her students begin the Head Start program unable to speak English. Von Lewis feels fortunate that her assistant is bilingual because the students must also be assessed in Spanish. By the end of the year, most of her students can speak English fairly well, she says with pride.

 

"I realize that the federal government would like some accountability to see where its money is going and to see if our programs are getting students ready for kindergarten," says Von Lewis. "But I think if we had one assessment given twice a year, it would be enough" to enable her to determine the students' individual needs and figure out how to meet them.

 

Despite the assessments, she says teachers do their best to make the classroom fun and help students develop a lifelong love of learning. "I love working with the children and helping them prepare for kindergarten."

 

While preschools not funded by Head Start aren't facing the same federal mandate to conduct standardized testing, they are under intense pressure to get children kindergarten-ready.

 

"We're more focused on becoming an instructional-based program and preparing them for kindergarten," says Jimmy Jones, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). "Sometimes we're probably taking them a little faster than we should. In the first wave, everyone always wants results, results, results."

 

As a preschool teacher who frequently assesses children, he's not worried that it will lead to "labeling" or cause the children undue stress. "It's just a way to break down how much they're learning. It's an open-ended thing that just states where a child happens to be and how they are learning," says Jones, who serves on the CTA Early Childhood Education Committee.

 

Most of his students are English language learners who are being taught in two languages. "We try to keep our expectations realistic, although sometimes we are amazed at what these kids can do. However, some kids are not as ready and need a little bit longer. And some kids are going through the 'separation factor' because it may be the first time they've been away from home."

 

Some believe the higher expectations of preschools and fear of kindergarten retention are contributing to a higher preschool "expulsion rate." A new study shows that children attending preschool in California and in the rest of the nation are expelled at three times the rate of older students. The Yale Child Study Center report, "Prekindergartners Left Behind," says 4-year-olds are expelled more often than 3-year-olds, and boys are expelled at 4.5 times the rate of girls. African American children are twice as likely to be expelled as Latinos or whites and five times as likely as Asian Americans.

 

The word "expulsion" may be a bit harsh, says Jones. What really happens is if preschoolers are deemed not to be ready, parents are asked to return the child when he or she has gained more maturity. "It may be that there are several 'incidents,' and they are not potty trained. In other instances, they may not be ready for socialization. Maybe they haven't been around other kids, and they react by hitting and biting. What usually happens is that when you have a problem, you talk to the parents. You may give the child about three chances and, if it continues, you may ask the parent to keep the child home — especially if other parents are complaining. But we don't call it 'expulsion.'"

 

Mandated scripted curriculum has now filtered down to the preschool level in Los Angeles, reports UTLA member Irma Fraigun. As someone who has taught young children for nearly 40 years, she resents having to use "canned" curriculum.

 

"During the fourth week of school, one of the exercises in the script called for putting letters of the alphabet on the floor and putting two letters out of order, and having the children identify which ones they are. And we hadn't even started learning the alphabet yet! I didn't do that part of the script."

 

Scripted curriculum might be helpful for brand-new teachers, says Fraigun, but it takes away from the spontaneity that was considered a benefit of working with very young children.

 

The pace of scripted curriculum may also be too fast for preschool, she says. "It is very structured and intense. I'm afraid it will turn children off to school before they've even started."

 

"On a typical day, there are several pages to the script," explains Fraigun, who serves as the preschool subcommittee chair for the CTA Early Childhood Education Committee. For example, on one recent day, the theme was friends. "I was supposed to have them sing; then 'finger play' five friends dancing in a line; talk about friendship; and break them into pairs so they could sit down at a table and draw around a paper plate to make pictures of the other person. Then they were supposed to draw pictures of their friends at school and talk about them.

 

"That stuff was fine; I had no problem with that. That was enough for a day. But they were also supposed to move on to talk about community helpers, police officers, firefighters and letter carriers. That could have been another whole week unto itself. And then there was the math segment where children were supposed to make pretend chocolate chip cookies with M&M's on a paper plate and count them. In just one morning, we were supposed to do all of this."

 

She wonders what happened to the "days of old" when 3- and 4-year olds could "just be kids, come to school, make friends and play while teachers would stick in educational stuff."

 

"We are putting too much pressure on them," says Fraigun. "They're not allowed to be kids anymore. There is pressure to perform and do; perform and do. And if they don't 'perform and do,' they start kindergarten [or first grade] behind. For kids, it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming for all of us."