This morning I saw this Washington Post article about kindergarten teachers forgoing the tradition of an annual show to dedicate more time on standards that lead to "college and career readiness."
The impetus behind the Common Core Standards is to ensure that students are "college and career ready." So what does that mean? What skills lead to success in higher education and the workplace?
Certainly, ability to decode words and perform basic math skills are essential to academic success, and the pressure these kindergarten teachers in New York feel is to drop everything else to make sure their students have those skills. In their opinion, the time taken to rehearse and perform is wasted because it will not improve test scores on basic math and literacy skills. The assumption is that good test scores will lead to "college and career readiness."
I have a new job as the operations manager for a co-curricular business preparatory program at a liberal arts college, which allows me to ask many successful business men and women directly what they seek in employees. They mention confidence, clear communication, effectiveness dealing with others, tenacity to keep at a problem until it is solved; in other words, all of the skills required when students work together to put on a performance.
So the kindergarten play definitely prepares kids for the workplace--that is not the problem. The problem is that the kindergarten play promotes skills that are not easily quantifiable. The work students do in the arts can't be measured, ranked, and nationally compared.
One of my favorite aspects of the ELA CCSS is the emphasis placed on speaking and listening skills. While letter-name and letter-sound recognition are essential to decoding (which is one half of reading comprehension), research strongly suggests that oral language development in early childhood is essential for vocabulary and comprehension (the other half of reading comprehension) in later grades. It's imperative for kids to learn their letters and sounds in kindergarten, but not at the expense of opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations with peers and adults.
But here's what happens so often for low socio-economic background kids: They do not learn their letters prior to kindergarten, so they come into school "behind" on letter name and letter sound tests that are easily measured, ranked and then nationally compared. Letter name and letter sound scores make it easy to quantify "success", so schools begin to replace traditional arts instruction with programs to continue to drill letter recognition, perhaps in the best circumstances using songs and games and colors to make the activities resemble the arts classes students used to be exposed to. The schedule is infused with more and more direct instruction and less opportunity for play, personal interaction, and creativity. Scores on basic literacy skills improve, and the school is seen as effective.
But does the acquisition of basic decoding skills at the end of kindergarten ensure that students are "college and career ready"? The answer is no-- it is just the easiest skill to measure, rank, and compare nationally. Legislators, text-book companies, and high level school administrators don't have the time or resources to sit down and have a conversation with each kindergarten student in the nation.
You know who does have the time to sit down and talk with kindergarten students (or at least they used to)? Teachers. Teachers know the kids by name, know their interests, know their strengths and weaknesses above and beyond what a standardized test can show.
This week at my new job we had a board meeting, and one of the board members was asking the director of Career and Leadership services how she quantified the success of student outcomes. She had already achieved an astounding 90% knowledge rate of where the class of 2013 landed after graduation, but the board wanted her to focus on making sure students had good salaries and prestigious titles. `They wanted something they could measure, rank, and nationally compare. Her response was priceless: "I consider myself successful when students land in their happy place. They are more than numbers to me--they are names."
When we get students "college and career ready," we want to make sure they have everything they need to land in their happy place. In early childhood, that means they must learn their letters and sounds. If they can't read, they can't do much after graduation. However, we have to equip them with so much more-- creativity, compassion, curiosity, confidence, a sense of pride in their community and a feeling of love and support from those who take care of them.
Dear Harley Avenue Primary School and other schools tempted to follow in their footsteps, please, for the love of all these incredibly holy things, do not cancel your kindergarten show for the sake of the what is easily measured, ranked, and nationally compared.
