Kindergarten Plus

In the October 2010 addition of the Kentucky School Advocate publication, you will find an article entitled "Casey Kindergarten Program Not Just a Rerun." This article gives details about a pilot program called Kindergarten Plus. Kindergarten Plus, is a program used to provide struggling students with additional academic assistance to better prepare them for 1st grade. The program is beneficial because currently many public schools do not offer summer school to Kindergarten students.

I found this article interesting because at my last district I was faced with the decision of whether to retain or promote a student. This particular student was mentally, socially, and emotionally developed for first grade, yet academically he was not. The problem was, I didn't feel that he required a whole year of Kindergarten: he was in the mid point of meeting the state goals. To make matters worse, his weakest area was Language Arts. This is what bothered me the most. Yes, all areas of learning are important but I have a tendency to put more weight on language arts.

As the article stated, Kindergarten Plus provides students with more time to master the skills that they have not learned. It is not a repeat of Kindergarten! Instead of starting from the beginning, they pick up where the student left off. Although this kind of program will require a lot more one-on-one style teaching, I think that it is needed. To often students are forced to repeat a grade and during the first half they sit bored through lessons. This is a waste of time and can lead to misbehavior. Imagine being forced to sit through four months of repeated lessons when you only need help with one area?

I like the idea of the program. I strongly believe that it is better to spend time now while students are younger, rather than later when they are older, fall behind, began to struggle, get frustrated, become discouraged and possibly drop-out.

Reference:

1. http://www.ksba.org/advocate/edition/june-2010/


2. http://family.go.com/parenting/pkg-school-age/article-826303-choosing-a-kindergarten---plus-11-ways-to-make-a-good-school-great-t/