Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?

Abstract

Recent accounts suggest that accountability pressures have trickled down into the early elementary grades and that kindergarten today is characterized by a heightened focus on academic skills and a reduction in opportunities for play. This paper compares public school kindergarten classrooms between 1998 and 2010 using two large, nationally representative data sets. We show substantial changes in each of the five dimensions considered: kindergarten teachers' beliefs about school readiness, time spent on academic and nonacademic content, classroom organization, pedagogical approach, and use of standardized assessments. Kindergarten teachers in the later period held far higher academic expectations for children both prior to kindergarten entry and during the kindergarten year. They devoted more time to advanced literacy and math content, teacher-directed instruction, and assessment and substantially less time to art, music, science, and child-selected activities.

Learning areas for holistic education: kindergarten teachers’ curriculum priorities, professional development needs, and beliefs

“…Other studies have shown that teachers' priorities are context specific and might vary as a result of socio-political, cultural, or curricular factors. For example, Bassok et al (2015) have recently shown how kindergarten teachers in the US started to emphasize much more on academic competencies in the decade following the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.…”

JOHN DEWEY'S HIGH HOPES FOR PLAY:DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATIONAND PROGRESSIVE ERA CONTROVERSIES OVER PLAY IN KINDERGARTEN AND PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

“…In 1998, only 15 percent of kindergarten teachers reported that children spent three or more hours in teacher-directed, didactic, whole-class activities; in 2010, 32 percent of teachers did, doubling kindergarten children's academic work and reducing time for play. 31 Under less academic pressure than public kindergartens, most nursery schools for three-and four-year-olds held on to Dewey's and Hall's developmental paradigm. In the early days of the nursery school movement in the 1920s and 1930s, it was often all play, all of the time, as at Pratt's nursery school that the Deweys observed.…”

The Dark Triad Of Personality And Work Efficiency Of Kindergarten Teachers

“…The study of preschool education currently has received considerable attention (e.g., Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016), namely in the framework of the Russian educational reforms. However, the studies of the kindergarten teacher personality are rare in comparison to, for example, studies of required educational skills (e.g., Abdul-Haq, 2014); and they are focused primarily on traditional models of personality.…”

“…This work is understood as a qualified professional activity aimed at the development and education of preschool children within the educational conditions and programs provided by preschool educational institutions. However, certain work efficiency indicators of kindergarten teachers are still debatable (e.g., Adewale, 2013;Araujo, Carneiro, Cruz-Aguayo, & Schady, http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.12.20 Corresponding Author: Sergey L. Lenkov Selection and peer-review under Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016). In this regard, the current study used expert assessment by professionals with extensive experience in the organization and execution of kindergarten activities.…”