On top of a colorful classroom rug, Pattie Burnam places four basic shapes. Asking her pupils to close their eyes, she hides a cutout of a gingerbread man under the triangle.
She then calls on the children one by one, giving them a chance to guess where the figure is hiding. But first, they have to name it.
鈥淣o peeking鈥攖hat鈥檚 what people do in preschool, and we鈥檙e not in preschool anymore,鈥� Burnam tells her 鈥済rown-up kindergartners,鈥� as she calls them.
In addition to a welcoming teacher, these new kindergartners at Valley View Elementary School have an extra advantage as they adjust to an unfamiliar building, new faces, and higher expectations. By the time the school year starts here two weeks hence, they will have already had 20 additional days in class鈥�20 days without older students in the lunchroom or on the playground, 20 days before the hectic pace of the new year begins.
鈥淭hat quietness translates to amazing comfort,鈥� says Principal Jamie Jones. 鈥淭he kids are calm.鈥�
Called Kindergarten-Plus, the concept is the brainchild of former American Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman.
At the union鈥檚 2002 convention, she challenged the federal government 鈥渢o help states and districts to provide disadvantaged children with the opportunity to start kindergarten during the summer months before they would ordinarily enter, and then to stay on through the summer before they will enter 1st grade.鈥�
Such a program, Feldman added, 鈥渃ould make a big difference in the lives of our poorest children. It will accelerate their early education, socialization, and well-being, and can help make sure that they don鈥檛 enter 1st grade with as large a disadvantage.鈥�
While the AFT has also advocated universal prekindergarten nationwide, Kindergarten-Plus could be thought of as a 鈥渄own payment,鈥� said Feldman, who wrote about the concept in the frequent 鈥淲here We Stand鈥� columns she penned.
State Rep. Mimi Stewart, a resource teacher who provides professional development in the Albuquerque public schools, kept seeing those columns.
鈥淓very time I read it, I thought, that鈥檚 the answer for New Mexico,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e had just started [the federal No Child Left Behind law], and I knew we were going to be having these schools that were not going to be meeting adequate yearly progress.鈥�
Funding was unavailable in 2003 to implement the program statewide. Still, Stewart, a Democrat, was able to move a bill through the legislature that launched a three-year pilot in the four New Mexico districts with the highest percentage of students in Title I schools, which generally enroll more disadvantaged children.
The state gives a total of $400,000 each year to enroll eligible children in the program in the four districts: Albuquerque, Gadsden, Gallup-McKinley, and here in Las Cruces.
A preliminary evaluation of the program, released earlier this year by New Mexico鈥檚 office of education accountability, found increases in children鈥檚 ability to name letters and identify and pronounce word sounds. According to the analysis, which was conducted after the 2003-04 school year, the program also led to fewer children being classified as having 鈥渄elayed skills鈥� during their kindergarten year.
Despite that analysis and anecdotal evidence indicating that it works, the program could be in jeopardy.
A prekindergarten initiative for 4-year-olds kicks off this fall in the state, and advocates of Kindergarten Plus are concerned there won鈥檛 be enough interest in the legislature to keep the kindergarten program going.
鈥淚 hate in education how we keep adding things,鈥� Principal Jones says, 鈥渂ut we don鈥檛 keep doing things until we perfect them.鈥�
The new, $5 million pre-K program, pushed by Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson during the 2005 legislative session, will be provided in some schools as well as in community-based preschools and child-care centers. Like Kindergarten-Plus, it will initially target children in communities with the most Title I schools as well as youngsters in areas with the highest percentages of students not making AYP.
While Jones is not opposed to the idea of a prekindergarten program, she says her school doesn鈥檛 have any empty classrooms to accommodate 4-year-olds. The kindergarten classrooms, however, are already there.
Because the idea of Kindergarten-Plus is to give children extra time before and after their kindergarten year, Valley View Elementary also invites incoming 1st graders to start school early鈥攕ort of a 鈥減lus-plus.鈥�
鈥淭hese kids are so much better prepared,鈥� says Becky King, who has been teaching 1st grade at Valley View for 30 years and has seen how the program has benefited the mostly disadvantaged children who attend the school. 鈥淭he more they鈥檙e here, the more they鈥檙e getting. It鈥檚 not like they would be going to camps or Bible school [otherwise].鈥�
As she shows off simple book reports her pupils have completed, she adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 very pleased with their writing.鈥�
Kindergarten teacher Burnam naturally has to encourage the newcomers in her class to pay attention, sit 鈥渃risscross, applesauce,鈥� and keep their hands to themselves, but those reminders aren鈥檛 needed in King鈥檚 class. Behavior has improved since the Kindergarten-Plus program began, King says, as she hands out graham crackers to the youngsters while they work.
The children are quiet as they color a connect-the-dots picture and trace pictures of garden tools鈥攁 skill that will help later with their handwriting.
Across the hall, outside Cherie Love鈥檚 1st grade class, impressive writing samples鈥攁bout helicopters in the sky鈥攈ang on the wall.
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing what you can get a 1st grader to do,鈥� says Love, showing an example of a child鈥檚 work, how he wrote from margin to margin and clearly spaced his words. 鈥淲hat used to happen in 1st grade, they鈥檙e doing in kindergarten鈥攖hose readiness skills.鈥�
Lawmakers outside New Mexico have also shown interest in harnessing such readiness skills for their states鈥� children. Louisiana has passed a Kindergarten-Plus law, but so far the program has not received any funding, according to Giselle Lundy-Ponce, a senior associate in the AFT鈥檚 educational issues department.
In Rhode Island, a bill was introduced, and interest in crafting legislation has also been expressed in Texas and Virginia.
Before Feldman retired from the AFT presidency in 2004 because of a recurrence of cancer, U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., introduced a federal Kindergarten-Plus bill. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the Senate education committee鈥檚 top Democrat and a strong proponent of more spending for early-childhood education, also likes the idea, according to Lundy-Ponce. Still, she says, the bill is 鈥渏ust sitting there, waiting for the right amount of interest.鈥�
In New Mexico, Kindergarten Plus is a heavily academic program instead of simply a get-to-know-you-better time, though some fun activities, including field trips and water play, are built in. Getting her teachers to focus on academics, Jones says, took some persuasion.
鈥淪ome of my [kindergarten] teachers thought kindergarten should just be social,鈥� says Jones, who taught 1st grade in the 1980s. She says she earned a reputation as a rebel because she taught her pupils spelling before the curriculum said they were supposed to learn it.
Jones says she still gets questions about whether the children are being hurt by higher academic expectations. She responds: 鈥淗ow can you hurt a kid when they鈥檙e learning? All of our kids could benefit from 40 extra days.鈥�
Persuading teachers to cut their summers short also took a little extra work, despite the extra pay.
鈥淲e鈥檝e programmed ourselves to having a summer off,鈥� Jones says.
Without teacher buy-in, in fact, the program can鈥檛 work, as shown by the experience at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, also here in Las Cruces. The school offered the program the first year, but when the two teachers involved had family emergencies, no one else was willing to take their places.
At Valley View, King says her initial reaction was something like, 鈥淥h my! I have to go back to work?鈥� But she says she realized she鈥檇 rather be spending her time with children than in a staff-development seminar.
鈥淚鈥檝e probably had all the training I can handle,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 love my job, and I鈥檇 rather be doing this.鈥�
Jones describes herself as a 鈥減icky principal鈥� when it comes to mealtimes at school because she requires her teachers to stay with their charges instead of taking a break. She believes the informal atmosphere is an optimal time for conversation and vocabulary development.
Earlier this summer morning at breakfast, which is served to all the children, Burnam takes time to squat down next to some of her pupils as they eat, answering their questions and encouraging good behavior.
Those additional days without the older students, she says, really come in handy because the cafeteria routine had changed. Instead of simply grabbing their cereal and milk, the children are now instructed to pick up a tray first and choose additional food items, including the apple-cinnamon square that the food-service worker describes as 鈥渓ike a Pop-Tart.鈥�
The change, Burnam says, 鈥渕ay seem insignificant,鈥� but deciding which item should be placed in which tray compartment is a big decision for a 5-year-old.
During breakfast, Eli Guzman, stands off to the side to watch his daughter, Giovanni, eat her breakfast and talk quietly with other girls. Even though he lives outside Valley View鈥檚 attendance zone, he requested a transfer for her, partly because of the Kindergarten-Plus program.
鈥淚t鈥檚 supposed to better prepare them for the school year,鈥� he says, adding that his two older children, now 11 and 12, attended Valley View Elementary. 鈥淚 liked this school so much.鈥�
Because of the age difference between Giovanni, who goes by 鈥淕igi,鈥� and her older siblings, Guzman says his daughter was eager to spend time with children her own age. Since Kindergarten Plus began, he says, she has come home talking about her new friends.
He stays to watch Gigi, dressed in bright pink and wearing two pigtails on top of her head, walk down the hall to Burnam鈥檚 class.
Not only does Burnam expect good kindergarten behavior, but she also frequently encourages her youngsters by telling them they鈥檙e about to do 1st grade work.
In fact, when the class begins singing an alphabet song using the letter sounds, Cecelia Martinez, a talkative pupil with a know-it-all attitude asks, 鈥淚s this a 1st grade thing?鈥�
Later, as the children sit in small groups for more individual instruction, Burnam says Kindergarten-Plus gives children the exposure to learning that they might not get outside of school.
鈥淪ome people have been everywhere and done everything,鈥� she says, placing her hands gently on Cecelia鈥檚 head. 鈥淎nd some people haven鈥檛.鈥�
When the pilot program ends next year, Jones hopes to have more than just her own gut feelings to convince policymakers that Kindergarten-Plus should continue.
While New Mexico鈥檚 standardized-testing program doesn鈥檛 start until 3rd grade, she鈥檚 gathering scores that compare basic early-literacy skills of 1st graders who attended Kindergarten-Plus with those of 1st graders in other schools.
For now, the future of Kindergarten-Plus depends on whether state policymakers are willing to support more than one early-childhood initiative at a time.
鈥淚f it continues, it will have to continue as part of the legislative process,鈥� says Karen Ehlert, the full-day-kindergarten coordinator at the New Mexico education department.
Rep. Stewart says she will try to make that happen in next year鈥檚 session by somehow linking the pre-K legislation with Kindergarten-Plus.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a perfect progression,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he infrastructure is there, the teachers are there, and these kids really own the school.鈥�
