Among the many debates around the Common Core State Standards is an ongoing one about kindergarten: Do the standards ask too much of 5- and 6-year-olds in reading?
At the heart of the dispute is a literacy standard that says kindergartners should be able to 鈥�read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.鈥� Experts agree it鈥檚 a more advanced expectation than appeared in most previous state standards鈥攂ut there鈥檚 less consensus on whether it鈥檚 a better expression of what kindergarten pupils should be doing or an overreach. And a series of papers in recent weeks and months is keeping the debate alive.
Critics of the common core argue that the standard is not 鈥渄evelopmentally appropriate.鈥� They say kindergartners should be in play-based programs, and such lofty expectations are leading to harmful 鈥渄rill and kill鈥� teaching methods.
That standard in particular is 鈥渞evolutionizing what kindergarten looks like in this country,鈥� said Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor emerita at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and a co-founder of the advocacy group Defending the Early Years. 鈥淭here are less developmentally appropriate play-based experiences for kids.鈥�
There鈥檚 disagreement about whether the common-core literacy standards expect too much of kindergarten students. A note in the introduction for the K-5 reading foundational skills states that kindergartners should 鈥渄emonstrate increasing awareness and competence鈥� in areas including the following:
Phonics and Word Recognition
鈥� Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant
鈥� Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels
鈥� Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does)
Print Concepts
鈥� Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet
Fluency
鈥� Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding
Proponents of the common core, however, say such claims are based on misreadings of the common standards. In two briefs published on the topic last week, Student Achievement Partners, a professional-development group founded by the lead writers of the standards, points out that the standards don鈥檛 require mastery in foundational reading skills; they just require kindergartners to show they鈥檙e making progress. The standards are also compatible with play-based experiences and even contain a note encouraging them, they say.
In addition, many literacy experts say that while the standards themselves are developmentally appropriate, the instructional methods teachers are using to tackle them aren鈥檛 necessarily so.
鈥淵ou can have a classroom that鈥檚 very unplayful, and kids are still learning very little literacy in there, or you can have a playful one, and they learn a lot of literacy,鈥� said Kathleen Roskos, a professor of education at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, and an expert in early-literacy development. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen so many kids that are delighted reading to dolls and then going to a story chart, taking the pointer, and tracking print, and they鈥檙e finding it to be the most fun in the world. It depends on the conditions.鈥�
Perceptions of Difficulty
The common core defines emergent-reader texts as those with short sentences made up of learned sight words, such as 鈥渢he,鈥� 鈥渉e,鈥� and 鈥渋s,鈥� and consonant-vowel-consonant words like 鈥渃at鈥� or 鈥渕op.鈥� Such texts may also contain symbols that represent words children may not yet know.
People without a literacy background may imagine such texts to be more difficult than they are, said Nell K. Duke, a professor of literacy, language, and culture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 鈥淚n their thinking, it鈥檚 a cold reading of a brand-new text with words students have never seen,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 not what they鈥檙e looking for in the Common Core State Standards.鈥�
Ms. Duke offers the example of an emergent-reader text from TextProject, a free online resource for teachers, called Buns and Jam. The short book starts with a picture of buns and the corresponding word. The next page has a picture of jam with that word, and the final page of the book has another picture and says, 鈥淛am on buns. Yum!鈥�
Although pediatricians have agreed somewhat on when children should reach developmental milestones such as crawling and walking, developmental stages in reading are less concrete. (The one marker most literacy experts generally agree on is that students who don鈥檛 read by the end of 3rd grade will continue to struggle.)
The term 鈥渄evelopmentally appropriate practice鈥� was coined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children in the 1980s and is defined as practice 鈥渢hat promotes young children鈥檚 optimal learning and development鈥� and is informed by what teachers know 鈥�1) about child development and learning; 2) about each child as an individual; and 3) about the social and cultural contexts each child lives in.鈥�
The NAEYC published a paper in April noting that, while the common standards are generally consistent with developmentally appropriate practice, they run the risk of restricting the early-childhood curriculum and leading to assessment methods that are inappropriate for young children.
Defending the Early Years argues that the standard about emergent-reader texts doesn鈥檛 take young pupils鈥� differences, and the range of years in which they develop, into account, as developmentally appropriate practice requires.
鈥淭here鈥檚 an expectation that all children learn the same thing at the same time,鈥� said Ms. Carlsson-Paige. 鈥淎nd that doesn鈥檛 happen unless there鈥檚 some kind of coercion involved.鈥�
She notes that while some of the standards begin with the words 鈥渨ith prompting and support,鈥� that particular standard does not.
The recent Student Achievement Partners brief on myths and facts about the common-core K-3 language arts standards, written in response to the advocacy group鈥檚 claims, points to a note in the introduction for the K-5 reading foundational skills that states kindergartners 鈥渁re expected to demonstrate increasing awareness and competence"鈥攏ot mastery.
鈥淲e have that qualifier on top saying that some students may not be able [to read emergent-reader texts], but they鈥檙e expected to make progress,鈥� said David Liben, a senior content specialist for the literacy team at the New York-based group and a co-author of the briefs. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 huge.鈥� No other grade levels include such a qualifier.
Ms. Carlsson-Paige says the organization is just 鈥渂ackpedaling.鈥�
鈥淭eachers use the standards, they鈥檙e not reading obscure introductory material. ... I鈥檒l eat my hat if anyone ever saw that note.鈥� Defending the Early Years would like to see the standard retracted, she said.
Worksheets and Drills
In a January report, the early-years group also argues that the requirement that kindergartners read has led to 鈥渋ncreasing reports of kindergartens that use worksheets and drills, rely on lengthy whole-group lessons, and require teachers to frequently pull children out of the classroom to administer assessments.鈥�
Again, Student Achievement Partners claims that鈥檚 an instructional issue, not a standards one. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to understand that drill and kill is not the right way to teach almost anything,鈥� said Mr. Liben. 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 mean we should eliminate the standard because some people are implementing it incorrectly.鈥�
Another major hitch for the early-years group is the need for play in kindergarten, which it says the common standards are hindering. Good reading is dependent on oral-language development, and 鈥渁ctive, play-based experiences in the early years foster strong oral language in children,鈥� the group wrote in its report.
Common-core proponents don鈥檛 disagree. In fact, the common core鈥檚 introduction to the English/language arts standards says play 鈥渋s welcome as a valuable activity in its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document.鈥�
Kindergartners can and should use play to reach the standards, said the University of Michigan鈥檚 Ms. Duke. 鈥淭he dichotomizing of play with academic development is a problem,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone is wanting to get play out of the kindergarten classroom.鈥�
Ms. Carlsson-Paige and her colleagues also argue that learning to read in kindergarten has not shown long-term gains. Pupils who learn to read in 1st grade go on to read just as well as those who learned earlier, they say.
Student Achievement Partners鈥� brief responds that, while it鈥檚 true some students can delay learning to read without consequence, 鈥渂eginning to develop literacy skills in kindergarten helps children, especially low-income children, succeed with reading and avoid falling permanently behind.鈥�
Ms. Duke said it鈥檚 an issue of equity. 鈥淭he reality is if you take something like knowing the alphabet, ... many kids in this country鈥攁nd disproportionately kids from higher socioeconomic backgrounds鈥攃ome in [to kindergarten] knowing that already,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not OK that some kids who happen to have gotten that knowledge outside of school have it and some kids don鈥檛.鈥�
That鈥檚 just misdirection, said Ms. Carlsson-Paige. 鈥淭he standards are misleading people to think we鈥檙e going to increase equal educational opportunity and overcome the impact of poverty on learning [with standards],鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd I think we need to address those problems directly.鈥�
