Reply to Extended School Year Approved for 2 MoCo Elementary Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, it doesn't. It answers a different question

Q: How can schools close the gap?
A: They can't.

So, what can close the gap, and how?[/quote]

Having all parents understand that education starts at home and doesn't just occur during the school day once a child turns 5. We get kids who arrive in Kindergarten not knowing the names of colors, shapes, how to count to 5, how to recognize their own name in print, how to toilet themselves, or how to hold a pencil or scissors. It also takes them a while to acclimate to how to be in school and that expectations in school are different than at home. No, it doesn't mean preschool is necessary for everyone, but for some kids coming to school is completely brand new on every level.

By the time these kids learn these skills they are already way behind. The curriculum is written assuming children have background knowledge they don't have. Yes, there are interventions but when it takes them two marking periods to learn the skills listed above, they're already way behind. They are spending their time and energy learning those skills, so all of the skills being taught above and beyond those aren't sinking in, so when the same skills are spiraled in later meant as reinforcement these kids are learning them for the first time and aren't building upon them as designed--they're experiencing them for the first time. This cycle builds and builds until there are gaping holes that just can't be filled in the time they're in school. [/quote]

Did I write this? I had to check the date because this is exactly what I would have written. I teach in a Title 1 school in MD but not MCPS. The gap exists before birth. IMO, the best use of funding is with universal pre-school starting at age 3. At my school, we have preschool for 4 year olds and there is a huge difference between a kindergartner who has been to preschool and one who hasn't. They are more prepared for the curriculum and less time is spent on skills I would expect a child to learn at home (how to hold a crayon/pencil, how to write their name, colors, numbers, letters, concepts of print, etc). So instead of teaching students how to cut, they are jump into a curriculum that expects they already have been read to their entire lives. There is a lesson on character traits? I need to back up a week or two to introduce all of the prereqs to that even though that isn't in the curriculum. Can't do character traits until a student knows what a book is, how to hold it, how it is read, it is made up of letters that makes up words that make up sentences, etc. How is a letter different from a word? A sentence? A number? That words and pictures convey meaning. The people are/or animals in the story are characters. To be a character, this is required. Etc. Of course this makes up majorly behind and we get yelled at because we aren't on target but it's necessary. Sometimes it just seems ridiculous when you are supposed to be teaching this higher level stuff and then you tell the student to go put something in his/her locker and they can't find it because they don't know their name in print yet. [/quote]

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