Kindergarten Readiness

[Country Kids]

Is kindergarten readiness different in every state? I was doing some research on it and from what every one talks about its very different here. I even found a free online test for it and did part of it.

What I can find out is children need to have phonics skills, lots of exposure to numbers/math skills which our kindergarteners do here. Its not just getting along with peers, standing in line and being able to hold a pencil.

Kindergarteners here need to be able to read 50 wpm by the end of the school year to be doing well. Not sure about math but I think its about there also. It use to be if you could count to 10 you were doing well but now a kindergartener was saying something about 100 + 100 the other day.

Kindergarten is actually 1st grade from what teachers have told me.

My kindergarteners love being here because we do projects and "play" school. We go outside for more then 5/10 min.

We are going to go all day kindergarten soon and I already had a teacher say it will definetly be more math/reading. More like 90 min of each in the morning and not sure in the afternoon but probably more reviewing.

What are your state requirements for kindergarten readiness and what are your kindergarteners expected to do by the end of the year.

[llpa]

I am pretty sure that Common Core has been accepted in 47 states now. In PA there are 92 pages of Early Learning Standards through the PA KEYS early learning programs. Pretty hard to break it down but you can look each state up online. I get strong suggestions all the time in the mail and from my licensing rep that I should belong to the keys program and implement these standards in my daycare setting. I am resistant to this but feel it coming as we have all discussed before many times

[Starburst]

Well, education isn't under federal control, the states have the right to set their own education regulations. I think while for the most part (because of NCLB- which is on it's way out after this year; moving to common core) the schools have a similar goal they tend to have different requirements and methods (even every school district does). Here everyone puts their child in Kindergarten because it's "free" (part of public school; K-12) and everyone assumes that it's required and just the norm, but as of right now it is not actually legally required to enroll your child in school until they are about 6 or 7 (1st grade). Though I keep hearing that they are trying to make kindergarten a requirement now and even preschool (they are also trying to make it a requirement for a preschool center teacher to have a BA).

Here we also have a lot of transitional kindergarten; it's pretty much a fancy way of saying 'extended preschool' for children who aren't quite ready for kindergarten but meet the cut off birthday for kinder (I think it's 5 by early September). But I have volunteered in both preschool classes and kindergarten here and Kinder is more traditional structured, which is kind of frustrating if you work more for preschool because we are taught to set up the curriculum in a discovery way but they pretty much "undo" all the learn through discovery that we do and then by the time kids get to 4th grade they don't like school anymore.

But anyways here are 2 lists of basic skills that can help children for kindergarten:

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2012/06/33-ways-to-prepare-your-child-for-kindergarten/

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2012/03/71-things-your-child-needs-to-know-before-kindergarten/

[Blackcat31]

Kindergarten readiness varies widely across the country. While 45 states or territories require school districts to offer kindergarten, only 19 states or territories require children to attend kindergarten prior to entering first grade.

Cut-off birthdates for kindergarten entry eligibility vary among the states, creating differences in age at entry, meaning that children enrolled in kindergarten for the first time across the country can range from younger than 5 years old to nearly 7 years old.

Only 10 states require school districts to provide full-day kindergarten; 34 states and the District of Columbia require provision of half-day kindergarten.

The variations in requirements for kindergarten teachers’ preparation and licensure across states mean that teachers of kindergarten children may or may not have specialized early childhood education degrees, certificates, or endorsements. Across states, the kindergarten year exists within a space somewhere between early childhood, for which most states have early childhood learning standards, and K–12 systems, for which states have standards that may or may not align with those for younger children.

Just a handful of states have kindergarten standards that address children’s social and emotional development and approaches to learning, in addition to cognitive content areas and physical development.


Here is a really cool interactive map that allows you to hold your cursor over the state you are interested in and see what their state requirements are.

Each state also gives you the opportunity to click on the link listed and read more about each state's individual requirements.

The states are color coded too so you can easily see which states require full, half and/or part day kindergarten

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page (in the link I posted) you can see a listing for each state.

It is a really really cool site worth exploring

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/full-day-k/full-day-kindergarten-states-2012.html