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Florida Considers Testing For Pre-K Students
August 19, 2011
While K-12 teachers have come under increasing scrutiny over their performance, with student test scores now linked to their salaries, voluntary pre-kindergarten providers are skating by with little oversight and accountability, argues one prominent early learning advocate.
Pre-kindergarten programs should test their students more extensively, argues David Lawrence, the head of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation. Lawrence said this wouldn’t be a “baby FCAT,” but instead a loose assessment of a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills in order to determine progress.
“It really pains me that we haven’t, in this state, subjected VPK to the same rigor and accountability that has been done with K-12 programs and services,” Lawrence said at a Thursday meeting of the Higher Education Coordinating Council. Lawrence is on a campaign to introduce tougher standards to the state’s voluntary pre-kindergarten programs. Earlier this month, he delivered a similar speech to the State Board of Education.
His efforts appear to be gaining some ground. The council, which has the authority to make recommendations to the Legislature and governor, signaled it is on board with many of his suggestions.
And next week, the State Board of Education will take up a draft legislative budget request for next year that asks for $4.6 million to begin offering voluntary pre-kindergarten assessments at a cost of $25 per student.
“There is an urgent need to follow what people voted on and have a quality pre-k program,” said Jon Moyle, a retired attorney and business representative on the Higher Education Coordinating Council. The council was formed in 2010 to help coordinate education efforts across higher education and Pre-K-12.
Lawrence, former publisher of The Miami Herald, is a longtime advocate for early learning and helped lobby for the constitutional amendment that first launched a state-funded voluntary pre-kindergarten program for four-year-olds in 2002.
But Lawrence argues that the promise to voters that the pre-kindergarten system would be high-quality has never come to fruition. “We do not have a high quality system in Florida,” he said, and Georgia offers a better program.
Advocates for early learning say extensive research has shown that the right educational intervention at a very young age can make a big difference in a student’s success. “We learn all of our lives, but the window for learning is open most widely in the years from birth to age five,” Lawrence said.
There are 166,398 students enrolled in voluntary pre-kindergarten in Florida.
Like most state-funded programs, the economic recession has curtailed funding for VPK. This year, the Legislature cut funding for the program by $20 million, leaving about $385 million, or $2,383 per child.
Besides more testing, Lawrence said pre-kindergarten instructors should be required to use curriculum that has proven to be effective, and teachers should be required to have associate or bachelor’s degrees.
Florida already tests kindergarten readiness within the first 30 days of the school year.
That data is used to calculate the kindergarten readiness rate for private and public school providers in voluntary pre-kindergarten, similar to how public schools receive lettered school grades.
But Lawrence said more assessment is needed.
“What we are trying to understand is two things, one, how good the provider is, and number two, where the child is developmentally, behaviorally, socially and cognitively,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence said he has been advocating this issue for years and was hopeful it would lead to legislative reforms.
“My hope is that the (lawmakers) will say “Oh, I get it,” Lawrence said.”We need to fix this so it’s the high quality people voted for. And you could make a significant number of fixes at a very small monetary cost.”
Comments
9 Responses to “Florida Considers Testing For Pre-K Students”
What happened to letting kids be kids? They are making it so much harder every year for them to be kids!
REGARDING:
” i have tought her since she could tlk now i send her to a public school and she didnt learn the first thing ”
Did you stop talking to her once you sent her to school? Surely there are still things YOU could teach her. Maybe they taught her some things they didn’t test for.
David for shared responsibilities
and starting at 8 years of age
To parent: My god,how could you have taught your child anything!? Your writing and grammar are horrible. If you were responsible for her formative years in learning, it’s no wonder she was behind in public school. Teachers are not God. They do the best they can with what they are given! You can’t fix stupid!
Ok now it’s you tea party patriots who need to stop drinking the kool-aid.
All public schools are not equal, which to you means they aren’t all bad. Depends on the school, faculty and parental involvement.
Stop villifying “public schools”, because some of them are excellent (not that you would know anything about that). Your “one size fits all” mentality is equivalent to a fourth grader. Turn off Neil Boortz and try to learn something.
maybe alabama will do the same my child tested at the beginning of k andshe was five years five months she tested as a six yr five mnths at the end of school she tested six years eight months so she only gained three months the whole school year she has always tested a year ahead of her age i have tought her since she could tlk now i send her to a public school and she didnt learn the first thing sad sad sad…..
When I get to be president, nobody starts school before the age of 8.
Problem solved.
(Note: those who start later do not finish behind those who start at half that age, have fewer visual problems and have more time to develop whatever values their families have. That last might be good or bad, depending on the family.)
“Remember when four year olds could just play?”
That was before educaton activists scared U.S. parents into believing that our little Johnny and Susie are going to be flipping burgers and shining the shoes of the Korean, Pakistani and Chinese intelligentsia unless we push our kids to abandon childhood and embrace competitive adult mindsets at an earlier and earlier age.
The fact is that those other cultures are not emotional or affectionate towards their children, they view their children as liabilities unless they can grow up to provide financial to support their parents and grandparents. I was raised by parents who loved me. That’s the American way. Don’t fear these other cultures, they really don’t have anything to offer us.
Ummmm, my grand-daughter attended Bratt Elementary for Pre-k in 2009-2010 and the teacher tested at the beginning of the the year and at the end. This was to ensure there was progress in the her learning. So why are we talking about giving more tests? Is this not standard practice through out Escambia County and the State of Florida? There is such a thing as too much!
Remember when four year olds could just play? Soon they will have to take a test. Why isn’t kindergarten still the time to learn the basic colors, numbers, etc. that haven’t already been taught at home. Now, they will be tested at four years of age and then tested again thirty days after entering kindergarten? No wonder so many people are on headache medicine, antacids and anti-depressants.