From Rhetoric to Reality: The Case for High-Quality Compensatory Prekindergarten Programs

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act requires all children to reach proficiency reading and mathematics by 2013-14. But this goal is based on the erroneous assumption that all children start school ready to learn. If we are to succeed closing the achievement gap, Ms. Neuman argues, we must put our efforts into creating high-quality prekindergarten programs for the nation's at-risk children. THESE ARE difficult times for public education. Faced with their worst financial crisis decades, states are eliminating all but essential programs, schools are shortening their sessions, textbook purchases are being put on hold, and teachers are feeling more vulnerable than ever before. These conditions are bad enough for small suburban school districts. They are all that much worse for districts the inner cities, where years of funding inequities have already curtailed all but the most vital services. Unfortunately, at a time when the public is being asked to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations, schools are struggling to hold on to hot breakfasts, decent bathrooms, and writing paper for their students. Because of the lack of the resources and support to sustain the gains that many urban schools have seen recent years,1 the current budget gap now threatens to trump the achievement gap. Paradoxically, just as programs and personnel are being slashed, standards and academic expectations are rising -- along with the sanctions for schools that fail to meet them. In the landmark reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, state accountability systems must now require schools to meet absolute targets for growth scores on mandatory state tests measuring achievement reading and math, so that all children will reach proficiency by 2013-14. And all means all. The results must be broken down by demographic categories, including economic disadvantage, ethnicity/minority status, limited proficiency English, and special education. If any of these subgroups fails to show adequate progress for two consecutive years, sanctions will be put place that involve an option allowing students to transfer to another public school and the provision of supplemental services, followed by corrective actions and school restructuring if necessary. The rhetoric of higher standards and achievement may be appealing, but the reality is not. Even with safe-harbor provisions, projections a number of states indicate that some subgroups, starting from behind, might have to make gains of 20% or more order to reach the absolute targets reading and math achievement two years.2 This could mean that 20,000 or more schools could be identified as in need of improvement -- a tripling of the number of schools this category previous years. There are a couple of ways for states to deal with this problem. They can find loopholes the law or devise strategies to continue to do business as usual and maintain the status quo, with large numbers of children being left behind. Or they can face reality, get serious, and address the enormous disparities children's skill levels before they even come to school and help schools and their beleaguered teachers, reeling from bad budget news, to accelerate and improve student learning. The Reality Several assumptions underlie the logic of NCLB. The law makes a bold and important statement that all children are able to learn the schools have to teach. It acknowledges the importance of highly qualified teachers significantly improving children's achievement and of research-based methods -- using what works to more efficiently and effectively teach reading and math skills. But the law also makes another and more troubling assumption: that of a level playing field. In expecting universal proficiency reading and math by 2013-14, NCLB seems to assume that all children are equally prepared for formal instruction kindergarten and first grade -- that all children start school ready to learn. …