N.M. Kindergarten-Plus pilot earns high marks

It started as a straightforward, almost intuitive approach to helping students at risk of academic failure because they lack the advantages their more affluent peers enjoy. Why not give these students additional instructional days in the summers before and after the regular kindergarten year as a way of heading off problems down the road?

Now, the first evaluation of the only Kindergarten-Plus program in the country is in, and it shows that the extra school time helps children flourish both socially and academically, and it increases parents' involvement in their children's education. The study examined the New Mexico Kindergarten-Plus program, which began in 2003 as a three-year pilot project administered in four school districts. The New Mexico Office of Education Accountability found that the student population supported by Kindergarten-Plus showed promising trends in literacy skills, particularly in letter naming and word sound fluency; and in some instances, fewer students were classified as having delayed skills. State evaluators also found greater social maturity and increased parental involvement in the Kindergarten-Plus group.

"Study after study shows that many low-income students start school at a disadvantage to their peers," says AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese. Former AFT president Sandra Feldman proposed this concept about three years ago, and "this report is the first step in providing proof that Kindergarten-Plus can be an effective way to close the achievement gap," says Cortese.

States considering Kindergarten-Plus programs include Connecticut, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.

"We hope those states will look closely at the data in this report, and create well-conceived Kindergarten-Plus programs of their own-taking into account the recommendations, lessons learned and places for improvement in the New Mexico program," says Cortese.

The benefits of Kindergarten-Plus are seen daily by Miriam Martinez, a kindergarten teacher at Los Padillas Elementary School in Albuquerque. "Kindergarten is usually the first time [the children] meet with formal education; just in terms of socialization, those extra days are very important," says Martinez, who is also a vice president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation. She also has seen literacy skills improve among her students. School often is the only place where many of them are exposed to the printed word.

Copyright American Federation of Teachers May/Jun 2005
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