What is advanced kindergarten, you ask? It’s a good question. We’ve already heard that today’s regular kindergarten is more like first grade used to be as the academic pressures continue to mount. So, advanced kindergarten must be more like second grade used to be when we were kids kicking around the playground. Regardless, more parents in Denver want it, according to this Education News Colorado story.
It may be an obvious ploy to keep Denver families in the public schools, rather than risk them eyeballing private options or suburban schools. But it’s also getting positive results on student achievement. Consider this: So far, data shows that children who attended advanced kindergarten scored better on end-of-the-year literacy tests than children who attended other DPS kindergarten programs. Those results applied to both low-income children and those from more affluent families. Or this: Of children who started in advanced kindergarten in 2004, 98 percent were reading at or above targeted levels by the end of kindergarten. By the third grade, 94 percent of the advanced kindergarten alums still in DPS tested proficient or advanced on state reading exams.
And we thought kindergarten was more about monkey bar domination, learning to line up and raise your hand and not leave your hat on the playground…
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