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FCAT Prep Becomes the Curriculum
- To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
- Subject: FCAT Prep Becomes the Curriculum
- From: Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:37:11 -0700
From: "Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>
I do believe that Finland, which has the highest literacy rate in
the world, does not begin formal reading instruction till kids are
aged 7. If find this simply scary - drill and kill on nonsense! Monty
EDUCATORS SHIFT FOCUS: MORE DRILLS, LESS PLAY
SOME ARE WORRIED THAT YOUNG CHILDREN MAY BE LOSING OUT ON CREATIVITY TIME
Sarasota Herald-Tribune - June 29, 2007
by Tiffany Lankes
"Ready, set, go!" a little boy shouts as he clutches a stopwatch.
His classmate starts rattling off words.
The summer school student at Bradenton's Daughtrey Elementary
stumbles but keeps going.
"He put the end of his nose in the hole," the boy reads. The
sentence actually says, "He put one end of a thin hose in the pail."
But no one notices the mistake, and no one corrects him. The speed
drill at Daughtrey is more than just a reading lesson. It is a
lesson in how schools are changing the way they educate their
youngest students as they scramble to improve standardized test scores.
More and more, Florida schools are focusing on younger grades to
give students an early edge on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment
Test, sometimes years before they will ever take the exam.
In the youngest grades, practice tests, reading drills and summer
school are replacing old staples like show and tell, recess and
summer camp. The primary years used to be a time when teachers
nurtured social skills and students learned letters with building
blocks. Now, children are learning to read with timers and No. 2 pencils.
Schools in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties are no
exception. In the past few years, local schools have used summer
school programs and practice standardized tests to target young
students who are at risk of falling behind.
"I remember years ago it was unusual that kids were reading in
kindergarten," said Mig Osan, a teacher at Wilkinson Elementary in
Sarasota. "Now, it's expected."
Educators say these efforts help them identify students at risk of
failing at an early age so they can help them. That is especially
important for students who start their education career behind their peers.
Yet some critics question whether the early test preparation has
cost children lessons in creativity at a time of their life some
research shows they need it.
"Educators are trying to create a form to fit every child, and you
just can't do that," said Stephen Rushton, a professor and
researcher at the University of South Florida. "We have lost the
whole child in this testing craze."
Kitchens to computers
Seven-year-old Gabriella Zoutendyk spends a half-hour each day
doing intense drills on how to blend sounds, read words and write sentences.
The exercises are part of a summer camp program at Bradenton's
Oneco Elementary, where students as young as kindergarten get
pulled from other activities for a round of intense reading lessons.
The sessions are fast-paced and intense, giving students a crash
course in skills they need to pass the FCAT.
But for Gabriella, the test is still a year off. She just finished
first grade.
The class at Oneco is not uncommon. While summer school used to be
reserved for older students -- particularly those who failed the
FCAT -- Southwest Florida school districts now target second-graders.
And some schools, including Oneco, use summer camps that once
centered on play activities to sneak in extra reading drills for
kindergarten and first-grade students.
"This is a lot of really intense work for them," said Gabriella's
teacher Jennifer Gonzalez. "We can't afford to lose any time. The
skills they are learning are completely different than they used to
be for kids this age."
The changes go beyond summer school. Within weeks of starting
kindergarten, 5-year-olds in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte
counties are now inducted with their first standardized test.
Teachers pull them aside to assess how many sounds and words they
can identify in a minute. Children who perform poorly get pulled
from their regular class for extra tutoring.
Eductors say today's pullout groups are far more intense than those
schools once used to target struggling students.
The most popular remedial programs come with a script, so teachers
can read through their lessons without doing any of their own planning.
"Skill, drill, skill, drill," said Carol Kolesa, who taught a
summer class at Daughtrey. "You just do it over and over."
That's a far cry from when Kolesa started teaching 14 years ago.
Back then, first-grade students learned letters by making them out
of pipe cleaners and Play-Doh.
"Now, we stick a pencil in their tiny little hands before they even
know how to hold it," Kolesa said.
The old methods were derived from research that showed young
children learn better when they can be creative and touch things.
But these days, kindergartners will be hard pressed to find a
dress-up box or play kitchen in their classroom. They have been
replaced by learning centers, where children use computers and
audio sets to do regimented reading drills.
The early emphasis has also meant students are expected to master
reading skills at a much younger age than their predecessors were.
Today's kindergartners are expected to recognize and write letters,
know what sounds they make and read a certain number of words in a
minute. In Manatee, they must read at least 49.
"When I first started, if our kindergarten children knew their
letters and sounds, we were excited," said Becky Cothern, a reading
coach at East Elementary in Charlotte. "Now, you pretty much have
to have these things down by kindergarten."
Catch them before they fall
Local educators are following the lead of the state and federal
governments when it comes to their early efforts to teach reading.
In 2001, the federal government set aside millions of dollars to
pay for reading programs in kindergarten through third grades as
part of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Florida followed suit, requiring schools to periodically test
elementary students -- including kindergartners -- and have them
spend 90 minutes a day reading.
The push comes in response to lagging performance on the FCAT.
Five years ago, just 60 percent of third-graders were meeting state
reading goals on the test. Educators figured the best way to
improve performance was to start targeting younger students.
"If we don't catch them early on and they fall behind, it's
difficult for them to ever catch up," said Sheryl Kurtin, a
curriculum specialist with Sarasota schools.
Kurtin says, in an era where some parents spend thousands of
dollars on elite pre-kindergarten programs, parents' increasing
expectations for what their children learn also play a role in the
shift. "They expect their children to have these skills earlier
than we typically taught them," Kurtin said.
Whatever the motivation, many educators say the efforts are paying
off. Students learn the skills they need, and get extra help early
on so they don't fall behind as they move through the system.
And some research shows that children actually have an easier time
learning language skills during the primary ages.
Yet critics maintain that something is lost in all of the test
preparation. They say young children should be spending their early
school years learning to think creatively, and some research shows
that young children are more apt to learn from creative play than
regimented reading drills.
"To give a child that young a reading prompt, but not give them
anything to connect it to in their lives really puts them at a
disadvantage," said Rushton, the USF professor.
"It becomes that much more difficult to make those connections."
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20070629/NEWS/706290499/1419/RSS04
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