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It is reports like this that give people in general the impression that it is best to focus on ‘at risk’ children from low Socio-Economic Status families, and that middle class kids are, by and large, OK. This is an unfortunate conclusion. Parents of curious, gifted, bright or super bright children who have the advantage of their early years in articulate, book-stocked homes, nevertheless all too often feel that their children remain under-challenged, and that they under-perform for their potential. All children gain enormously if they are provided with access to simple keys to deciphering the world, such as the alphabet. Your very bright child may well turn into a genius, if you know what s/he needs to know at what stage. Your very bright child will still find it more difficult to learn keyboard or a second language or, for that matter, the alphabet, if they are introduced to these intellectual arenas later rather than earlier. Parents need to actively develop their children’s environments and interactive options. Let the kids pick up what they want – but at least make it available. Yes, pre-school teachers will in all likelihood be better if they have a bachelor’s degree – and this is true in well-to-do middle class settings as well as poorer districts.

And all children will have a better command of musical skills if they learn simple tunes on the keyboard when they are four rather than eight years of age. Etc. GS

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-10-02-our-view_x.htm

2^nd October 2003

Better teachers give poor preschoolers best head start

Anyone watching the cheery faces of kindergartners filing into the first day of class would have a hard time believing what lies below the surface: Half of low-income kindergartners can't recognize the letters of the alphabet, according to an early literacy report released last week. Another third don't know that a printed page flows from left to right and from top to bottom.

The gaps arise from the lottery of birth. Articulate, middle-class parents are more successful at passing along literacy skills to preschoolers.

To counter the problem, the federal government spends more than $6 billion a year on Head Start preschool programs for 1 million children age 5 and younger. Even so, children enter Head Start scoring in the 21st percentile on early screening tests and depart only in the 24th percentile.

One reason for limited gains is the limited education levels of Head Start teachers. Only a quarter have a four-year bachelor's degree.

With the Senate expected to take up Head Start reforms this month, one solution is obvious: Provide young learners with teachers who are qualified to teach low-income students the skills they need to compete with other children.

But a proposal requiring half of Head Start teachers to have a bachelor's degree by 2008 is running into opposition from some Republican members of Congress. They argue it is too expensive and unlikely to work.

Their singular focus on how to implement the requirement ignores the payoff for the preschool students who should be central to this debate. Yet their objections don't stand up to scrutiny. Consider:

•Expense Yes, upgrading the education requirements for Head Start teachers is expensive. The tuition grants and higher salaries needed to implement the plan would run about $2.25 billion. But the money spent to improve students' education on the front end could be recaptured on the back end by reducing the amount the federal government spends on high school remedial and special education. Studies that tracked students from two high-quality preschool experiments in Michigan and North Carolina prove that early intervention produces savings later in academic life.

• Inadequate research. One of the most successful preschool programs in the country is Chicago's Child-Parent Centers, where all of the teachers have bachelor's degrees. University of Wisconsin researchers have concluded that the degrees are a primary reason for the centers' success.

Currently, middle-class children enter kindergarten knowing 20,000 words; low-income children recognize only 5,000. Students who fail to overcome that gap and still struggle in reading by the end of third grade have little chance of understanding math, science and social studies in later grades, according to federal research.

A well-educated Head Start teacher helps. New research released last week by The Trust for Early Education, a non-profit advocacy group, found that preschool teachers with bachelor's degrees are significantly more successful in passing along literacy skills to students.

Children entering kindergarten classrooms may look alike, but their academic performance can be worlds apart. Narrowing the gap requires addressing it as early as possible.