P.O. Box 444, College Park, MD 20741
Tel/Fax 301-779-1033
www.allianceforchildhood.org
Update-April 2009: Crisis in the Kindergarten
Dear Friends,
Our major new report, Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to
Play in School, is now posted on our web site. It summarizes the
findings of three Alliance-sponsored studies of what is happening to
open-ended play in public kindergartens and puts them in the larger
context of what we know about young children's real needs.
The findings are alarming. Kindergarten playtime is increasingly rare.
Most of the teachers surveyed said they were spending 2 to 3 hours per
day teaching and testing children in literacy and math skills.
Standardized testing and test prep, practices that most child
development experts reject as inappropriate and harmful, are daily
activities in most of the classrooms studied.
Teachers in Los Angeles mainly use curricula that require them to follow
scripts for hours each day, despite research showing poor long-term
results for this approach. In general, didactic early education is much
less effective than play-based methods are. Yet the academic drills and
tests are winning out.
At the same time, kindergarten retention and serious behavioral problems
are on the rise. Crisis in the Kindergarten argues that current methods
are putting children's long-term health and school success at risk. We
call for a new focus on child-initiated play and experiential learning
in early education, avoiding the extremes of the chaotic laissez-faire
classroom on the one hand and didactic, joyless instruction on the
other.
Our work is provoking passionate responses. David Elkind called the
research findings "heartbreaking." Deborah Meier called the report "a
careful account of what's actually happening in early childhood
classrooms," and added, "The news is frightening."
Crisis in the Kindergarten is online at www.allianceforchildhood.org
one-page flier, and press releases. Printed copies of the report are
also available for $16 postpaid; order at our web site or by calling the
Alliance.
What's next? We are now actively reaching out to news media,
policymakers, parents, and educators, to get the report into the hands
of those who need it. You can help. Spread the word to your friends, at
your school, and through organizations you work with. Contact your local
news outlets. Write an op-ed or post a blog entry.
And please contribute to our special fund for outreach for the report.
We'd like to raise $25,000, which will enable us to distribute and
promote the report intensively to media, professional organizations, and
state and federal policymakers. Your gifts, large or small, will help
immensely. You can make your tax-deductible donation by mail or online
at our secure web site: www.allianceforchildhood.org
We will keep you posted as our early childhood campaign develops.
With warm regards,
Joan Almon, Executive Director
