They have to build up their number sense - how much is 10? In kindergarten, children are starting to have some of their first learning experiences. “If you and I are running a race, and every time we run a race, I get to start a lap ahead of you - why would you continue racing me? There’s no hope for you. “It levels the playing field,” explained Arthur Hochman, a professor of elementary education at Butler University. But preschool or kindergarten can be a critical intervention as children’s brains develop in their early years. Students from low-income families are more likely to start school behind their peers because they might have less exposure to literacy and other learning experiences.
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“That was a good way of making sure those who are most vulnerable and most in need not only get the bump in a pre-K program, but will continue to get that push that kindergarten would provide for them, in terms of being ready for first grade,” Behning said.Īt Stout Field in Wayne Township, 82% of students come from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The state’s growing pre-K voucher program for low-income families, On My Way Pre-K, requires recipients to send their children to kindergarten. House education leader Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said it’s most important to focus on making sure struggling students have access to kindergarten. From time to time, educators and policymakers raise the question of whether school should start earlier for little Hoosiers, but lawmakers have so far balked at taking that choice away from families, and some say they don’t see a need to mandate kindergarten when so many children already attend. Still, while most states require children to attend school at age 5 or 6, Indiana and a dozen other states wait until age 7. It’s only been in recent years that the state has placed more value on this early childhood experience, making full-day kindergarten available for free to all Indiana families in 2012 and providing more funding for schools to offer programs - changes that education leaders predicted at the time would drive up kindergarten attendance. “To think about all that we learned in a year - they’re not ready if they come in at first grade,” Sequin said. With a new focus on preschool, and an emphasis on meeting higher standards in later grades, educators say kindergarten is becoming more rigorous - and a more critical building block for everything students will learn in years to come. Children in Indiana don’t have to go to kindergarten, but it appears from school enrollment data that practically all of them do.
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