More about Kindergarten

From Blue Oregon

Welcome to kindergarten. What's your name again?

Leslie Carlson, Wendy Radmacher-Willis

Comment: I like this idea that children would have only 15 in a class. Right now we are hovering at about ten at the Garden School. The difference between 10 and 35 children is often the ability of the teacher to teach. Getting very young children to be quiet is often the biggest obstacle.

Class order is often dependent on the ability of a child to learn and to follow directions. I had 12 in my K class back in the 50s, and my son had 60 in his class and learned to read. Every child will respond differently.

I think what helps out at the GS is that we have a preschool, then a kindergarten for four year olds, and then a K-1 which is half a year of kindergarten and half a year of first grade. It allows our children to soar when they go to big school.

“Oregon’s commitment to educational excellence begins at the very start of a child’s schooling—in preschool and kindergarten. Research tells us that those early years are a critical time when children develop into active lifelong learners.” State Superintendent Susan Castillo

There’s been a lot of attention Oregon to the importance of kindergarten, and for good reason. Susan Castillo says that early childhood education is her biggest priority, Ted Kulongoski calls himself the education governor, the Chalkboard Project found that the ideal kindergarten class size is 15.

Think back, if you can, to your year in kindergarten. It’s an important year, and the time when you learn important lessons: your letters and numbers; how to stand in line; refraining from touching your neighbor. For many kids, it’s the first experience of working together in a group. There’s a good reason the academic research available points to small kindergarten classes as essential to student achievement.

Imagine our dismay, then, when we each found our brand-new kindergarteners in class of 32 students on the first day of school at Abernethy elementary in Portland. Our surprise—nay, shock—only deepened when we learned that at least 7 Portland elementary schools had kindergarten class sizes of 28, 29, 31 and even 35 children.

Despite the repeated pleas of many parents to Portland Public Schools, no additional teacher is forthcoming. We’re five weeks into the school year and, frankly, Portland’s kids can’t wait.

We agree with the experts: kindergarteners need a controlled environment—one in which they know they can regularly touch base with their teacher and think out loud with their classmates. As it stands now, our daughters can’t even remember the names of all their classmates.

Full kindergarten classes could be seen as good news: maybe this is the turnaround in enrollment numbers that Portland schools have been waiting for. But by refusing to lower these class sizes with more by adding teachers, the school district sets a terrible precedent. These five-year-olds and their classmates—and their fellow kindergarteners around the city—are future citizens of this city and state. They deserve better.