Summit explores transitional kindergarten topics
Option gives 'young fives' more time to mature
Published: December 1, 2011
With planning for California’s new transitional kindergarten classes in full swing, about 500 educators packed a Sacramento venue last month for a daylong summit on implementation of Senate Bill 1381, the Kindergarten Readiness Act. The law has been gradually moving up the birthday cut-off date for kindergarten enrollment from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1, and it authorized a transitional kindergarten—sometimes called TK, or even Preppy K—to give younger children more time to mature.
By 2014, children will have to be 5 years old by the time they enter kindergarten, which in recent years has become more like first grade in the material covered. “Young fives”—the term for children who might have enrolled in previous years but who have not turned 5 by the beginning of the academic year—can join a transitional grade that will serve as the first of a two-year kindergarten program.
“Transitional kindergarten,” said Sacramento County Office of Education Superintendent Dave Gordon, one of the speakers at the Nov. 8 event, “will lay the foundation for reading proficiency in the early years and help our state build more seamless education systems for our children from birth to age 8.”
Another benefit of officially sanctioning the transitional year is that children stay in a developmentally appropriate setting without asking parents to pay for child care or preschool for another year.
Many districts are ramping up with pilot TK programs this year, and some of them were featured at the Transitional Kindergarten Implementation Summit sponsored by Preschool California, a nonprofit early learning advocate, along with CSBA and other statewide education groups.
“Research shows that beginning kindergarten at an older age improves children’s social and academic development and provides a significant boost to their test scores, especially for children from low-income families,” said Preschool California President Catherine Akin.
Easy link: