position paper burpin' mack nclb policies and early childhood education

Shuna Laura FloresJune 19, 2010Position Paper 2

Burpin’ Mack – No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Policies and Early Childhood Education

Then down from below In the great turtle stack

Came a burp from a plain Little turtle named Mack Just part of the throne This burpin' little turtle

Looked up and said "I beg Your pardon king Yertle"

I've pains in my back My shoulders and my knees

How long must we stand Here your majesty

"Silence !" the king of the Turtles barked back To the bad burpin'

Little turtle named Mack I'm Yertle the turtle

Oh marvelous me for I am ruler of all that I see

Adopted from Yurtle the Turtle and Other Stories by Giesel, T.(1958). Random House. Copyright 1958.

The new policies as a result from the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) instigated whole

school reform. Secretary Page stated, “I believe the No child Left Behind Act of 2001 will go

down in history as the key piece of public policy that finally slammed close the achievement gap

between those who have and those who don’t…” (Byrnes, 2009, p.181). Mounting pressure is

being placed on educators and school systems to find ways to meet the performance

requirements for students on “high stakes” standardized tests. Student pass rates must increase as

required by this act such that schools show Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). By the year 2014,

all but 1% of the students’ performance will be evaluated by “high stakes” testing with the only

exceptions being those categorized by IDEA with cognitive disabilities (e.g., autism, multiple

disabilities and traumatic brain injury) which would prevent them from attaining grade-level

achievement standards (Byrnes, 2009, p.173).


The requirements of NCLB have prompted educators to put increasing pressure on

younger grade levels to develop skills needed to pass the “high stakes” tests they will face upon

entering third grade. “Kindergarteners are routinely tested and evaluated on the mastery of

academic standards that were previously thought to be beyond their developmental

understanding.” (Byrnes, 2009, p.341). Modern Kindergarten is what first grade was forty years

ago (Deming & Dynarski, 2005). Are the stringent requirements of NCLB causing our young

students to feel like Mack the bottom turtle in Yertle’s turtle stack?

Across the country school curriculums are requiring kindergarteners to acquire skills

beyond the average developmental level milestones expected by the end of 5 years of age

according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), (Starr, 2002). Even the best and

brightest students will struggle if they are asked to complete tasks beyond the scope of their

development. For Example, Table 1.1 contains some of the curriculum requirements for various

schools across the United States versus the developmental milestone expectations by the AAP.

Table 1.1School and curriculum requirement AAP Developmental Milestone

Lombard (Illinois) Elementary School District 44 Kindergarten students will learn to "identify story elements: plot, setting, characters."

Five-year-olds should "understand that stories have a beginning, middle, and end."

The Department of Defense Education Activity Kindergarten students in military schools will "begin to form letters with control over size or shape."

Five-year-olds will "enjoy tracing or copying letters" and "may" have enough fine motor control to "tie their shoes."

The Cotati-Rohneet Park Unified School District in Rohnert Park, California, Kindergarten students are required to "count with one-to-one correspondence to 30" & comprehend relationships between numbers to 30."

The average five-year-olds are developmentally able to "count up to 10 objects."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in Charlotte, North CarolinaKindergarten students are expected to learn to "recognize and name upper and lower case letters of the alphabet."

The average five-year-old, can learn to "identify some letters of the alphabet and a few numbers."

Adopted from “Kindergarten is for Kids” by L. Starr, Education World, 2002. Retrieved from: http://www.educationworld.com /a_issues/issues325.shtml


As the book Yertle the Turtle depicts, the stack of expectations for our youngsters get

higher and greater, little Mack at the bottom is beginning to complain. Teachers and parents are

forced to look at other options for the youngsters who are not measuring up. Some of the tactics

used for struggling kindergarteners are Redshirting and Retention. It is estimated that annually

7% of potential kindergarteners are redshirted (having to wait an extra year before entering

school) and 5% are retained. The redshirts and those who are retained are primarily boys who

seem to lack the emotional and developmental abilities to meet the rigors of modern

kindergarten. This allows a temporary advantage for these students to achieve the maturity level

required but this gap is usually eliminated by the third grade. These students are rarely able to

maintain the performance levels of their grade mates (Graue, Kroeger & Brown, 2007). “The

Gift of time” doesn’t appear to be a solution for most of the children who are either redshirted or

retained. “We think it might be helpful to highlight … — developmentally responsive practice—

by building on what we know about child development and articulating the responsive act of

teaching in concrete ways” (Graue, Kroeger & Brown, 2007).

Response to Intervention (RTI) has become the main focus of Early Childhood Education

when attempting to overcome the deficits of struggling students. “As both an instructional

process and new component in special education law (IDEA, 2004), questions abound as RTI

makes its way through state houses, classrooms, universities, and households”(NITCHY, 2010).

RTI is commonly referred to but not clearly defined. “Since RTI is part of existing law, perhaps

the question is not whether educators should implement RTI, but how to do so” (Byrnes, 2009,

p.157). IDEA (2004) allocates 15% of federal special education dollars to be allocated for early-


intervention programs designed for students who have not been identified as needing special

education services but who are struggling to meet the demands of the classroom (Gentry &

Windfield, 2010).

RTI was originally designed to determine if a student was in need of special education

services, but has since been broadened to encompass the spectrum of all students with learning

difficulties. “RTI is an innovative approach to service delivery within schools. As practitioners

become increasing frustrated with current practices (i.e. waiting for a student to fail before

services can be provided) and were faced with the pressure of No Child Left Behind, they

acknowledge that a more proactive and preventative approach in needed” (Gentry & Windfield,

2010).

The components of a successful RTI program include systematic and data-based

activities. It is a three tier program where tier 1 is comprehensive and universal. Tier 2 is

reserved for those students who need more intensive and specific instruction. Tier 3 is used to

identify more specific learning problems and can be a transition point between general and

special education (Byrnes, 2009, p.138).

So what do we do about our little friend Mack? Is he benefiting from the increasingly

demands placed on kindergarteners or will he become one of the ones who collapses under the

pressure by either shutting down or dropping out as he progresses through the educational

system? In response to the pressure from NCLB Act many schools, especially in lower

economic communities, start drilling and testing kindergarteners. This may not be the best

practice. “The increase in teacher-directed instruction that has resulted from No Child Left

Behind has already pushed play out of the curriculum in kindergartens countrywide. This is a far

greater problem than many realize. Play is the cornerstone of social, emotional, and cognitive


learning and healthy development. It is through play that children develop the foundation for

cognitive concepts, problem solving skills, and critical thinking which is essential for later

academic learning. Play generates imagination and creativity, planning and self-regulation. It

helps children develop a love for learning” (Carlsson-Paige & Levin, 2010).

As school systems respond to the demands placed on them by NCLB on early childhood

education, Mack (the littlest turtle), cannot be forgotten. A balance must be achieved between

passing “high stakes” tests, the developmental level of kindergarteners, and early childhood

education. Increased pressure on the youngest of our students to learn test taking skills will not

necessarily pay off in the long run. Care must be taken to insure that curriculum requirements

and materials presented and curriculum requirements are developmentally appropriate so that our

little Mack can thrive instead of crumble under academic pressure.


References:

1. Byrnes, M.A. (2009) Issue 3: Is Eliminating Minority Overrepresentation Beyond the Scope of Public School? In L. Loeppke, F. Shilling, & J. Benedict (4th Eds.) Taking Sides. Clashing Views in Education (pp. 138, 157, 173, 181 & 341). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

2. Carlsson-Paige, N. & Levin, D. (2010, April 18). NCLB Outrages – One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrates. php?id=3961

3. Deming, D. & Dynarski, S. (2005) The Lengthening of Childhood (Research Report No. 08-3). Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Boston, MA. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED505616)

4. Gentry, R. & Windfield, G. (2010, February). Response to Intervention – See Johnny Run. Presentation for the 2010 Annual CEC Conference, Jackson Convention Complex, Jackson, MS. Retrieved from ERIC database (ED509170)

5. Giesel, T. (1958) In Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (Picture Book). New York, N.Y.: Random House Publishing

6. Graue, E., Kroeger, J. & Brown, C. (2007). The Gift of Time: Enactments of Developmental Thought in Early Childhood Practice. Retrieved from: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v5n1/graue.html

7. National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2010). Response to Intervention (RTI). Retrieved from http://www.nichcy.org/pages/rti.aspx

8. Starr, L. (2002, June). Kindergarten is for Kids. Education World. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/issues325.shtml

http://www.nichcy.org/pages/rti.aspx

http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v5n1/graue.html

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrates