Seattle Schools Community Forum: City's Preschool Program

Seattle Schools Community Forum: City's Preschool Program:

City's Preschool Program

Big Education Ape: Greedy Corporate Education Reformer's Newest Media Blitz: Pre-K and Charter Schools http://bit.ly/1I6hiBg

The Times had big news this morning that preschoolers can learn math but nobody in preschool teaching ever knew this before.

Naturally, I'm being facetious as most parents do know this (even if they don't know the best way to teach their own children).  As well, I would think most bonafide preschools do know this (and I certainly know Montessori and Waldorf do).

This article seems a bit of a cheerleading piece for the City's preschool but then, the City extended the deadline for parents to enroll so maybe they need the help.

Their centerpiece of the story is the preschool at South Shore which isn't the best example.  The claim is that 95% of kids who are in kindergarten at SS come in with basic skills for elementary school math.  They DON'T explain that it has been set up so that the pre-k kids get a bump to be in kindergarten at South Shoe so yes, if they had SS's preschool program, it would follow that their kindergarten class would have that readiness as well to go into first grade.  The point being that the over-whelming majority of kids were in the same program whereas that isn't true (and can't be true) for the rest of the kindergartens.

Yay
I give the Times credit for actually admitting that South Shore gets $1M a year extra.

Nay
But the Times doesn't name the foundation - League of Education Voters - nor do they say how long this has been going on (more than a decade).  Makes you Seattle Schools Community Forum: City's Preschool Program: