We have been down this road before, but I will beat this drum till my knuckles bleed (and the older my children and my grandchildren get, the harder I'll drum).
Florida is once again reporting that 40% of Florida kindergartners are "not ready for kindergarten." Rep. Erin Grall (R) told a House early learning subcommittee "That's on us," as part of her pitch for HB 419, a bill intended to restructure Florida's early learning "system."
Florida has been spent a few years giving five year olds their own version of the Big Standardized Test to measure kindergarten readiness, and it has consistently found that nearly half of Florida's littles "are not ready" for kindergarten.
Clearly there is a problem, and the Florida legislature has been steadfast about looking for that problem in the wrong place.
If half of your five year olds are "not ready" for kindergarten, the problem is with either A) your instrument for measuring readiness and/or B) your expectations for what "readiness" looks like.
I bolded that because all caps would just be rude. But nobody in power in Florida seems to be looking at this answer.
There's the Children's Movement of Florida that wants to get to 10% kindergarten readiness by 2030. The group is a real cross-section of Florida's education policy-makers. Founded by David Lawrence, a CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Let's Assess Four Year Olds