The New Kindergarten Experience By Deborah Williams

Researchers from EDPolicyWorks, the center for education policy and workforce competitiveness at the University of Virginia have compared the changes in expectations for kindergarten students in the 1990s and for kindergarten students today.  The Science Daily article, “Kindergarten Is the New First Grade, Researchers Find,” summarizes their work and reports that the increase in accountability has created a more rigorous curriculum for kindergarten.
The most prominent change is in literacy.  “In 1998, 31 percent of kindergarten teachers indicated that most children should learn to read while in kindergarten.   By 2006, 65 percent of teachers agreed with this statement.”  It is not surprising, then, that the amount of classroom time spent on literacy increased about 5.5 to seven hours a week of instruction time.
The increased academic focus has caused some problems, too.  Less time is available for “play, exploration and social interaction.”  Additionally, there is more “homework, worksheets, and pressure to learn to read as early s possible, and heightened levels of stress.”  With the increase in time spent on literacy, other subjects receive less time.  Time spent in physical activity, very important for kindergarten students, is also greatly reduced or eliminated in some cases.
It is possible to address the increase in literacy instruction while incorporating the hallmarks of kindergarten curriculum, but it requires a new, creative restructuring to achieve a workable balance.