By Tom Jordan
The Rockville Centre School Board took a look at New York State standards as part of its five-point consideration of a full-day or extended-day kindergarten program for the 2001 school year, and discovered something ironic: The state does not require school districts to offer kindergarten, yet has strict standards for the curriculum, which includes English Language Arts, mathematics, science and social studies.
In fact, school administrators said they have found it "exceedingly more difficult" to meet the standards set in 1994.
Delia Garrity reported that although "a great deal" of the necessary material was being covered, the rest was being made up in first grade.
Superintendent of Schools William Johnson said, "We'd be very hard-pressed to find a teacher who wouldn't favor working with kids all day. The devil is in the details."
Although most school-board members agree that an extended-day program would help youngsters get a head start in their schooling, such major obstacles as lack of space and cost would have to be solved before it could be instituted.
At a public meeting in October, the board compared state kindergarten requirements with what Rockville Centre currently offers, to show that although the vast majority of the curriculum is being covered, an extended program might allow the district to better prepare the students for first grade. Administrators have visited school districts with all-day programs in place to observe how they are facilitated.
According to state standards for English, which Ms. Garrity called the "core" and the "overriding component" of kindergarten, students should be able to read, write, listen and speak by the time they get to first grade. They are required to read 25 books, know the alphabet and how to write it and join in group discussions.
The math curriculum requires touching upon mathematical reasoning, operations, measuring and functions, among other things. In addition to adding, subtracting and counting, the concepts of whole numbers, fractions, geometric shapes and patterns are introduced.
Science students are to learn about analysis, inquiry and the environment. They compare living and non-living things, analyze the life cycle of plants and animals and study nutrition, as well as learn about environmental changes, weather and energy. Kindergarten students are to acquire information, create models and predict the outcome of experiments.
In social studies, kindergartners are to learn about cultures, community, places and regions, and about rights and responsibilities, government and symbols of citizenship.
One difficulty with evaluating the effectiveness of the current kindergarten program, D. Johnson said, is that students are not assessed until they reach fourth grade. Rockville Centre students have done well on the fourth-grade state evaluations implemented only two years ago. In June, better than 90 percent scored in the top levels for English and 87 percent did so in math. Still, Dr. Johnson has said that he will not be satisfied until all students meet state standards. He is currently studying and comparing scores of districts with all-day kindergarten programs to those with half-day programs.
The overview of New York State standards was the second step in developing a plan for extended-day kindergarten in Rockville Centre schools. The board took the first step last month in presenting a report addressing the utilization of space in the district's five elementary schools. Extending the kindergarten day would necessitate the reallocation of classes and programs at each school, but only Hewitt would require extensive work, according to the board. There are 19 rooms being used for instruction at Hewitt, and 24 would be needed to accommodate the anticipated four sections of all-day kindergarten classes. Partitioning some rooms is one way to accomplish that.
Next month, the board will suggest changes in the district's kindergarten curriculum, In January, the board will discuss staffing and transportation considerations, and February's discussion will explore cost implications of the program.
The board will decide prior to next year's school-budget vote whether or not to include an expanded kindergarten program in its proposed budget.
