Let’s Get Ready with Cedar Valley Publishing

I have uncovered an alarming trend in my preschool and head start workshops nationwide: the majority of preschool and head start teachers that come to my workshops do not know what children are tested on for their first Kindergarten assessment tests!!!  In fact, I started testing the preschool and head start teachers in my workshops.  I wanted them to feel what it feels like to be a five year-old; these little kids come to school expecting to be taught but instead we expect them to take a test – cold, without studying. 

So that’s what I did at the National Association of Head Start Conference in Atlanta in December, and again last week at the Wisconsin Head Start Association Conference in the Wisconsin Dells.  I challenged these teachers to list the seven things that kids are tested on for that first Kindergarten assessment test.  Guess what?  Only FOUR of 250 in Atlanta, from teachers all cross the country (including Illinois); got it correct and not one teacher in 75, in Wisconsin, got it right!! 

That is what is wrong with education!!! And I am not even a teacher, just a mom, inspired by Oprah, to empower parents, kids and teachers to work together in education! 

If our preschool and head start teachers do not know this information how can we expect parents and kids to know it?  AND where are the public service announcements telling parents the seven things they need to know for Kindergarten testing:  the alphabet all mixed up, number to 10 all mixed up, basic shapes, colors, coins, counting objects to 10 and how far they can count to 100?

So, when parents come to that first parent teacher conference and they are told that their child only knew five of 26 letters all mixed up, or was only able to count to 35 on the way to 100, parents feel frustrated and at that point, many feel if they can’t help their child in Kindergarten how are they suppose to help in First Grade, Second Grade and beyond? 

If a family is not involved at day one, they are less likely to be involved later on in the process.  They don’t wake up and say, Let’s Get Ready for Sixth Grade or High School?  They are already out of the loop by then! 

At the Kindergarten conference, many families that I talked to nationwide, opt-out and let the “teachers” teach their children and become disengaged in the educational process.   They feel if they couldn’t help their child with Kindergarten how are they supposed to help in the later years?  It was only 10 years ago that our Kindergarten teachers would teach what kids needed to know for kindergarten in Kindergarten, but that has changed; and sadly no one is telling our preschool and head start teachers how advanced Kindergarten has become!