The Columbus Dispatch

12/5/2006

Jennifer Smith Richards

Reading the words was effortless for them: bug, his, go, going, nose. The kindergartners fired them off in rapid succession.

“See all the big words you’re learning now?” said Deborah Eiland, their language-arts teacher.

In January, when they began a midyear kindergarten program at W.C. Cupe Community School, they were working on letters and all the other kindergarten essentials: colors, shapes, days of the week and months.

Now, the 5-year-olds at the South Linden charter school are reading books, some at a secondgrade level.

Midyear kindergarten - a fullday program that starts in the middle of the school year - has put the children on a reading and math fast track, said Terry Dodds, W.C. Cupe’s director. “It gives kids who are disadvantaged a jumpstart.

“Secondly, it enriches kids who are ready to start reading.”

Children who complete the midyear program aren’t whisked away to first grade in the fall. Instead, they move to a fast-track kindergarten classroom.

The midyear concept offers sharp contrast to the widespread trend of academic redshirting in kindergarten, when parents delay their children’s entry to school. Some do this so kids will be more mature when they start school; others do it to give their students a leg up in sports later on.

“That, I see a lot of,” said Dominic Gullo, professor of elementary and early childhood education at Queens College in New York. Gullo is editor of K Today: Teaching and Learning in the Kindergarten Year.

Midyear kindergarten, though, is practically unheard of, Gullo said.

“What I would be concerned about is what happens to those kids who have gone relatively far in the kindergarten curriculum,” he said. Because W.C. Cupe continues kindergarten again in the fall instead of promoting students to first grade, “They’re really not any further ahead. (What if) those kids get really, really bored in kindergarten the following year? ”

Dodds said that doesn’t happen at W.C. Cupe, because advanced learners are allowed to progress at a quicker pace with more difficult material, including reading novels.

This is the third year of W.C. Cupe’s program.

Another Columbus charter school, Great Western Academy, abandoned a similar program two years ago because it didn’t work well, Principal Amy Buttke said. “We didn’t see as much growth in the kids.”

It was confusing for some parents, she said, and others pushed to promote their children to the first grade after just a couple of months in kindergarten.

“We just decided to wait,” Buttke said.

Ohio Department of Education officials say they don’t know of any other charter schools that have such programs.

Midyear kindergarten typically is too expensive for traditional public schools, which receive state money based on how many students are enrolled in October and wouldn’t be paid for students who enrolled in the middle of the year. Charter schools, however, are paid monthly for each child.

“Charter schools are forced to do more with less; we have to find some way to give parents a good product and be able to increase our achievement standards,” said Estella Stephens, chief executive officer of W.C. Cupe.

Some traditional public schools did try something similar about three decades ago. Cleveland schools did, but officials say it didn’t work very well. They haven’t done it for years.

W.C. Cupe hopes to enroll about 75 children for the midyear kindergarten classes. They must be 5 years old by Jan. 8, when classes start. Last year, about 50 children enrolled, and others landed on a waiting list. jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

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