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A new study led by CU听Boulder has taken one of the most in-depth looks yet at a typical day-in-the-life of a kindergarten student. The team鈥檚 results suggest that kids attending schools serving low-income communities in a large urban area seem to spend their class time differently than students from wealthier backgrounds.
The message they get: Sit still and wait quietly.听
The researchers discovered that 5- and 6-year-olds from lower-income schools spent a lot of time waiting around and not doing much of anything as they transitioned between class activities. They also had very little time to stretch, run around or engage in other physical activities.
Mimi Engel, lead author of the new study and associate professor in the School of Education, and her colleagues in August in the journal Educational Researcher.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what the ideal kindergarten day should looks like for kids,鈥� Engel said. 鈥淭his is our first attempt to explore the kindergarten experience for kids in an urban setting.鈥�
It was a massive undertaking: Over the course of three years, the group traveled to a large urban school district (they can鈥檛 say which one) and spent 82 days sitting in on lessons in 32 classrooms. In 24 of those schools, more than 90% of kids, on average, qualified for free- or reduced-price lunch, while in eight, less than 15% of the student body met that mark. The observers went wherever the kids went. When it was time to read The Seven Silly Eaters, Engel and her colleagues sat and listened along. When the kids went to recess, so did the researchers.
What the team, including researchers from the University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison, found was eye-opening.听
Students from the 24 lower-income schools whiled away 42% of their six-hour school days, or 2.5 hours on average, transitioning between activities鈥攎uch more than the roughly two hours on average spent doing the same thing in the higher-income schools.听
Engel suspects that some of those differences may come down to staffing: More adults were available to work with the young kids in the schools serving higher-income communities, helping the day flow smoothly.听
Beyond transition time, the study suggests that the educational experiences of kids in the U.S. can begin to diverge before they hit first grade.
鈥淭his is troubling. When I have the opportunity to spend time in schools, something I think about is: 鈥榃ould I want this for my own kids?鈥欌�� Engel said. 鈥淎nd when I think about what I observed in kindergarten classrooms serving kids from low-income households, my answer is 鈥榥o.鈥欌��
Butts in seats
The results, she added, highlight the in the United States. Over the last two decades, the percentage of children enrolled in full-day kindergarten has skyrocketed across the country. At the same time, their days have become more focused on reading and math and less on play and socialization.
鈥淭he next place for us to go is to understand what kinds of kindergarten experiences are best, and how we can facilitate those kinds of experiences across school districts,鈥� Engel said.
The 32 schools the team visited showed just how sizable the differences in those days can be.
Students from schools serving families with lower incomes, for example, got a lot less time to be active鈥攕pending 18 minutes a day, on average, on physical activity versus听the nearly 45 minutes a day in wealthier schools. 鈥淵oung children need to move their bodies to stay engaged in the classroom鈥�, Engel said.听
Youngsters from those same schools also spent almost all of their instructional time learning reading and math and little on other academic areas.听
鈥淚鈥檓 concerned about how few opportunities the kids seemed to have to be physically active and to have learning experiences that were more playful,鈥� Engel said.听
She emphasized that teachers from these schools seemed to really care about their students. But the team鈥檚 findings may show how limited budgets can affect the quality of children鈥檚 education in unexpected ways. The PTAs for the schools serving lower-income communities spent an average of $15,000 per year to support kids鈥� educational experiences. In the higher-income schools, that number leapt up to $780,000.
Engel said she hopes that the research will, ultimately, help school districts improve their early-childhood programs by identifying problem areas and shifting resources to fix the disparities.
鈥淜indergarten opens the door to elementary school for the vast majority of young kids in the United States,鈥� Engel said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone originally envisioned kindergarten as a time when kids would spend the day sitting quietly in their seats or waiting in line.鈥�
