[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 135 (Tuesday, October 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10435-S10436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         NOTICE OF STUDY ON LOCAL ALL-DAY KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I would like to alert my colleagues to a 
recently released study that shows great promise for all 
kindergartners, based on achievement gains in Montgomery County, MD. On 
October 1st, the Washington Post published key findings from a 2-year 
study of Montgomery County's intensive all-day kindergarten program. 
For the past 2 years, Montgomery County has lengthened the school day, 
decreased class sizes, and implemented a revised curriculum in its 17 
highest-poverty schools.

[[Page S10436]]

  The article highlights the rise in reading achievement for all 
students involved in the program, with low-income students making the 
most progress. In these 17 schools, 51 percent of the most 
disadvantaged children met reading benchmarks at the end of first grade 
while only 45 percent of poor children in the rest of the county did. 
Students made gains of over 50 percentage points in all ethnic groups, 
also narrowing the achievement gap by as much as 11 percent on some 
measures. Superintendent Weast attributes the program's success to 
additional training for teachers and principals.
  We must address the needs of our youngest students before our lack of 
attention compounds the disadvantages that many of them already bring 
to school. If children do not read fluently by the end of third grade, 
we know that many of them never will. We should do all we can to 
support further success. The results in Montgomery County show that we 
can make a difference to children's lives.
  I ask unanimous consent that an article entitled ``All-Day 
Kindergarten Posts Big Gains in Montgomery'' be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                [From the Washington Post, Oct. 1, 2002]

           All-Day Kindergarten Posts Big Gains in Montgomery

                  (By a Washington Post Staff Writer)

       An intensive and expensive all-day kindergarten program in 
     Montgomery County has produced significant gains for poor 
     children and helped them begin to catch up with higher-
     performing peers, a new study to be released today shows.
       In tracking the reading progress made by 16,000 youngsters 
     over two years in kindergarten and first grade, the report 
     found that not only did achievement rise for all students 
     involved in the program in high-poverty schools, but low-
     income students showed bigger gains.
       Further, the report found that both poor and middle-class 
     students in high-poverty schools--contrary to expectation--
     either matched or outperformed their peers in schools 
     elsewhere in the county, many of whom were in half-day 
     kindergarten programs.
       The most significant exception was for children who do not 
     speak English, a finding that has prompted Superintendent 
     Jerry D. Weast to pledge intensive phonics instruction at 
     schools with the most children living in poverty. ``We are 
     getting some emerging success,'' said a cautious Weast. 
     ``We're learning that you can attack poverty, that you don't 
     have to have low expectations just because a child is poor.''
       The findings come at a time when the General Assembly has 
     mandated full-day kindergarten for all Maryland schools as 
     part of a new state aid formula. Montgomery's ``kindergarten 
     initiative'' combines the longer day with smaller class 
     sizes, a revised curriculum and additional teacher training.
       Weast, who has won both praise and criticism for 
     implementing the program first in the county's high-poverty 
     schools, said the report vindicated his strategy and could 
     prove a model for schools across the nation dealing with a 
     vexing achievement gap that divides students along racial and 
     poverty lines.
       Indeed, the report found that the gap between higher-
     scoring white and Asian students and their African American 
     and Latino peers had narrowed by as much as 11 points on some 
     measures.
       Other county and national studies have found that the 
     achievement gap that largely divides middle-class and poor or 
     non-English-speaking students is apparent on the first day of 
     kindergarten and generally widens through the years, with one 
     group of students on track for rigorous, college-prep courses 
     and others for lower-level or remedial course work.
       The Montgomery study found that the kindergarten initiative 
     appears to be working well for children who live in poverty. 
     In the 17 highest-poverty schools, 51 percent of the children 
     considered poor enough to qualify for a federal lunch subsidy 
     met reading benchmarks by the end of first grade, and only 45 
     percent of poor children elsewhere in the county did.
       Despite the progress, officials said the gap still exists. 
     Nearly 70 percent of the middle-class students in those 
     schools met the same benchmark--about the same levels as 
     their peers in other county schools.
       The most troubling finding, Weast said, was for the limited 
     English speakers, whose reading scores actually dipped 
     slightly over the two years. And some of their scores on a 
     test last spring of oral language, hearing and associating 
     sounds with letters were lower by half than their English-
     speaking classmates.
       Weast today will announce plans to introduce intensive 
     phonics instruction in 18 schools that receive federal Title 
     I funding for low-income students, the first such instruction 
     ever in Montgomery County.
       ``It won't be drill and kill,'' Weast said, referring to 
     often-maligned, repetitive basic skills programs. ``But it 
     makes a lot of sense for kids who are hearing a different 
     language at home and hear the intonations and sounds of words 
     differently. They need to be able to unlock words so they can 
     pronounce them and then read them.''
       The kindergarten initiative began in 17 of the poorest 
     schools in the fall of 2000. Seventeen more schools with 
     large numbers of poor students were added in the fall of 
     2001. The report found impressive gains in both groups. This 
     year, 22 schools have been added.
       Research has found that if a kindergartner meets 
     foundational benchmarks--such as recognizing letters and the 
     sounds they represent and identifying simple words--they will 
     be on track to read text by the end of first grade and able 
     to read fluently by the end of third. Scientists have found 
     that if children do not read fluently by then, many never 
     will.
       ``We believe that is the key to academic rigor as they go 
     up the grades,'' Weast said. ``Reading.''
       Beyond touting results for poor children--a national 
     dilemma that provided much of the impetus behind the federal 
     No Child Left Behind law that took effect July 1--Weast said 
     his report addresses middle-class parents' worries that their 
     children will suffer academically at higher-poverty schools. 
     The report found that such children scored on par with 
     middle- and upper-middle-class students throughout the 
     county.
       ``The nice thing about the changes we made is, you don't 
     have to leave those schools now,'' Weast said, referring to 
     middle-class flight that has affected some schools in the 
     county's more diverse eastern side. ``This ought to give 
     comfort to those parents to stay with us.''
       School officials said some of the progress made over the 
     two years may have a lot to do with the ``practice effect,'' 
     the fact that teachers and principals are becoming used to 
     the new curriculum and training. Still, the results over time 
     are key, and officials plan to follow these 16,000 students 
     for several years.
       Studies have found that gains made by children in Head 
     Start, the federal program designed to help impoverished 4-
     year-olds, evaporate by the time the students are in third or 
     fourth grade: They perform similarly to children who never 
     had the benefit of such a program.
       School officials in Montgomery say they want to change that 
     with the kindergarten initiative and have followed up with 
     smaller class sizes and a new, more focused curriculum this 
     year for grades 1 and 2.
       The report has already garnered interest from the national 
     education community.
       Michael Cohen, a former assistant secretary of education in 
     the Clinton administration who has worked with large school 
     districts throughout the country, said he was impressed not 
     only that the studies were detailed and sophisticated, but 
     that Weast was willing to make changes because of them.
       ``That has not been a common practice in education around 
     the country,'' he said. ``So it's important to note, and note 
     when it's being done well.''
       Michael Ben-Avie, a researcher with the Yale Child 
     Development Center, evaluated early drafts of the report and 
     praised Montgomery leaders for their ``willingness to undergo 
     major change and for their willingness to really address the 
     needs for our most vulnerable students.'' He found that the 
     fact that the kindergarten initiative was a systematic 
     overhaul and not a series of ad hoc pieces was what made it a 
     powerful reform.
       ``They have been willing to take a sober-eyed view of the 
     data and not try to cover it up, which happens a great 
     deal,'' he said. ``This is remarkable. And the results show 
     they're well on their way.''

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