Should preschools focus on academics or social skills?
Fueling the debate is a new study that finds, surprisingly, math skills in kindergarten are the primary predictor of academic success later on in school. According to reporter Elinor Yang Su of California Watch, social skills – including self-discipline and temper control – are less important to future academic success than math and reading.
Students who exhibit antisocial behavior through elementary and middle school tend to drop out of high school at higher rates, but those with persistently low math scores dropped out at higher rates.
Lead author of the study, Greg Duncan, at left, professor of education at UC Irvine, followed the research of nearly 20,000 children and their progress through elementary school, assessing their math, literacy, and social skills (e.g., the ability to stay on task and make friends). Even taking differences of IQ and family income into account, Duncan found that kindergarten math understanding was the highest indicator of math and reading scores years later.
“It was very surprising,” said Duncan... “Everyone says reading is most important, and if a child can read by third grade, the chance of dropping out of school is so much lower. But it was math that stood out as serving the kids best in promoting later achievement. Reading was next most important... attention skills were third most important.”
Some early childhood advocates argue there is already too much focus on academics, pushing out time for play and adding unnecessary stress; Duncan, however, believes that kindergartners are ready to learn math concepts that can be taught in playful ways.
Duncan and colleague Richard Murnane have published the research in "Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children's Life Chances," a new book from by the Spencer/Russell Sage Foundations.
The study was funded by the Spencer Foundation, which, according to its website, is "committed to supporting high-quality investigation of education through its research programs and to strengthening and renewing the educational research community through its fellowship and training programs and related activities."
Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.
What do you want to bet this study causes too many kindergarten teachers to increase reliance on drill and kill worksheets instead of unit blocks?
Posted by: michael cargal | 12/28/2011 at 12:02 PM