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Uploaded: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 9:03 AM

School board to look at kindergarten readiness
High school achievement, Paly bleachers also on meeting agenda

by Chris Kenrick
Palo Alto Online Staff

Posted by Barron Park Parent, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 10:07 am

Great! our students are dying and falling a part and the district is looking on scores and how to raised them, which will bring more stress. Not only that, but now they want to rushed young children who are not even supposed to go to kinder yet. This is the problem why our kids are taking their lives, the district tries to divert the community attention to other issues that at this point are not even worth to spend time on. The students of Palo alto are in crisis and all the district thinks is how to improve scores. What about addressing the real problem?

Posted by Mo Budak, a member of the Gunn High School community, on Oct 27, 2009 at 10:35 am

Not prepared for the academic rigors of Kindergarten? Give me a break. Then we wonder why our kids of any grade feel excessive pressure to achieve.

Posted by high school parent, a member of the Gunn High School community, on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:07 am

Our schools require 4 years of Social studies but UC requires 2. Current Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores in PAUSD only need three years of English to graduate but UC requires 4. We may get more kids meeting UC if the requirements were aligned.

Posted by Mom, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:18 am

Great, lets start putting pressure on our kids to over achieve even earlier!!!! Come on, did you forget about the recent suicides???

Posted by high school parent, a member of the Gunn High School community, on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:40 am

These ideas will make sure students are less likely to be depressed when they get to the point of graduating. Kindergarten readiness is a gift, not a burden. Kids who enter and are not ready can end up behind and depressed at an early age. Meeting the UC requirements in high school gives them hope for the future. It says they have spent their school years well with an accomplishment which will lead them somewhere - something to be proud of not depressing. These ideas are minor tweaks in our system to help more students. We should be thanking the benefactors of the pre-kinder program and the school board for looking into this.

Posted by Disgusted Parent, a resident of the Southgate neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:47 am

[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

Posted by a Mom, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Kindergarten shouldn't be a place that is stressful for children. It should be a place where kids can feel good about learning and being with each other. Children who come into kindergarten on a more equal footing with their more affluent peers who have had pre-school will probably feel better about themselves and about school - less stressed, not more so.

Posted by Midtown Teacher, a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 1:19 pm

The program is geared for kids who WILL be entering Kindergarten in the fall who have not yet had any preschool experience. This program will benefit these children both socially and emotionally, as well as academically. Children who begin Kindergarten behind their peers struggle for years, and often never catch up. This is a program to create happy and successful children. It is not about putting any pressure on anyone. Not every child in PA is from a middle and/or upper income family. Not every child has the opportunity to go to preschool -- which is important for social development, not just academics. Those who are in lower income families are already behind before they start if they don't have some type of preschool experience. It's more about the social and emotional development than anything else at this age. A child who doesn't know how to sit during circle time, use scissors, hold a pencil, take turns, use a book, or follow basic classroom "etiquette" will not succeed academically or socially in Kindergarten. Not everyone in our community is ADVANTAGED. This program evens out the playing field so that all children start school in a place that they can successful!

If you have problems with the curriculum, standards and accountability/testing and the status of education now, take it up with the government. This is what NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND created! Gone are the days of Kinders taking naps and playing. They now have to read and write sentences! And, they have homework!

In reagards to the HS issues.... Keep in mind -- education is a life tool. Not all students will attend college, and that is fine. Shouldn't we offer the best education to all our students? The UC and CSU requirements prepare students not just for college, but for being well-educated adults, even if college is not chosen. Looking at increasing services for minority students, and students who are not meeting these requirements only serves them better in life, in the long run. Why is it that such a high number of these students aren't meeting the requirements? Are they not prepared? Are they not counseled? Why aren't the graduation requirements in alignment? Where is the district losing them? Let them find out.

One final note.... STOP blaming the schools in PAUSD for the recent suicides. There are many factors that can lead a young person to make this choice and the schools are not the only one. We, the public, don't know what made these youngsters make this horrible decision. I would venture to guess that school was NOT the main reason. If you don't like the school system, then work constructively to fix it and make it better for ALL students!

Posted by Barron Park Parent, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Kindergarten is not what is supposed to be years ago. There is a lot stress for children to succeed and is no longer a place where kids learn how to sit, how to interact with other children, how to cut and color. This is where the early signs of stress takes place, and later we labeled them mentally ill. By the way both rich and poor students, ready for kinder and not ready are having stress. So no, what the district is trying to do is not going to help prevent more suicides from happening. I am sure most of victims of stress who took their lives attended preschool, so I do not see the connection. My point is this is the time to prevent more young victims from taking their lives, but according to the agenda posted it does not look like they will be talking about it at the board meeting, and if they do will be very briefly.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 3:02 pm

Hurrah, they are leaving the trees on the Avenue.

Posted by English Req., a resident of the Greater Miranda neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 5:57 pm

Just so you know, "high school parent", the requirements to graduate at the high schools was recently changed to 4 years. It was previously 3.5, not 3. Check your board notes from a while back. The majority of students already meet the UC requirements for English -- it's over 90% of the graduates. The students who want to be UC eligible take 4 years of English, at least they do at the high school my son is at. All of his friends are planning to take 4 years of English. It's what you do.

Posted by Schoolthoughts, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 8:30 pm

We have to keep some equilibrium here. The problem in terms of excessive stress in our schools is not in meeting the core requirements of UC and California State University systems. It is the 'perceived' requirements of having to take 5 AP (advanced placement) courses and a singular focus on attending one of the top 30 colleges in the country,m when there are 3,000 to choose from. We need to re-calibrate and focus on making sure our children are prepared for the UC/State school level requirements - it's the sign of a well-rounded education. These requirements are not onerous - they are very sound preparation for any life beyond high school.

Posted by My thoughts, a resident of the Meadow Park neighborhood, on Oct 28, 2009 at 7:18 am

Well said, schoolthoughts. You are right on.

RE: Midtown Teacher..No, NCLB did not get rid of naps in kindergarten. NCLB was not a requirement of any State, or even any country or district. It was, remember...5% of the State's budget if they CHOSE TO PARTICIPATE. The State of Ca COULD have said "no thanks" but chose not to. The States were given complete and total free reign to set their own bars to "meet NCLB" funding sources.

So, you can get off your NCLB horse now, and remember the area you are in, who the parents are, and what parents expect of their kids, which is to graduate HS capable of attending most Universities in this nation ( let alone the top 30, as mentioned above).

I suspect if you go most places in this State, you will not find kindergarteners expected to read by the end of K. In fact, I, personally, moved from a city just south of here, and was quite surprised to find that we went from a kindergarten there that was like when I was a kid ( alphabet, colors etc) to a kindergarten in PA where maybe 30% of the kids were already READING and ADDING. Good grief.

Believe it or not, Bush/Kennedy/NCLB did not do that.

Back to High School performance. Given what I just said, I would love to correlate HS awards, GPAs, number of APs, Finalists etc with a couple things.

1) What percent of the kids who hit AP Calculus went to private k-6 or k-8?

2) What percent of the Merit Finalists or semi-finalists went to private k-8?

Just curious, actually. I suspect a great many did. Which is fine with me, because we can't separate out family goals/support from the level of achievement of any kid, but I would be curious to know how our own math/english grammar etc curriculum measures up in HS performance. They still teach diagramming and grammar, for example, at private schools and kids come out having more English instruction by 8th grade than our kids get in their entire academic career here.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 28, 2009 at 7:59 am

I agree with a lot that My Thoughts says.

English in high school is really a series of literature classes. I have nothing against being able to critique literature, it is important, but being able to put together coherent sentences to write a business letter, being able to formulate an opinion on less hot topic issues like social awareness, and to understand and use good grammar and spelling rather than slang and derivations which are all life skills. The number of times I have to tell my kids that "being" and "been" are 2 different words, that the phrase is "have been" not "of been "(or "of being") and better is not a verb as in "you better be good" instead of "you had better be good" is wearing me out.These are just 3 examples.

What are the teachers accepting in these so called English classes?