California's transitional kindergarten getting solo classrooms

As California's transitional kindergarten program has expanded, more schools are providing all TK-classrooms rather than mixed TK and Kindergarten classes, according to a new study out this week, allowing teachers to focus more on getting those 4-year-olds ready for Kindergarten.

Fewer than half of the state's school districts had stand alone TK classrooms when the program started in 2013. Now, more than three in four do.

The study , released Wednesday by the American Institutes for Research, or AIR, is the most comprehensive look at the program to date, surveying 184 classrooms in 20 school districts, including schools in Southern California.

This allows teachers to focus more deeply on instruction that will help get 4-year-olds ready for the rigors of kindergarten – a key aim of the program, which was launched by the Kindergarten Readiness Act in 2010.

Carole Chivaro leads a group in her transitional kindergarten class in a reading exercise at Pacific Elementary, Sacramento. June 2016.

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Dorian Merina/KPCC

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"Teachers in stand alone classrooms devoted a significantly greater percentage of time to social emotional learning, music, art and social studies, than in TK combination classrooms," said Jennifer Anthony, senior researcher at AIR.

Stand alone classrooms were also smaller, with an average size of 19 students, compared to a traditional kindergarten size of 23 students. Half of all TK teachers had an assistant in the classroom for part of the day and most instruction time was spent on reading activities, according to the report.

Despite the gains in the program, the study also found that instructional support for teachers was low, as measured by CLASS, an observation tool.

"It suggests that districts could explore more professional development opportunities that aim to enhance these areas, that aim to help teachers enhance student analysis, reasoning skills and promote their language skills and scaffold student learning," said Anthony.

Carole Chivaro, a transitional kindergarten teacher at Pacific Elementary School in Sacramento, said it may not seem like it, but TK students have a lot to learn.

"The expectations are really high for them," said Chivaro. "Everything is starting earlier and earlier – kindergarten is a lot like what first grade used to be."

On a recent afternoon, Chivaro led her 17 students through a storytelling exercise before breaking them up into reading groups. A table of students took turns reading from a book as other groups worked on puzzles and pairs of students arranged alphabet cards on the carpet.

Students line up for recess in the transitional kindergarten class at Pacific Elementary in Sacramento, CA, June 2016.

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Dorian Merina/KPCC

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"We pick the letters together, then we roll the dice and see what kind of numbers we get," explained Kayleigh Perez, 5, as she arranged the alphabet cards in order. She worked with her classmate, Jorge Moran Vargas, as they flipped the cards to progress from A to Z.

A 2015 study from AIR found that students enrolled in TK left the program ahead of their counterparts in terms of literacy and math skills.

TK has been criticized for excluding some preschool students because of a birthdate cut off. (Only students born between September 2 and December 2 qualify, though some districts, including LAUSD, have expanded that eligibility.)

Earlier this year, Governor Jerry Brown proposed shifting state funding for TK into a block grant for any early education, which advocates feared would eliminate TK programs. Brown has since abandoned that plan for the current year's budget, but the California Department of Finance has said that preschool funding could get another look next year.

This week, the Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education approved a budget to more than double its expanded TK classes by boosting funding to $44.4 million for the coming year. Statewide, there were 83,321 students enrolled in TK classes during the 2014-2015 year, according to the California Department of Education.

This post was updated to include the annual attendance of TK students.