Testimony of Michelle Bodden, Elementary School Vice President before Education Committee of the NYS Legislature

Dec 8, 2005 3:10 PM

Thank you for inviting me to testify today on early childhood education. I am Michelle Bodden, vice president for elementary schools at the United Federation of Teachers, and before that a primary-grade teacher in Brooklyn for eight years.
On Tuesday, we memorialized our late and beloved president, Sandra Feldman, who died of breast cancer on September 18. Sandy made pre-K and early childhood education the centerpiece of her formidable advocacy work during the final stages of her life. Sandy was so identified with this issue that the Kindergarten-Plus legislation in the U.S. Congress bears her name. I’d like to steal a moment to read you something she said:

"We know how to break the cruel cycle that traps so many youngsters from an early age. And we have the teachers with the skills and dedication to do it. What really is lacking is the political will necessary to provide the resources and the leadership that will do it."

In carrying on Sandy’s work, our president, Randi Weingarten, and the UFT leadership have taken an equally strong stand on early childhood education, and I am here today to reemphasize how important this issue is to our members and to the children we teach.
I am also here to underscore the need for continuing class size reduction in serving these children. The evidence is conclusive, and there can be no more excuses for large class sizes, especially in the early grades.
Last year, the UFT leadership narrowed our recommendations for spending future CFE settlement money to four areas: improved teacher quality was one, school safety was a second. Smaller class sizes and pre-K education were the other two.
Our views grew out of very persuasive research and also from the observations of our early elementary teachers—that small children do much better in small classes, and that children who have attended quality pre-K programs enter kindergarten ready to learn, healthier, better behaved and better able to handle the demands of school. Research shows these advantages persist into adulthood.
There were 217,327 three- and four-year-olds in New York City at last count. More than half of these children were born into poverty, a 15% increase, by the way, from a decade ago. These are the children for whom quality early childhood education can mean the difference between productive lives and lifetimes of personal and academic failure.
Of this population, less than one-quarter, 48,000 four-year-olds, are in pre-K programs in the New York City public schools, either in targeted or Universal Pre-kindergarten. There are almost no three year olds in public preschool at all, despite overwhelming evidence that two years of preschool is what really makes the difference for disadvantaged children.
Most of the 48,000 four-year-olds in preschool attend half-day programs – two-and one-half hours a day. Working parents have been begging for full-day programs so that preschool can be a realistic option for their children. Even increased day-care funding that would allow a combination of pre-K and day care could address their dilemmas. In fact, we are not even spending all the UPK funds available because demand for half-day programs is not that high.
There is not enough room to expand the number of pre-K classrooms in our public schools. Seventy percent of UPK children attend programs in community-based organizations, not in schools.
Often, only one teacher at these sites is certified, and the rest teach under a state waiver. These teachers tend to have a lower salary scale than public school teachers, and there is a lot of turnover at these sites. Raising their salaries should be an obvious next step. In addition, we should raise the fees of those who care for young children in their homes, in family- and group day care.
When children first enter school they need high-quality instruction, and they need the small settings that make this possible. Yet since 1998, despite the good intentions of the Legislature, class size reduction money under the LADDER program has never been enough to bring our classes down to the target of 20 children in K-3.
I will not repeat the research, as compelling as it is, but instead share some New York City evidence with you that we think makes the case for fully funding class size reduction.
The LADDER began in New York in 1997, when kindergarten classes averaged 24 and grades 1-6 averaged 27 children. Combining state aid with discretionary City Council funds, NYC has lowered K-3 class size averages to 22 in kindergarten and 23.5 in Grades 1-6, not yet meeting the target but still a real reduction.
And starting in 1999, when the current state tests began, 4th grade reading and math scores moved upward, first in small increments, then in leaps and bounds. According to the latest scores, there has been an astonishing 27-percentage point increase in 4th graders meeting math and reading standards over six years. Seventy-seven percent of our fourth graders now meet math standards, up from 50 percent in 1999. In reading, 60 percent meet standards, up from 33 percent to start.
The major change in the early grades during years has been reduced class sizes. The test gains closely track the children who had the benefit of smaller classes starting in kindergarten. These are the students who show outstanding improvement. By contrast, in 8th grade, where test scores reflect the work of students who began school in the more crowded classrooms, the gains are much smaller.
We in New York City are convinced that small class sizes make a measurable difference, not just for K-3 classrooms but all the way up the grades. The UFT has joined with parents, civic groups, other unions, clergy and community organizations in a coalition to call for reduced class sizes, using 25 percent of future CFE money. We have gathered over 200,000 petition signatures and our proposed ballot amendment is currently under review in state court. We would like your support.
I’d like to turn your attention to some instructional issues in early childhood.
We have seen over the last few years a growing emphasis on so-called “academics” in the pre-K and kindergarten classrooms, to the exclusion of developing social skills, fine motor skills and other crucial building blocks for children at this age.
The evidence from preschool studies is very clear that rushing children through childhood in order to jack up test performance is not quality preschool. Yet our early-childhood teachers report there is a concerted effort in their schools to push down the First Grade curriculum into Kindergarten, and the Kindergarten curriculum into Pre-K.
Just as an example, here is the daily schedule of one Brooklyn kindergarten last year:
8:40-9:00 morning meeting
9:00-9:15 read aloud
9:15-9:30 word study
9:35-10:25 library (or if it’s Thursday, art)
10:30-11:20 reading workshop
11:25-12:15 lunch
12:20-1:10 writer’s workshop
1:15-1:35 shared reading
1:35-2:05 science (or if it’s Tuesday, music)
2:10-2:40 math
2:40-2:50 read aloud
No recess. No centers. Almost no arts. Two periods of gym a week. No play. Long literacy blocks that are not appropriate for most five-year-olds and could in fact be damaging.
Well-trained early childhood teachers would not run a kindergarten classroom this way, and certainly never run a pre-K this way. To insist that very young children move immediately into paper-and-pencil instruction is not at all evidence of an “accelerated” approach. It’s a deficit model. Test prep and scripted learning programs that focus on academic skills alone is short-circuiting their development and turning school into enemy territory.
We need to reverse this trend. As we expend access to pre-K and make kindergarten mandatory, we must insist that early-childhood classrooms be developmentally appropriate, and we must allow early-ed teachers to teach to the child, not to a test score.
--Pre-K through third grade should be taught by certified teachers who are specialists in early-childhood learning and understand the developmental needs of these ages. Those teachers should be encouraged to use their professional judgment on curriculum and scheduling.
--Early childhood classrooms must include arts, outdoors and hands-on activities that allow children to develop their higher-order thinking skills, not just their rote abilities.
--Programs should involve parents and use the opportunity to educate parents on child development.
--They should integrate children with mild to moderate disabilities, establishing these children’s rights to the same education services as their peers.

In 1992, the Regents adopted early childhood guidelines that emphasized small class sizes, qualified teachers, parent participation and developmentally-appropriate curriculum. We want to restate the importance of these goals.
I want to end by assuring you that that good early childhood education is taking place everyday in many city schools. We want to ensure that it is available in every school to every child.
Thank you for your attention.