Concerns with and Alternative Recommendations for the Proposed ...

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Concerns with and Alternative Recommendations for the Proposed Expansion of Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program and Identification Number in HB 757/SB 468 & HB 79/SB 656 Karen R. Effrem, MD – Executive Director, The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition Executive Summary This paper submits that the vast majority of research on early childhood programs shows the proposed expenditure of $10 million taxpayer dollars to expand reading curriculum in Florida’s Voluntary PreKindergarten program is unlikely to be successful and may actually harm reading achievement and the emotional development and natural curiosity of attendees. Play-based, developmentally appropriate preschool programs with expansion of intensive systematic phonics in grades K-3 are recommended as far more likely to be successful. Other successful strategies include genuine, non-government controlled parental involvement, and incentivizing two-parent family formation through welfare and divorce law reform. Data and psychological privacy concerns related to adding an identification number in VPK are also discussed.

What does work to close the achievement gap: Two parents and religious involvement, which could be achieved by incentivizing instead of penalizing paternal involvement during the transition off of welfare: The Effects of Black and Hispanic 12th Graders Living in Intact Families and Being Religious on Their Academic Achievement. Jeynes, William H. Urban Education, v38 n1 p35-57 Jan 2003 Used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey to examine the impact of student religious commitment and living in intact families on academic achievement among black and Hispanic 12th graders. Students with intact families and high levels of religiosity scored as well as all white students on most achievement measures and higher than their black and Hispanic counterparts without intact families or high religiosity. A Meta-Analysis: The Relationship between Father Involvement and Student Academic Achievement Jeynes, William H. Urban Education, v50 n4 p387-423 Jun 2015 A meta-analysis was undertaken, including 66 studies, to determine the relationship between father involvement and the educational outcomes of urban school children. Statistical analyses were done to determine the overall impact and specific components of father involvement. The possible differing effects of paternal involvement by race were also examined. The results indicate that the association between father involvement and the educational outcomes of youth overall is significant statistically. Paternal involvement, as a whole, yielded effect sizes of usually just under 0.2 of a standard deviation unit. The positive effects of father involvement held for both White and minority children.

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Florida Stop Common Core Coalition: 116 Cousley Drive SE Port Charlotte, FL 33952 * [email protected] *888-376-5550 *www.flstopcccoalition.org

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Religiosity, Religious Schools, and Their Relationship with the Achievement Gap: A Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis Jeynes, William H. Journal of Negro Education, v79 n3 p263-279 Sum 2010 A research synthesis was conducted including three meta analyses, a review of the relevant literature, and supplemental analyses examining the relationship between personal faith and the reduction of the achievement gap. Personal faith included belief and adherence to any religion. The results of the three meta-analyses indicated that: (a) personal religious faith was one the two largest factors that consistently reduced the achievement gap: (b) personal religious commitment reduces the achievement gap by 50%; and (c) attending a religious school reduced the achievement gap by 25%. Supplemental analyses using a nationwide dataset added further significance to the findings. These analyses indicated that if an African American student was a person of faith and came from an intact family, the achievement gap disappeared entirely. Parental involvement A Meta-Analysis: The Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Latino Student Outcomes Jeynes, William H. Education and Urban Society, v49 n1 p4-28 Jan 2017 This meta-analysis of 28 studies examines the relationship between parental involvement and the academic achievement and school behavior of Latino prekindergarten-college-age children. Analyses determined the effect sizes for parental involvement overall and specific categories of involvement. Results indicate a significant relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement and overall outcomes, but not for school behavior. This relationship between involvement and academics existed both for younger (grades K-5) and older (secondary school and college freshman) students, as well as for certain specific components of parental involvement. Parental involvement, as a whole, was associated with better school outcomes by 0.52 of a standard deviation unit. The significance of these results is discussed. A Meta-Analysis of the Relation of Parental Involvement to Urban Elementary School Student Academic Achievement Urban Education, v40 n3 p237-269 May 2005 Jeynes, William H. This meta-analysis of 41 studies examines the relationship between parental involvement and the academic achievement of urban elementary school children. Analyses determined the effect sizes for parental involvement overall and subcategories of involvement. Results indicate a significant relationship between parental involvement overall and academic achievement. Parental involvement, as a whole, was associated with all the academic variables by about 0.7 to 0.75 of a standard deviation unit. This relationship held for White and minority children and also for boys and girls. The significance of these results is discussed.

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Phonics (Three examples of literally thousands) - There does not need to be more research. Intensive systematic phonics needs to be explicitly mandated for any elementary reading program, not just in preschool. A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Phonics Instruction and Minority Elementary School Student Academic Achievement Jeynes, William H. - Education and Urban Society, v40 n2 p151-166 2008 This meta-analysis of 22 studies examines the relationship between phonics and the academic achievement of urban minority elementary school children. Further analyses distinguish between those studies that are of higher quality than the others and those studies that examine all minority students and mostly minority students. Results indicate a significant relationship between phonics instruction and higher academic achievement. Phonics instruction, as a whole, is associated with academic variables by about 0.23 to 0.33 of a standard deviation unit. This relationship holds for studies that examine all minority students and those that include mostly minority students. The results also hold for higher quality studies. The significance of these results is discussed. Causal Relationships between Phonics, Reading Comprehension, and Vocabulary Achievement in the Second Grade“ The findings indicate that phonics knowledge has a causal impact on both reading comprehension and vocabulary gains; reading comprehension has a causal effect on vocabulary gains. Further analysis of the data, using a path analysis model, verified these causal relationships. A second set of data obtained from 1,585 second-grade students at the beginning and end of another school year were used to examine these causal relationships once more. Path analysis findings again verified the relationships found in the first set of data. We concluded that phonics instruction designed to help students recognize the consistent graphophonic patterns in the English language should be emphasized in early elementary-grade reading instruction.” The Importance of Phonics: Securing Confident Reading (From the UK with further details HERE) What does the evidence show is the most effective way of teaching reading? The US National Reading Panel was set up to assess the effectiveness of the different approaches used to teach children to read. For two years, until the panel reported in 2000, it held public meetings and conducted analysis of all relevant robust research into teaching reading. It was the most comprehensive and detailed survey of this topic ever produced. One key area of interest was the role of phonics instruction on reading achievement, fluency and reading comprehension. The panel concluded that systematic phonics instruction produces significant benefits for pupils in pre-school all the way until the end of primary school, and for pupils having difficulty learning to read. The panel reported that the evidence which shows phonics is effective and beneficial is largely based on investigations which used a systematic synthetic phonics approach. The study found that systematic synthetic phonics instruction had “a positive and significant effect on the reading skills of younger children and those at risk” of developing reading difficulties (2000a, 2000b). It was noted that “a majority of programmes in the data base used a synthetic approach to teach phonics” and the conclusions therefore offered clear evidence to support that methodology.



Play – If Pre-K is successful at all, it is more likely so when developmentally appropriate and playbased, not academic Preschool Linked to Success on Global Math Test - But caution is urged on interpreting data "The Finnish example [of high PISA scores and high preschool enrollment in Finland] has been used to say, OK, there's an argument to be made to do early literacy and math in preschool," said Marianne Bloch, an education professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies early-childhood education around the world, "but then the Finnish people say, we don't encourage our kids to start [primary] school until age 7, and they think play is learning. So it's difficult to do these comparisons in a reliable and meaningful way." Comment - There is even contradictory data on whether Finland out-performs the US in Math: PISA

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TIMSS

Both of the following studies discussing the need for play-based preschool were summarized as follows: The double-edged sword of pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery Children’s imitation of causal action sequences is influenced by statistical and pedagogical evidence These assumptions lead children to narrow in, and to consider just the specific information a teacher provides. Without a teacher present, children look for a much wider range of information and consider a greater range of options.

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Knowing what to expect from a teacher is a really good thing, of course: It lets you get the right answers more quickly than you would otherwise. Indeed, these studies show that 4-year-olds understand how teaching works and can learn from teachers. But there is an intrinsic trade-off between that kind of learning and the more wide-ranging learning that is so natural for young children. Knowing this, it's more important than ever to give children's remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein. That means a rich, stable, and safe world, with affectionate and supportive grown-ups, and lots of opportunities for exploration and play. Not school for babies.

THE ROLE OF PROGRAM QUALITY IN DETERMINING HEAD START’S IMPACT ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT “The one exception is that for 3-year-old program entrants low exposure quality, defined as less exposure to academic activities during Head Start participation, produces better behavioral impacts in the short-run than more exposure to academic activities. Even so, there is no indication that either high quality Head Start or low quality Head Start in any dimension leads to program impacts lasting into third grade.”

Evidence that Pre-K Does Not Help or Harms Academic Achievement Showing No Justification on Spending More Money on VPK 

General Compilation & Analysis of Early Childhood Research Regarding Effect, Fade Out, Academic & Emotional Harm This is the list of about 30 different studies and articles showing the major problems with preschool There is also much excellent similar analysis from Joy Pullmann, a Heartland Institute education research fellow; Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project; David Armor from the Cato Institute; and Lindsey Burke and Salim Furth at the Heritage Foundation. Sending Government Agents Into People’s Homes Won’t Fix Preschool’s Failures: Dale Farran is one of the co-authors of the 2015 Vanderbilt University study showing not only government preschool’s oft-seen fadeout of benefits to children and society but also the increasingly frequent academic and emotional harm of these programs. She recently admitted in a Brookings Institution white paper that despite 50 years of research, the early childhood research base is too small to support: 1) “the proposition that expanding pre-K will improve later achievement for children from low-income families;” 2)“the presumption that solid research exists to guide the content and structure of pre-K programs;” or 3) evidence “about which skills and dispositions are most important to effect in pre-K and what instructional practices would affect them.” Farran also rightly discusses the sad truth that preschool quality measures have “no empirical validity.” She goes on to say, “Despite being included in national and state policies and used to hold pre-K providers accountable, none of the widely used measures of classroom and center quality relates strongly, if at all, to child growth on the school readiness outcomes on which most pre-K programs are focused.”



National and state data showing that pre-K does not improve reading achievement:

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National Despite a huge growth in the national average of roughly 20% to 70% of 4 year olds joining a pre-k program between 1965 and 2001, 4th grade reading, math and science scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP test) have remained basically flat over roughly that same period. (See here, page 5 of PDF)

Oklahoma Oklahoma is the state with the highest percentage of children in the nation enrolled in their pre-K program and the highest quality rating scores according to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER – see page 4 of PDF).The program started in 1980 and went universal in 1988. Oklahoma went from having NAEP 4th grade reading scores above the national average in 1992 to being below the national average every time the test was taken since then. The 2010 graphs from the NAEP organization showed that 72 percent of Oklahoma fourth graders are reading below their grade level proficiency. Why would Minnesota want to follow the same road for the same dismal results when there is no money? Georgia Their preschool program began in 1993 and went universal in 1995. It overall ranking for quality and access is 3rd in the nation according to NIEER (page 4 of PDF) with 58% of their children participating in the government program. Before, during and since this massive and expensive 15 year preschool expansion, Georgia’s 4th grade reading NAEP scores have remained below the national average. State data (p. 70 of pdf) through the first grade showed that children involved in a private program or those who were raised at home did the best academically. 

Evidence shows that Pre-K does not help improve and even harms reading achievement, especially for poor children – National Head Start A congressionally mandated national evaluation of Head Start released in May of 2010 followed the progress of three- and four-year-olds entering Head Start through the first grade. The program had few to no positive effects for 4 year old children granted access to Head Start after the first grade year. Georgia State data, (p. 70 of PDF) showed students enrolled in the [Georgia] Head Start program “consistently tested below the national norm and significantly behind their peers” by the end of first grade. Tennessee (2015) “In second grade, however, the groups began to diverge with the TN‐VPK children scoring lower than the control children on most of the measures. The differences were significant on both achievement composite measures [reading and math] and on the math subtests”

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Oklahoma In this high quality, high access, universal preschool state, a 2010 national study reported by the Tulsa World found that “more than four out of five children from lowincome families fail to reach the proficiency level in the 4th grade reading, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress.” New Jersey That state has been offering court ordered preschool to low income children since 1998. Yet, the number of poor children scoring below basic on the 4th grade reading NAEP test, meaning that they were illiterate, increased between 1992 and 2007.



Evidence that formalized academic preschool harms children’s natural curiosity and readiness to learn: There are eight more studies showing the emotional harm of pre-K, including behavior problems, in the list of studies cited above under the “Emotional Harm” section. Here are a few examples: Tennessee (2015) – “First grade teachers rated the TN‐ VPK children as less well prepared for school, having poorer work skills in the classrooms, and feeling more negative about school.” National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD – 2007) – A 2007 study funded by the NICHD tracked 1,364 children who had participated in early childhood education. Preschool participants were more likely to score higher on factors of aggression and disobedience as reported by their teachers. This finding was true even for children who attended high quality center-based care. The more time a child spent in center-based care the more likely he or she was to be described by sixth grade teachers as one who “gets in many fights,” ‟is disobedient at school,” and “argues a lot.” University of California at Berkley and Stanford University (2005) – “Attendance in preschool centers, even for short periods of time each week, hinders the rate at which young children develop social skills and display the motivation to engage classroom tasks, as reported by their kindergarten teachers…Our findings are consistent with the negative effect of non-parental care on the single dimension of social development first detected by the NICHD research team [in 2002].” National Institutes of Child Health & Human Development (2002) – This study followed a group of more than 1,300 children in 10 different states through their first seven years of life and found that children who spend more hours per week in non-parental childcare have more behavior problems, including aggressive, defiant and disobedient behavior in kindergarten.



Child development experts around the world object to assessing preschool students Resistance to assessing young children on pre-reading, math, and social emotional parameters for the International Early Learning Study (IELS) was reported by “more than 130 child-development researchers and educators in 20 countries…[that] signed a statement in the December International Critical Childhood Policies journal urging caution on the IELS” due to concerns about developmental inappropriateness of these assessments.

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Data Privacy Concerns from Adding an ID Number for VPK Even though the new proposed VPK ID number is theoretically for only a year or two, the dangers to privacy, freedom of conscience and parental autonomy are severe. Pre-K is the only level in school where it is considered proper to teach and assess vague, invasive, controversial social emotional learning (SEL) parameters on children and families. There are efforts on many levels, both public and private, to expand government mining of SEL and sensitive family data.

Here is a screenshot of a new pre-K online assessment tool:

Sadly, groups in this state misguided the population into believing that it is the role of government to determine, inculcate and monitor the “…emotional, social, regulatory and moral capacities through education in basic skills and such other skills as the Legislature may determine to be appropriate” [Florida Constitution, Article IX, Sec. 1(b)] of children. According to the glossary for the pre-K standards, molding attitudes and perceptions are clearly seen as the government’s purview because they are not shy about defining “affective” as follows: Related to factors such as emotional regulation, child motivation, attitudes, perceptions, and values. VPK and school readiness are not academic issues, they are workforce, and “children as widgets” in the labor supply chain issues as these pre-K programs are run by the Agency for Workforce Innovation, not the Department of Education. Even if assessments are initially limited to academic subjects like reading, how does one avoid expansion of, indoctrination, and data mining of controversial issues when they are part of the Florida Constitution, are required by the federally mandated P-20W (Pre-K, or Prenatal in some states, through age 20 Workforce) state longitudinal data systems, and when there are such concerning examples from Florida’s Pre-K standards?: “Make sure your three year-old has access to books and other materials that show diversity in family composition and in careers.” (p. 107 PDF the Florida Early Learning Standards document found on the FLDOE page and family is defined in those standards as “A group of individuals living together” (p. 127).

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They also start discussing career issues with children as young as three: “Shows awareness of some social roles and jobs that people do” (p. 107). Regardless of one’s views, these attributes and aspirations should be discussed and molded by families and religious institutions and not by any agency of the government. This kind of egregious violation of inherent parental autonomy has been struck down again and again by US Supreme Court. (Pierce vs. Society of Sisters, Meyers vs. Nebraska, Wisconsin vs. Yoder, etc. all reviewed HERE).