It’s time for students in Amy Barratt’s class to split into small groups for independent work. The 4-year-olds fan out to various “free-choice centers,” stations with hands-on activities tied to this week’s theme: the zoo. Two youngsters pair up at a station with toy blocks and animals.
“What kind of habitat are you building, boys?” Barratt asks.
“A zoo,” answers one of the tykes, holding a cow.
“Yes, that could be a petting zoo,” Barratt tells him. “Could a pig go with that cow? I think they could be in the same habitat.”
And so the morning goes in Barratt’s pre-kindergarten class at Akers Academy, an early education center in Alpharetta.
Last week, the National Institute for Early Education Research, a nonpartisan center at Rutgers University, released a report on preschool programs across the country. In its State of Preschool 2011 Yearbook, Georgia scored a top rating for 10 quality benchmarks, a first for the state’s free pre-kindergarten program that debuted in the mid-1990s.
Research shows that pre-k helps with school readiness, especially among low-income students. They are less likely to be retained, placed in special education groups or drop out of high school.
Moreover, children enter kindergarten academically prepared and familiar with the school setting.
As with many worthy programs, money remains a nemesis. Georgia lawmakers must ensure the pre-k model’s long-term viability.
Pre-k costs about $355 million annually. An additional revenue source is needed, given education costs and the shortcomings of lottery dollars.
The NIEER report predicts the state’s quality rating may drop next year because of cost-shaving decisions by the governor and Legislature to cut 20 days from the pre-k school year, teacher pay by 10 percent and to increase class size by two students for the current term.
For Barratt and co-teacher Sepideh Nadaffi, that means 22 students. While not an ideal class size, it’s a manageable one.
“With two teachers in here, we can split groups into 11 students each,” said Barratt, in her 12th year as an educator. “If you get any bigger, those groups would be hard to manage.
“Twenty-two is manageable with two people, but if you had 24 or 25 it would be difficult if, for nothing else, due to the [physical] size of the classroom. I’d imagine most classrooms are about this size.”
Barratt and Nadaffi rotate to the stations during my visit. They talk to the children and engage in their activities. “We don’t sit still,” Barratt told me. “They have all that enthusiasm, and they are like sponges who soak up everything you throw at them. They enjoy learning.”
And apparently benefit from the early opportunity.
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