Tennessee lags in availability of prekindergarten

“If they come to kindergarten without any experience at all, they are already a little bit behind,” said Sims, a teacher at Boynton Elementary. “Kindergarten is what the first grade used to be.”

While Georgia’s $290 million, lottery-funded pre-kindergarten program reaches about 75,000 children, Tennessee’s pre-K has been taking baby steps for a decade. The state spends only $10 million a year on a pilot program for 3,000 at-risk pre-K students.

In its most recent survey of pre-K access, the National Institute for Early Education Research ranked Tennessee No. 32 among the states. Georgia, which started its pre-K program in 1993, was ranked No. 2.

“It is certainly slow,” Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, said of the Tennessee program’s growth. “If you added that many kids every year how long would it take to get to the point where you serve all of them?”

Gov. Phil Bredesen has persuaded Tennessee lawmakers to commit an additional $25 million this year in lottery money for pre-K, allowing educators to triple enrollment to about 9,000 4-year-olds. That’s led to about 300 new pre-K classrooms in Tennessee this fall.

Bredesen has said he intends to ask the General Assembly each year to boost pre-K funding by $25 million from the lottery, plus other increases from tax revenue.

Barbara “Bobbi” Lussier, director of the new Tennessee Office of Early Learning, said the target enrollment number is about 76,000 4-year-olds.

She wants Tennessee to follow the lead of states like top-ranked Oklahoma, where schools get money for pre-K programs as part of the state’s overall school funding system. But Lussier said Tennessee is not necessarily trying to copy Georgia, Oklahoma or any of the other states with successful track records.

“We are really looking at doing what is right for children,” she said.

Tennessee’s program focuses on “verbal communication, behavior and attention, following directions and getting along with others,” Lussier said. “So much of kindergarten now is spent learning how to line up and share.”

Education officials say it is difficult to measure the long-term benefits of preschool, even by looking at test scores when those children get to middle and high school.

“We would love to think that, but it is one year a long way back,” Georgia pre-K Director Daphne Haley said.

The benefit is most apparent to kindergarten teachers, Haley said. She said pre-K should “level the playing field for children who have not had any experience.”

Barnett said pre-kindergarten is part of the solution, but it’s not a cure-all.

“It’s not a remedy for every problem a child will face,” he said. “You can’t just look at third- and fourth-grade tests and evaluate pre-K. It’s just one part of successful education reform.”

Tennessee’s chief industrial recruiter, Matt Kisber, said high-skill and high-wage companies are looking at a state’s education system before deciding where to locate.

“Companies are wanting to be assured there is a replenishing pool of talent,” he said. “Today they are looking at graduation rates, attainment levels, and having a pre-K program has become more of a topic we discuss.”

But the pre-K students at Hardy Elementary School in Chattanooga aren’t thinking about their future job prospects; they’re thinking about their lunch boxes.

“Are you ready? I need you looking at me. Show me. Look and listen. If you are ready, you are looking at me with your eyes,” pre-K teacher Kathy Robertson tells her students.

Pointing at photos of fruits and other foods, Robertson tells the students, “Today we are talking about what kind of food we have. My lunch has an apple and a banana. Which one is not my lunch?”

A student raises a hand and Robertson invites her to point out the photo.

“Do you agree? I do,” Robertson tells them.

Across the hall, Lorelei Ward holds a marker in her hand and teaches her pre-K students about letters.

“We are going to learn to write the letter I. How many can write it?”

Three students raise their hands.

One student tells Ward to make a line straight down, make a cross on top and a cross at the bottom.

“Kiss your brain,” Ward tells the student, who then kisses her hand and touches her forehead.

Portia Knowles, a pre-K teacher at Boynton Elementary, said the introductory year gets children excited about school.

“It’s not just the academics,” Knowles said. “It’s also the social and emotional needs of the child. That is so important. We treat each child as an individual and take them as far as they can go.”

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On The Net

National Institute for Early Education Research http://nieer.org/