Back in 2006, when running for governor, Rod Blagojevich unveiled his plan for Universal pre-K. While he won the governors race that year, his goal has yet to be realized. Other politicians and the teachers union are still pushing for it. Recently they did a “study”. We are now being told that too many of today’s pre-schoolers are not ready to start kindergarten when they should be.
What changed?
According to the Daily Harold article https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20190626/a-lot-of-kids-still-arent-ready-for-kindergarten-what-suburban-districts-are-doing-about-it
Offering a snapshot of student readiness, the Illinois State Board of Education’s second Kindergarten Individual Development Survey, or KIDS, virtually repeated a conclusion from its first. Despite a slight improvement, still only about one in four Illinois children enter kindergarten fully ready to learn.
The survey examines developmental readiness in three primary categories: social and emotional development, mathematics and language and literacy.
Across suburban school districts, overall readiness levels differ vastly, according to the survey, from as low as 1% considered prepared in all three areas at Mundelein Elementary District 75 to as high as 58% in Wheaton-Warrenville Unit District 200.
After a few clicks I found the list of questions in the KIDS survey:
And from my archives of school notes:
Lowell Elementary School, 312 South President street, Wheaton, IL 60187
Principal: Rosemary Murphy
School Improvement Plan, School Year 1993 – 1994
A few pages you might find interesting:
And some stats, notice the sudden jump in students identified with special needs.
Do we really believe that 5-year-olds today are not as mature as 5-year-olds were 25 years ago? If so, what has changed in our culture to cause that? If not, who stands to gain from this propaganda?
