I think the first question to ask is what is your ultimate goal for each child? Will he be a general education kindergartener or special needs? In my school, I have 6 PK -- 1 universal, 3 special needs collaboratives, and 1 high need special needs class, and 1 very young special needs class. As students in the high needs and very young class close out the year, we take a hard look at what would be the best for that child in the future. Since these two classes are smaller than the others, we ask ourselves if the child is ready for a bigger class (16/17 students vs only 10). We look at skills, social emotional, behaviors -- all aspects of the child. Then we look at all of our returning students as a whole -- who will work best with whom, which teacher would be the best fit, etc. There is a lot of thought and energy put into this process, and I can say it works. The teachers guide the placements as they know the students best, and they sit together and do it. In addition, the change in teacher provides a starting point, with additional interventions, of getting children ready for changing teachers once they get to the elementary school. While most children would benefit from having the same teacher every year, that is not going to be an option starting in Kindergarten and beyond. In addition, most of these students have social emotional and adjustment concerns to begin with. Helping them in a smaller, well-trained environment to acclimate to changes is the best place to start instead of waiting until Kindergarten. That doesn't mean that some children don't stay with a particular teacher two years in a row, especially if we are going to have them for three years. These are rare occasions and are based on very specific reasons. Another aspect to consider is the benefits to the teacher and assistants. If you are always getting the most difficult children every year, it wears on you. Sharing those children who can be moved to another classroom helps them too!
That being said, I do have to qualify that I have enough PK classrooms in my building to do this. If you only have one or two classrooms, it makes it hard to put this process in place. However, the benefits of transitioning children through the different classrooms has been very successful for us. Parents love it, and the children benefit greatly. Think of it as a riding a bicycle -- you go from the low-riding tryke to the to tricycle, to the two-wheeler with training wheels. By the time they get to Kindergarten, you are ready to send them off without training wheels!
I hope this helps!
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Amanda Stevens
Principal
Marlowe Elementary School
Inwood WV
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-01-2018 10:38 PM
From: Lee Harwig
Subject: preschool class groupings
Hello all! My district has had a special education preschool program for over 30 years, and an At-Risk Pre-K for 14 years. We work to blend the two programs more each year. This year there was a discussion about the at-risk students NOT being able to return to their previous classroom and teacher, and being up for grabs to be placed in other rooms. We have never done this, and I'm starting my research to show that stability, consistency, and nurturing those relationships is best practice, and we should continue doing so. Does anyone have any advice in this area? Or great resources?
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Lee
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