Making the Early Grades Matter

With the exception of reading, there has long been limited attention to strengthening kindergarten and the early grades of elementary school and K-2 teachers' vital role in laying the foundation for children’s future learning and development. The tide, however, may be shifting. Under U.S. Secretary of Education Cardona, the Department of Education has an initiative to help states think about how to make kindergarten a more “sturdy bridge” between pre-K and the early grades. In recent years, state legislatures have introduced or passed laws to require kindergarten, fund kindergarten as a full day, and promote play-based learning in kindergarten and the early grades. Other states are piloting efforts to ensure children’s kindergarten experiences align with how they learn best. To learn more about efforts to transform kindergarten, visit New America’s Transforming Kindergarten page. You can also check out some of our ideas for strengthening K-2 here.

Last year, in 2023, I had the opportunity to work with School Readiness Consulting on a landscape project of what assessment and curricula look like in kindergarten through second grade. For this blog post, I asked SRC team members Soumya Bhat, Mimi Howard, Kate McKenney, Eugenia McRae, and Nicole Sharpe, and authors of the brief “Making the Early Years Matter,” what they learned about the K-2 years.

In the brief, "Making the Early Grades Matter: Seven Ways to Improve Kindergarten Through Grade 2," you write about the importance and opportunity of children’s K-2 years. You say that their importance is not fully realized. How do we know this is the case, and why do you think it’s happening?

While such clear benefits are linked to the K–2 years, particularly the importance of kindergarten, the policies and practices in use for this critical time have yet to catch up to the research. We know that children who start behind will stay behind, underscoring that grade 3 is too late to start focusing on student proficiency. Unfortunately, K-2 continues to be systemically undervalued and under-resourced in many districts. This undervaluing is happening for several reasons – one is that school improvement efforts primarily focus on third grade and above, partly due to accountability pressures and accompanying testing requirements. This focus on standardized assessments later in elementary school has increased academic demands in the K-2 space. That pushdown of academic expectations is not aligned with developmentally appropriate teaching and learning practices, leading to challenges for K–2 teachers charged with providing that continuous and robust educational experience for their students.

Tell us what you learned from your research and interviews about leveraging and improving K-2 policy and practice. What do you think is most important?

We certainly need to make changes that immediately impact the system - like expanding the supply of high-quality materials available for use by the K-2 community. And at the same time, those actions should also be coupled with more ongoing and long-term solutions, such as increasing focus and awareness around the uniqueness and value of K-2 as part of the more extensive education system. There is a strong sense of urgency about the challenges facing K–2, but at the same time, it is challenging to shift K–2 policies and practices in sustainable ways unless there is first a fundamental, core mindset shift—that K–2 should be a priority. This will require changing people’s minds about why the early grades are important and motivating people to invest in how young children learn in K–2. Only after these more significant mindset shifts occur will the education field be able to generate solutions that will lead to long-term systems change.

The Making the Early Grades Matter brief resulted from several interviews with district officials, stakeholders, and educators about instruction, curriculum, and assessment in K-2. Was there a story or comment that sticks out to you?

There is a clear desire and need to shift leaders' thinking toward investing in high-quality K–2 education that is well-aligned to prepare children to succeed in the third grade. One of the interviewees we spoke to said it best, “It’s not just one fix. So, it’s not just professional learning, it's not just curriculum, it’s not just assessment. You have to figure out how that all works together as a system.” As a field, we should know what a comprehensive and aligned K-2 system looks like and what it takes to get there. We need to ensure that K-2 educators have sufficient time, training, and resources to implement these practices with fidelity and with the support of district leadership. When these elements are in place, young students will be able to experience high-quality learning and instruction throughout the K-2 grades.

While federal, state, and local policymakers have a role in transforming what happens in K-2nd grade, philanthropies can be key partners. What can local and national foundations do?

Our scan revealed that philanthropic work focused on early childhood—even when funders include K–2 as part of a prenatal-to-third-grade emphasis—is often geared toward the beginning part of this spectrum with greater support for birth-to-five efforts. Similarly, philanthropic work focused on K -12 may usually trend toward grade 3 and higher grades. So, local and national philanthropy is well positioned to help fill the gaps in K-2, not only through strategic investments that advance the field but also by enlisting new partners in the work and ultimately elevating the value of the early grades.

Is there anything I haven’t asked that you think is important to highlight?

We must also consider who will bear the brunt of failure if we don’t address these systemic K-2 issues. The impacts of inaction will be most significantly felt by Black and Latine children, children experiencing poverty, multilingual learners, and children with learning disabilities. Multiple factors contribute to these students' inadequate early elementary experiences, including a lack of culturally relevant materials, potential bias in assessment design or implementation, mismatched demographic characteristics with teachers, less effective kindergarten transition activities, and overemphasis on didactic academic instruction. Until the systemic issues are further examined and addressed, these barriers will continue to keep many K-2 learners from receiving the support they need and deserve and from being prepared for success in third grade and beyond.

For more information, read School Readiness Consulting’s brief “Making the Early Grades Matter: Seven Ways to Improve Kindergarten through Grade 2.”