Five Questions Families Should Ask About Kindergarten

My younger daughter, Tatiana, attended pre-K at an early childhood program near our home. For kindergarten, she went to the same elementary school as her older sister. Over the summer before kindergarten started, a teacher reached out to schedule a kindergarten readiness screening appointment. Tatiana was an older kindergartener with a November birthday. For the previous two years, she had been learning letter names and sounds, numbers and shapes, alongside lots of opportunities for play. She told me after her screening, “The teacher asked me to say my ABCs and count to ten, but I kept going.” I worried about her being bored in school, knowing that the academic content may very well be duplicative of her pre-K experience. My husband and I thought it might be best to talk with the school about moving her to first grade. 

Then I saw her kindergarten classroom and met her teacher. Her teacher, a seasoned educator, had taught pre-K before switching to kindergarten and understood what young students needed to succeed, even if the guidance she received from the district did not. Her classroom had a dramatic play area, art supplies, games, and blocks. Tatiana’s teacher had high expectations for her students, and she understood early learning pedagogy. My husband and I decided to keep Tatiana in kindergarten.

Seeing the room and meeting with the teacher changed our minds. Many families don’t get that chance, and many aren’t sure what to look for. In my previous posts, I wrote about what states, districts, and principals can do to improve children’s kindergarten experience. Families have an important role too. Here are five questions to ask, whether you’re touring a school, meeting your child’s teacher or the school principal, or talking with your child at the dinner table.

1. What does a typical day look like?

Ask to see the daily schedule. In one study of about 90 New Jersey classrooms in kindergarten through third grade, children spent 70 percent of the day in whole-group instruction and individual work and about 15 percent in transitions. That left less than an hour for small groups, choice, and cooperative learning. Look for a balance of whole-group lessons, small-group work, and time for children to choose and play. In Ms. Ellis’s kindergarten in rural Maine, where I visited for my book, the day included a read-aloud, a phonics lesson, nearly an hour of centers, storytelling and story acting, writing, and math. Also ask whether recess happens every day or can be taken away as a punishment.

2. What kinds of opportunities do children have for playful learning?

“Play” can mean very different things. In a New Hampshire classroom, children building with magnetic tiles noticed that a bell moved toward a tile that had fallen onto the table. When the class gathered afterward, the teacher asked why the bells stuck, a question that turned play into science. Look for a block area, a dramatic play area, a classroom library, and science materials. If you see them, ask how the teacher connects them to what children are learning. Play-based learning doesn’t replace explicit instruction in phonics and other foundational skills. The best kindergartens offer both!

If you don’t see blocks, dramatic play, or time for children to choose, start by asking the teacher what gets in the way. Often it’s a packed schedule or pressure from above, not the teacher’s own beliefs. In focus groups my New America colleagues held with principals, one Orlando principal admitted he no longer allowed kitchens or house play in kindergarten because there was no time for it. So take the conversation to the principal, too, and ask how the school balances academic demands with the way young children learn. Bring a resource, like the federal Regional Educational Laboratory’s short guide for families, “What Is Play-Based Learning in Kindergarten?” If your state has written play into law, as Connecticut and Oklahoma have, mention that as well. And bring other families with you. A group asking the same question carries more weight than one parent. 

3. How do adults respond to big feelings and behaviors they may view as challenging?

Kindergartners are still learning to manage their emotions and follow classroom rules. In my older daughter Ainsley’s kindergarten, a stoplight chart tracked every child’s behavior. She came home more excited to tell me she’d stayed on green than to tell me who she played with or what she learned. Ask whether the classroom uses a behavior chart, and what teachers do instead of public shaming. Many teachers have a calm-down area with stuffed animals and fidget items, where children can take a break until they are ready to rejoin the class. This question matters for every child. It matters especially for children of color and children with disabilities, who have been suspended at higher rates than their white, nondisabled peers for behavior that is typical for their age.

4. What will my child learn beyond reading and math?

Reading and math matter. So do science and social studies. These other content areas help build the background knowledge and vocabulary children need to understand what they read. I never saw any science work come home during Ainsley’s kindergarten year. My husband and I could fill that gap at home, but not every family can. Ask whether the curriculum includes science and social studies units. In Maine, kindergartners using the state’s K for ME curriculum spent weeks studying frogs. They read about frogs, labeled frog body parts, drew the frog life cycle, and built frog habitats in the block and dramatic play areas.

5. Who will be in the classroom with my child?

Ask about the teacher’s experience with young children and the training kindergarten teachers receive. Ask whether there is a second adult in the room. In Boston, every kindergarten classroom has a paraeducator, and teachers and paraeducators train together each summer. In most places, though, that isn’t the norm. Also ask how the school helps children transition from pre-K to kindergarten and beyond, and how kindergarten teachers learn about their incoming students.

What to do with the answers

Ask these questions out of curiosity, not as a test. Many teachers want to teach in a play-based and developmentally informed way but must work within schedules, curricula, and requirements set by their principals, districts, and states. If the answers concern you, compare notes with other families, talk with your principal, and bring the same questions to school board members and candidates asking for your vote. And if you feel energized to make change, start a movement!