Introduction

On a warm Monday morning in late August, hundreds of educators walked into lecture halls on the campus of Boston University to attend the first day of the Teacher Summer Institute, a three-day training event co-sponsored by Boston Public Schools (BPS) and the Boston Teachers Union. The first and second grade teachers filling one lecture hall to capacity were there to learn about a curriculum created by the BPS Department of Early Childhood (DEC) that was new to many of them: Focus on First and Focus on Second.

The training began with a welcome from Melissa Tonachel, a program director with the BPS early childhood team. “Welcome to the early childhood department,” Tonachel told the audience. “First and second grade aren’t typically thought of as part of early childhood, but here at BPS they are.”

Tonachel’s message reflects a broader philosophical shift that has taken place in the district over the past decade. The district realized that a singular focus on expanding access to pre-K was not enough for ensuring long-term academic success. How the early childhood team became responsible for the education of not only pre-kindergarteners, but also kindergarteners and first and second graders is a story that begins in 2005 and continues today. What started as an attempt to improve quality and access to pre-K in Boston grew into a team of more than two dozen people charged with building on the successes of pre-K for four-year-olds (known as K1 in BPS) by transforming kindergarten and the early elementary grades. Now the early childhood team, with a focus on equity across schools, is working to ensure that the district’s young students experience aligned instructional practices, classroom environments, and curriculum in K1 through second grade. DEC sees this as key to deepening and building on children’s learning in K1.

Despite growing pre-K enrollment across the country, there is an emerging consensus that high-quality pre-K is not enough to give every child what he or she needs to succeed and thrive in school and life. Without reforms to the early elementary grades that follow pre-K, it is unrealistic to expect students to maintain the advantages they gained as a result of their pre-K experience.¹ As a result, policymakers, district leaders, and school leaders are rethinking what and how children are learning in kindergarten, first, and second grade. Boston is at the forefront of this work.

Without reforms to the early elementary grades that follow pre-K, it is unrealistic to expect students to maintain the advantages they gained as a result of their pre-K experience.

In this report, we explain the work that has taken place over the last decade in Boston to not only improve K1, but to build on the successes of K1 through reform of classroom environments, instructional practices, and curricula in K1, kindergarten (known as K2 in BPS), and, more recently, in first and second grade. It is a story of reforming from the bottom up, of realizing that the work of increasing student achievement is not confined to a single grade, but requires sustained efforts to improve the grades that follow, efforts that persist despite multiple changes in district leadership. It is a story of the importance of using research and data to drive continuous improvement. It is a story worthy of attention from all states and districts across the country working to build on the gains made as a result of high-quality pre-K programs. It is a story that begins with the goal of universal pre-K.