Post by Chris_Wendt on Oct 9, 2014 5:23:51 GMT -5
Obviously the Princeton Plan has advantages for districts that adopt it. The Princeton Plan essentially assigns students to schools by grade levels instead of by neighborhoods, meaning, for example, if there are three elementary schools is a district, one building would have K-2, another building would have 3-4, and the third building may have 5-6. OR the split could be PreK-1, 2-3, 4-5, or any similar modification that would work best with a particular district's enrollment.
In a particular district the spread is PreK-1 in the first school. This allows for important and advantageous placements among all first graders emerging from full-day kindergarten, some of whom also had PreK, others, not having had PreK. While some very advantageous individual educational concerns are met by this, there is one issue that some consider a drawback, while others consider it a further advantage for the children involved.
The issue is that reassigning comrades from Kindergarten to other class groupings in First Grade can be disruptive to some children...their friends from Kindergarten are not in their class in First Grade. There is also the very real situation where two sections become lopsided in their gender ratios because of the differing needs of their students. Imagine the adjustment needed to be made by a six year old girl going from a K class of 12 girls and 11 boys to a First Grade Class of 17 boys and 4 girls, and none of the other 3 girls were friends from your K class, and none of the 4 girls are seated at the same table in class. Stressful? Certainly. Ultimately beneficial to those girls? I think it will be proven so.
What do you think?
Chris Wendt
In a particular district the spread is PreK-1 in the first school. This allows for important and advantageous placements among all first graders emerging from full-day kindergarten, some of whom also had PreK, others, not having had PreK. While some very advantageous individual educational concerns are met by this, there is one issue that some consider a drawback, while others consider it a further advantage for the children involved.
The issue is that reassigning comrades from Kindergarten to other class groupings in First Grade can be disruptive to some children...their friends from Kindergarten are not in their class in First Grade. There is also the very real situation where two sections become lopsided in their gender ratios because of the differing needs of their students. Imagine the adjustment needed to be made by a six year old girl going from a K class of 12 girls and 11 boys to a First Grade Class of 17 boys and 4 girls, and none of the other 3 girls were friends from your K class, and none of the 4 girls are seated at the same table in class. Stressful? Certainly. Ultimately beneficial to those girls? I think it will be proven so.
What do you think?
Chris Wendt