As a former fourth grade teacher, I worked for a principal (in a Baltimore Catholic School) who made it her business to hold large numbers of students back in kindergarten. She believed that our school was getting to many students who had come to school well behind where they should be in Kindergard. She saw it as giving them a second chance to get on point before the spent the rest of their life behind.

We did not have a single child that wasn’t a fluent reader by grade 3 and most were doing pretty well in grade 2. There was nothing magical about what we did. Our methods were pretty basic.

She just made sure kids didn’t leave kindergarten until they were academically ready. Because so many of our students were not being adequately read to before they came to school, they needed this extra year.

So much better not to have to do this, but just to start a year earlier! Fantastic fantastic …