CASE STUDY:
Alice Peterson

An experienced elementary school teacher is having problems with a pre-first grade class in which every student brings unique (and difficult) problems into the classroom, leading her to wonder if she is reaching anyone.

Alice Peterson drove to work mentally agonizing over the same dilemma that faced her every school day: how to help her students learn. Alice taught a class of prefers-grade children at the Mason Elementary School in Eastvale, a small town outside Chicago. This year was proving to be the most challenging and the most frustrating of Alice’s twenty-eight-year career. The Eastvale school district served a heterogeneous school population. More than 40 percent of the students were black or Hispanic, and about a quarter of the school population qualified for the free or reduced-cost lunch program. There were also many students from middle class or upper-middle class families.

Three years ago the school district introduced a pre-first grade class in an attempt to serve developmentally latent children. Over the past ten years or so, the kindergarten curriculum had become more academic, with less attention paid to readiness and group social skills. For some children, an academic kindergarten was not the best preparation for formal schooling; they needed more time before they faced the demands of first grade. On the basis of testing and the recommendations of their kindergarten teacher, such children were placed in a pre-first class rather than first grade at the end of their kindergarten year.

Alice held strong opinions about the pre-first concept, both as intended and as actualized. If it was used properly by parents and educators together, she knew that the opportunity to spend another year growing and developing could work magic for some children.

But many parents, particularly