Kids are failing kindergarten in affluent Michigan school districts — on purpose

Nancy Kaffer | Detroit Free Press

Kids are failing kindergarten in the most affluent school districts in the state.

On purpose.

That's really not how proponents of so-called "young fives" or "transitional kindergarten" programs look at it. But that's the reality of a workaround some Michigan parents have found to allow their children two years of kindergarten at taxpayer expense.

School districts spent $127 million for 15,000 kids in the current school year — that's one in eight Michigan kindergartners, Ron French reported this week in Bridge Magazine.

Some parents believe their children aren't ready for traditional kindergarten, and that they need two years to develop social, emotional or motor skills. Transitional kindergarten can simply mean two years of kindergarten, or that a standard kindergarten curriculum is taught over two years.

It goes one step further than "redshirting," the practice of delaying school for kids whose birthdays are near the cutoff date for kindergarten enrollment. In Michigan, that's Sept. 1. (Notably different: parents who redshirt foot the bill for an additional year of preschool, or take the economic hit that comes with another year of stay-at-home parenting.)

I've heard about two-year kindergarten for years, and to me it has always seemed like gaming the system. But I couldn't put my finger on exactly why, until I read French's comprehensive report.

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For starters, it's expensive. And there's no research that suggests two-year kindergarten confers any long-term benefit. French cites one study that found that if there is any advantage to delayed enrollment, it's gone by third grade. Another expert says the practice may actually be harmful.

And for $127 million, that expert told French, hiring one-on-one tutors for each of those students would yield a greater long-term benefit.

In southeast Michigan, two-year kindergartners tend to be concentrated in suburban districts that are middle class or affluent, and mostly white: Grosse Pointe, Livonia, West Bloomfield, Okemos, Ann Arbor.

In other words, it's the folks with the most resources and most advantages finding another way to wheedle even more out of a system that already tilts in their favor, on the public dime.

And it's growing in popularity.

Because Michigan schools don't actually offer a state-sanctioned two-year kindergarten program, that second year is the result of retention (that's "failing," in the vernacular). Kindergarten retention, French found, has increased by 21% in the last four years.

Early retention may cause future problems: A new law requires third-graders who aren't reading at grade level to repeat the year, but kids can't repeat more than one grade before third grade. Advocates believe transitional kindergarten will help students succeed, but it seems just as likely that older kids could be bored by lessons intended for younger children, or that students who are more physically mature than their younger classmates may feel out of place, especially in middle or high school. Or that kids who have to repeat a later grade will find themselves significantly older than their classmates.

(Full disclosure: My son started kindergarten shortly before his fifth birthday. He's in fourth grade now. He's doing fine.)

Michigan schools are struggling. There's no question about that. Over the last two decades — as we've spent less on our schools — scores have declined, across all demographics. We need to do better. We need to fund universal pre-K. We need to adopt consistent standards, and stick with a test that can show whether we're moving toward those standards. We need to pay teachers more, and spend more to educate students with greater need.

Workarounds that only benefit some kids don't fit the bill.

Nancy Kaffer is a Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.