A comprehensive approach to a seamless transition into kindergarten

Helping children get their education off to the right start requires state and local action, not just a handful of information nights and classroom visits.

The new school year is well underway, and students and teachers are busy in their classrooms. It might seem like the transition into school is over, but, in fact, it is just beginning. And, given the disruption and instability of the past two school years, the transition into kindergarten — one of the most important moments in a child’s school career — has been more challenging than usual.

Picture the diverse educational experiences of four young children over the last year. In fall 2020, Mateo was four years old and ready for preK. But with COVID-19 cases ticking upward, his state-funded preK program decided to begin the year with virtual learning and ended up remaining virtual for the full school year, though Mateo was able to experience some in-person learning through a summer readiness program. Ava, also four years old, lived in a state that kept school buildings and preK programs open in the 2020-21 school year, and she attended in-person preK at a high-quality community-based program with a small group of children. In contrast, preK and childcare options were scarce where four-year-old James lives, and he stayed with his mom as she worked from home. Aliyah was old enough to attend kindergarten last year, but her school district only offered virtual kindergarten. Her parents didn’t want her kindergarten experience to be entirely online, so they decided to delay her entry. Each of these children transitioned to kindergarten this fall.

In the United States, it has never been unusual for children to arrive in preK and kindergarten having had starkly different early learning experiences. But this year, after more than 18 months of the pandemic, such disparities appear to be wider than ever before, and children’s social, emotional, and academic needs appear to be especially acute, especially among children of color, English learners, children with disabilities, and children from families with low incomes, who have suffered disproportionately from the effects of COVID-19. Further, early indications suggest that this year’s kindergarten class is significantly larger than usual, likely because many parents chose not to enroll their children in fall 2020, opting to wait until they could start school in person.

This presents a serious and immediate challenge for elementary education. In the past, a lack of attention to seamless transitions led to significant differences between preK and kindergarten classroom environments and expectations, discordant approaches to discipline for children, and drastic shifts for families with regard to how they were regularly engaged. Right now, even as the pandemic continues, the potential for difficulties are even greater, so we must redouble our efforts to help children experience a smooth transition to kindergarten. But at the same time, we have also been presented with a rare and valuable opportunity: Given the urgency that COVID-19 has brought to this issue, we now have a chance to reimagine what transition polices and practice should look like for years to come.

What are effective and supportive transitions?

Discrete transition activities (such as kindergarten information nights, classroom visits, and summer readiness camps) can be helpful to children and families preparing for kindergarten, but they are not the most important components of an effective transition plan. Far more important is the behind-the-scenes work that occurs among teachers, staff, and school, district, and community leaders — all the people who have to collaborate with each other to make sure children and families experience a smooth transition. And doing this work effectively requires a dedicated team, tasked with designing the kindergarten transition plan, constantly re-evaluating it, and making sure that every part of the school (curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, family engagement, and so on) is aligned to the same goal.

When school districts focus on and invest in these sorts of coordinated planning and transition activities, they tend to see both short- and long-term benefits (Little, Cohen-Vogel, & Curran, 2016). When kindergarten begins, children from all backgrounds are better prepared to hit the ground running, and inequities rooted in race and income are less prevalent as students progress through elementary school (Tarasawa, Ralson, & Waggoner, 2016). Teachers in districts and schools that offer robust support for new kindergartners also report higher levels of satisfaction with the readiness of new children and with their own ability to connect with children from families with low incomes (LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2008). Parents benefit from a focus on transitions, too, as interventions for children and parents before the first day of kindergarten have been shown to boost parents’ understanding of the school’s expectations of their children, as well as securing their ongoing support for the kindergarten’s approach to curriculum and instruction (dela Houssaye & Madrid, 2017).

To be done well, transition planning requires that state and local communities strengthen and coordinate several different systems.

Supportive and effective transitions to kindergarten are critical for all children, but are particularly important for reducing disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged children as they enter school (disparities that often widen in subsequent years; Ahmad & Hamm, 2013). And keep in mind that if we hope to close these gaps, it will not be sufficient to improve access to early childhood education alone. While investing in early childhood programs is a critical means of promoting equity in American education, it is not enough. We must also invest in efforts to help children transition between settings and improve early elementary education (McCormick, Mattera, & Hsueh, 2019).

To be done well, transition planning requires that state and local communities strengthen and coordinate several different systems, including the early childhood and K-12 systems and any other community and statewide systems that support family well-being. Because it is the work of many people in school districts, state departments of education, human services organizations, or equivalent agencies, meaningful transition planning and practice often become the responsibility of no one. Without the dedicated leadership, clear vision, supportive policy, and careful planning that they need, schools too often are able to do little more than offer a few disparate activities leading up to the start of a new school year.

What states and school districts can do

Now that the school year is underway, and while memories of the first weeks of school are still fresh, it is a good time to evaluate what has and has not gone well this fall, to come up with short-term plans to address current needs in preK and kindergarten, and also to make long-term plans for improving the transition to kindergarten. (New America and EducationCounsel have published a free tool kit to help states and localities identify the most pressing problems children, families, and educators are now facing at the kindergarten level, consider possible solutions, develop plans, and take action to help the transition go more smoothly; Bornfreund et al., 2021.) Leaders will need to prioritize policies that address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, families, and educators and support their transitions back into classrooms this fall and beyond. Every state, school district, and community leader needs to understand what children and the adults in their lives have experienced over the last 18+ months — from the uncertainty and disconnectedness that nearly everyone faced to the homelessness and food insecurity that fewer, but far too many, faced (Bornfreund & Fretwell, 2021). Leaders also need to understand what children and adults need to move forward successfully in the short term and what long-term transformations will be needed to make significant system improvements.

As the pandemic goes on, decision makers will need to consider a number of factors as they adapt their kindergarten transition plans in response to current conditions and strengthen them for the future, embedding what we’ve learned from COVID-19 into our system of early education:

Promoting equity. Schools and districts need to plan for how to use transitions as a lever for advancing equity by increasing opportunities for children who need them most, removing barriers for families, and intentionally distributing resources for children from families with low incomes, children of color, children experiencing homelessness, children with disabilities, and dual-language learners. Districts and states should look at data to see who has been unable to participate in transition activities and use that information to determine strategies for family engagement, professional development, and uses of additional staff, as well as opportunities to use  new federal funds to provide additional resources.

Understanding funding and enrollment needs. This year’s kindergarten and 1st-grade classes may have greater than usual variation in academic, social, and emotional skills because of children’s divergent experiences in the past year. Education leaders should look across their siloed funding streams and consider what federal, state, and local dollars can be leveraged to support the needs of children moving into and through early elementary classrooms, while designing classroom models and school structures that meet the actual needs of young children and their families (especially the next several years), including mixed-age classrooms, flexible age cutoffs, and late enrollment opportunities.

Identifying needed resources to support children and adults. The pandemic has affected all of us, from young children to adults. After the last year, educators are going to need help addressing students’ needs, whether they be academic or social and emotional. Schools may also need resources to support the well-being of educators. This may mean new approaches to professional learning, staffing, and schedules for children and adults. Districts and states may need to fund counselors, nurses, early intervention services, employee assistance programs, and other supports. State and local policies related to professional development, staffing, and discipline should be designed to enable teachers to support children with a wide array of experiences and needs while minimizing disruptions to their learning opportunities.

Understanding facility, staff, and scheduling needs. Because some parents have delayed their children’s first year of school due to COVID, schools may see fluctuations in class sizes in the early grades. Where this occurs, schools may need to rethink the number of adults in each classroom (more is generally better for younger students), how many classrooms to assign to each early grade level, how to partner with community-based providers, and even how to better use outdoor spaces for learning. They may also need to continue to incorporate virtual and hybrid approaches to learning, especially for younger children.

Using data to drive decision making. More data is not always better, but the right data is. To collect the right data, school districts should identify the specific questions that are most important to answer about students and families (such as preferences for in-person versus virtual learning environments, access to learning experiences and materials during the pandemic, concerns about the return to school, language and technology preferences for school communications, interest in specific engagement activities, and so on). They should include students, families, and school staff in question design, data collection, and the use of data; and once data are collected, they should use what they learn for continuous improvement in planning for transitions. All new policies and practices should be adaptable enough to respond to what the data reveal.

Incorporating family voice and creating opportunities for engagement. Building trust with families, understanding their needs, and including them as partners in their child’s learning and development are paramount to student success. States and districts should create multiple formal opportunities to engage families as stakeholders in the design of transition activities, including through focus groups, surveys, and permanent advisory councils. Family members should have an active role in transition activities as parent liaisons, class ambassadors, and members of the school leadership through parent teacher or home and school associations.

Adopting a whole child approach. In order to learn, students need all of their needs addressed — including their physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs — so it’s important for schools to identify community partners to help make that happen, starting with community-based childcare providers such as Head Start, childcare centers, and family childcare providers. Districts and states should also be working with health care providers to ensure every child has a medical home that includes access to physical, mental, and dental health care.

Including out-of-school time in planning. Learning happens beyond the school hours and the school building. Collaborating with local governments, community-based providers, museums, libraries, and other partners can be a good way to extend student learning.

How to get started

Undoubtedly, young children and their families need activities that engage them early and provide them with information and comfort as they begin the school year. But such activities are not enough. Decision makers must address the systems that support young children’s development and establish conditions that ensure consistent learning environments and experiences across settings and sectors before school, in kindergarten, and beyond.

Both state and local leaders can lead on transition and alignment efforts. States can support local education agencies and communities in ensuring effective and supportive transitions in three main areas: facilitating alignment, coordination, and collaboration across organizations; encouraging and supporting transition planning; providing guidance on best practices, and creating resources and opportunities for stakeholders to convene for cross-community learning. Local education agencies and communities play the critical role of implementing state transition policies and also organizing local partners to ensure that the plans are developed with input from the community, including people from marginalized communities, and are responsive to locally identified needs and priorities.

Education leaders should start by identifying a self-assessment tool and using it to take stock of current transition activities at the state and local levels. This self-assessment process should include listening to families of young children and tailoring investments to address their greatest needs. When the time comes to turn the data from the self-assessment into policy, involving a range of stakeholders in the policy design process will help ensure that children and families across the state or district experience a successful transition into kindergarten. Although classroom teachers play a crucial role in successful transitions, the work goes far beyond them. Anyone who is a touch point for a child, family, or teacher during these critical years of development can play a role in developing policies and plans that ensure families and educators have the information they need.

Any plans related to the transition into kindergarten should identify the policy changes needed to help strengthen not just school programs, but also local community programs. State and local improvement plans should include three buckets for policy action: (1) alignment, coordination, and collaboration between school and community programs; (2) transition planning and direct support, and (3) guidance, evaluation, and resources for school and community programs.

When making plans, all relevant team members and stakeholders that are part of the broader system for supporting young children and their families should be in agreement regarding how any proposed plan will be implemented. For that reason, plans should account for the existing capacity and responsibilities of school district and community partners and consider any funding streams already in place that could be repurposed or expanded to support transitions. For example, Title I (ESSA) funds include support for family engagement. Districts should ensure that these funds are used to support ongoing transition planning for young children. States may also use their pandemic relief funds to develop materials to help districts plan for transitions during this time, taking into account the increased needs of young children and pointing districts toward available funding sources, whether through existing education funding, sources focused on childcare and early education, or community development and health care supports. In Connecticut, the State Department of Education and the Office of Early Childhood convened a PreK to Kindergarten Transition Workgroup, which created a guidance document detailing how districts and school leaders can implement successful transitions. It includes information on coordinating professional development across settings, meaningfully partnering with families, leveraging existing resources, and improving communication across settings and with families.

Transition planning is not “one and done” — rather, it is an ongoing process that takes place each year and is constantly being improved.

The time line for implementing transition activities can and should vary depending on the needs and priorities identified at the local level. Any transition plan should be nimble enough to respond quickly to new funding opportunities, information revealed from data and evaluation, and other local challenges. At the state level, however, time lines should be more rigid so that local transition teams know when they will need to report information to state agencies, apply for grant funds, and so on.

Once a plan is put in place, the work is not done. Arguably, the most important step in any transition program is regular assessment and evaluation to ensure initiatives remain timely and effective. Transition planning is not “one and done” — rather, it is an ongoing process that takes place each year and is constantly being improved. For this reason, all transition plans should include an annual, ongoing process of relationship building, collaboration and coordination, and feedback loops to inform changes to future plans. This may require states and districts to set up new structures. Illinois, for example, established a Kindergarten Transition Advisory Committee made up of lawmakers, state agency personnel, educators, administrators, and advocates to review kindergarten transitions in the state and make recommendations for improvement.

Behind-the-scenes efforts that matter

District efforts that bring adults together to align expectations, discipline strategies, curricula, assessments, instructional strategies, family engagement approaches, and learning environments and to share data, jointly plan, and participate in professional development may be less visible to children and families than summer readiness camps or open houses, but they are no less significant. In fact, these pieces may be the most critical elements of a seamless transition into preK, kindergarten, and each early grade thereafter. State policy makers, from departments of education and health and human services agencies to governors’ offices and state boards of education, and more have an important role to play in setting policy goals to enable districts to develop and implement effective and supportive transition programs. For example, the Brunswick R-II School District in Missouri will seek to improve coordination between and across early childhood and early elementary grades by establishing data teams that include the preschool teacher, kindergarten teacher, Title I reading teacher, federal programs representative, school counselor, an administrator, and parents. The plan requires teams to meet throughout the year to analyze data and help design transition plans.

While strengthening transitions in this way will require redirecting investments and potentially some new dollars, numerous federal funding streams already exist that can be used to support transition activities (Bornfreund, Ewen, & McDonald, 2019). Funding may be available through the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), new funding for coronavirus relief, state and local virus relief funds, and more. States and localities can coordinate these different funding streams to meet their goals for supportive and effective transitions.

There will surely be much to learn from, analyze, and act on over the 2021–22 school year. Our goal, though, should not be to “return to normal,” but instead to use the COVID crisis, the attention on early education, and the burst of federal dollars to strengthen the coordination of early childhood and K-12 education systems that support effective transitions and set up students like Mateo, Ava, James, and Aliyah to thrive in school and life.

Note: This article was adapted from A Toolkit for Effective and Supportive Transitions for Children, Families, and Educators in Fall 2021 and Beyond authored by Laura Bornfreund, Danielle Ewen, Abbie Lieberman, Aaron Loewenberg, Davida McDonald, and Joe Fretwell and published by New America and EducationCounsel.

References

Ahmad, F.Z. & Hamm, K. (2013, November 12). The school readiness gap and preschool benefits for children of color. Center for American Progress.

Bornfreund, L., Ewen, D., Lieberman, A., Loewenberg, A., McDonald, D., & Fretwell, J. (2021, July). A toolkit for effective and supportive transitions for children, families, and educators in fall 2021 and beyond. New America & EducationCounsel.

Bornfreund, L., Ewen, D., & McDonald, D. (2019, September). Using local, state, and federal dollars to improve pre-K to K transitions. New America.

Bornfreund, L. & Fretwell, J. (2021, July). Addressing impacts of COVID-19 on children, families, educators, and ECE systems. New America.

dela Houssaye, P. & Madrid, F. (2017, July 1). The results are in: Kindergarten transition programs work. Getting Smart.

Little, M.H., Cohen-Vogel, L., & Curran, F.C. (2016). Facilitating the transition to kindergarten: What ECLS-K data tell us about school practices then and now. AERA Open, 2 (3), 1-18.

LoCasale-Crouch, J., Mashburn, A.J., Downer, J.T., & Pianta, R.C. (2008). Pre-kindergarten teachers’ use of transition practices and children’s adjustment to kindergarten, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23 (1), 124-139.

McCormick, M., Mattera, S., Hsueh, J. (2019). Preschool to third grade alignment: What do we know and what are we learning? MDRC.

Tarasawa, B., Ralson, N.C., & Waggoner, J. (2016) Leveraging university-school district research partnerships: Exploring the longitudinal effects of an early kindergarten transition program. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 7 (1) , Article 6.

This article appears in the October 2021 issue of Kappan, Vol, 103, No. 2.