Search

When transitional kindergarten (TK) in California began in the 2012-13 school year, there were many questions about this new grade--available typically to only those children born during the month of November. Parents wondered: What is TK? Who is eligible? Does my district offer TK? Is TK right for my child? With the delayed final approval of TK at the state level, stakeholders across the state wondered how districts would recruit families and roll out a new program in such a short time frame. Who would show up on the first day of school? And what would they find when they arrived? American Institutes for Research explored these TK issues as part of an in-depth investigation of the program's first year of implementation, with subsequent follow-up with a subset of districts in the second year. This implementation study is the first phase of the statewide Study of California's Transitional Kindergarten Program. The second phase, now underway, examines the quality and impacts of TK. This third research brief in a series investigating TK implementation in Year 1 focuses on district outreach efforts, parent perceptions of TK, and TK student demographics. The following questions are addressed: (1) How did districts approach parent outreach: (2) How did parents decide whether to enroll their children in TK; (3) Who actually enrolled in TK; and (4) What did parents think of their children's TK experiences? Findings from this study point to the challenges districts faced in recruiting children for TK during the first year of TK implementation. District administrators also described other parents who were not aware of the TK program or who were concerned that TK was a remedial program and did not want to send their children to a program they did not understand. Despite these challenges, there were no particular demographic groups of students disproportionately left out of TK.

In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Kindergarten Readiness Act into law, which changed the kindergarten entry age so that children must turn 5 by September instead of December to enroll. The new grade level was put into place to promote school readiness for California's youngest learners. It also established a new grade level--transitional kindergarten (TK)--which is the first year of a two-year kindergarten experience for students born between September 2 and December 2. When fully implemented, TK is intended to provide an additional year of early education to this group of children, with the goal of promoting their school readiness. With the support of the Heising-Simons Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an investigation of the planning and implementation of TK in the 2012-13 school year. This report--the second in a series highlighting findings from the study--builds on preliminary research activities to provide a more complete assessment of the status of TK in the first year of implementation. Findings include: (1) Some districts served transitional and regular kindergarten students in combination classrooms; (2) There was substantial variability in how districts approached implementation of the new grade level, including variation in the curricula teachers used to guide classroom instruction; (3) The most common challenges reported by districts implementing transitional kindergarten were funding, developing a transitional kindergarten report card, selecting curricula for the new grade level, and providing professional development for teachers; and (4) Parents participating in focus groups were pleased with the program overall and said they felt their children were benefiting from the additional support prior to kindergarten. [For the executive summary, "California's Transitional Kindergarten Program: Report on the First Year of Implementation. Executive Summary," see ED609103.]