The last 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic has brought about several obvious consequences and concerns to the public eye — most of which deal with powerful issues like unemployment, deep political rifts, increased illegal drug use and heightened domestic violence.
But among the many more slightly-nuanced problems that’s come over the last fiscal year stems from social isolation, and the missing transition from preschool student to kindergartner.
That’s the opinion of Trigg County Primary Principal Lindsey Kinslow, who delivered a comprehensive update of her campus during Thursday night’s Trigg County School Board meeting.
At the heart of her point were the recently-returned “BRIGANCE” scores of this year’s kindergarten class — in which 59 percent were termed “transition ready” and 41 percent were not.
Kinslow noted these are strong positive numbers, and likely a direct correlation of the district’s kindergarten teachers making a strong push for learning in the first 30 days of school in order to make up for time lost to COVID-19.
It has, however, brought about some unique discovery.
Board member Gayle Rufli asked if that meant “kids weren’t playing well with others,” and Kinslow added “more than usual.”
Brigance testing takes 15 minutes, is administered by reading specialists, classroom teachers or school psychologists, and covers a variety of school-based curricula like language development, science and math proficiency and gross motor skills. It also helps assess students with potential learning difficulties or accelerated behaviors, and it generally identifies strengths and weaknesses.
Speaking of strengths and weaknesses, Kinslow also described what she sees as strong mathematics skills being developed at the primary school, but some lagging reading/comprehension scores. According to Fall 2021 reading data, 77 of 134 kindergartners, 69 of 141 first graders and 82 of 122 second graders were either near or below STAR reading/literature testing benchmarks, while 109 first graders and 60 second graders either met or exceeded arithmetic benchmarks in the same span.
As it stands, Kinslow already essentially requires a 90-minute block of reading and a 90-minute block of math be a part of a teacher’s daily lesson plan — in hopes of improving reading and its comprehension, while maintaining these stable math scores.
One huge positive, in Kinslow’s words, continues to be the rapid growth o f Trigg County’s preschool numbers — which certainly helps with “bridging this gap.” Already with historically-best five classes, the ninth-year district administrator said that fifth class only has six spots left. She added that an 8:30-to-1:30 day has only been a boon for both teachers and preschoolers this year.
