Boston preschools falling far short of goals, study says

Boston's public preschool and kindergarten programs are hobbled by mediocre instruction, unsanitary classrooms, and dangerous schoolyards, according to a first-ever study of the programs.

The quality of instruction and facilities in 70 percent of the classrooms, the Wellesley Centers for Women study said, is inadequate to achieve the school system's primary goal: To get the children, most of whom are black and Hispanic and from low-income families, up to speed by first grade so they are as prepared as their white and Asian peers.

Leaders of the school system, which has spent $7.5 million to add preschool classes the last two years, said they found the results sobering and would launch an overhaul of classroom instruction and teacher training.

The findings of the study, which was commissioned by the school system, also are prompting questions about whether the city, pushed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, moved too quickly to add preschool classes.

"We ought to know what we are doing, so it's very clear we're not just offering child care, but that we're adding programs of substance and integrity," said Elizabeth Reilinger, chairwoman of the School Committee. "When kids are entering the first grade, they should have a sound footing or be a step ahead, not in remediation."

Menino has touted the expansion of preschool from 38 classes in 2004 to 78 this school year as part of the city's progress in education. The school system estimates it will spend at least $20 million a year on preschool education if it meets the mayor's goal of offering free preschool for all 4-year-olds in Boston by 2010.

Governor Deval Patrick supports universal preschool for low-income children, but his budget only pays for expanding full-day kindergarten. In most Massachusetts cities and towns, parents pay to have a child attend public preschool, and many also have to pay for full-day kindergarten. Current law requires only half-day kindergarten for families who want it.

Representative Patricia A. Haddad, a Somerset Democrat and cochairwoman of the Joint Committee on Education, said the Boston study shows the need for school systems to proceed cautiously as they add more classes.

"Expansions should not be occurring unless you can assure the quality of the programs," she said.

Boston has been expanding early childhood education for more than a decade in response to parental demand and to give low-income children a head start. Starting in 1995, it began offering free full-day kindergarten, instead of half-day, for students. It already had preschool classes for special education students and a limited number of other children who got into preschool by lottery. At the urging of the mayor, the school system added classes for more 4-year-olds in 2005-06. Roughly 25 percent of 4-year-olds in Boston, who get in by lottery, had access to free preschool this year.

Last school year the Wellesley researchers observed 128 randomly selected classrooms in 67 schools, analyzing how teachers interacted with children, what they taught, and the quality and quantity of learning materials in the classroom.

Three-quarters of teachers reported that they lacked classroom materials, including books. In many classrooms, children spent a lot of their day sitting at desks while teachers lectured, a style frowned upon in early childhood education. As a result, half of the teachers missed signs that children were struggling, the study found.

Even though all teachers had bachelor's degrees and state teaching certification, more than a fifth did not have training in early childhood education.

The teachers also did not spend enough time reading to students, teaching them to use the alphabet, or having them write and instead engaged them in too many of what researchers called meaningless large group activities.

Good teachers use activities that require more thought and responsiveness from students, instead of using flashcards, drills, or reciting the alphabet song to teach letters, said Joanne Roberts, one of the Wellesley College researchers.

The study also found that Boston preschool and kindergarten classes had too high a student-adult ratio. National early education guidelines recommend having 10 to 12 students per teacher or aide, but in Boston's kindergarten classrooms, teachers have a half-time aide and work alone with a maximum of 22 children for the other half of the day.

The researchers also said more than half of the city's preschool and kindergarten schoolyards were very dangerous, because they lacked adequate fencing to protect children from parking lots and busy city streets. Most classrooms also failed to follow health guidelines such as hand washing and cleaning tables for meals.

Nancy Younossi, who has taught kindergarten in Boston for 35 years, said she is not surprised by the study's findings.

"We don't have unified goals for kindergarten in the system," she said. "We're teaching a stringently scripted reading program. But some teachers are doing it to the letter, and some teachers are . . . just passing out worksheets."

As a part of its overall effort to improve quality, the school system is in the process of creating a handbook of expectations for early educators and recently mandated what teachers should teach so there is consistency, said Jason Sachs, director of the school system's department of early childhood. The school system has hired six early-education specialists to observe and coach teachers and will offer free graduate courses to teachers in early education.

Sachs has raised about $5 million in grants since last year to improve the quality of Boston's programs. The city plans to spend $4.1 million to pay for 23 more preschool classrooms next year.

"We will have more seats and, by serendipity, kids will be more developmentally prepared," said Reilinger. "But whether it's going to give them the very aggressive head start that we're trying to get them to have, I'm not sure."

She said she supports adding more classes, but wants to make sure they are high quality.

The governor has proposed spending $13 million to convert more than half of the state's 1,500 half-day kindergarten classes into full-day programs.

Monitoring quality of early childhood programs is a priority in the state, said Ann Reale, the state's commisioner for early education and care.

In addition to the governor's proposal for more full-day kindergarten, the state is preparing to award $4.6 million in grant money to 137 schools and private programs to improve early education and evaluate how well they're doing with the students, Reale said. Schools can use the money to raise teacher salaries and offer more training, but should track students' progress, she said.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.