An Earlier Start

Prekindergarten is becoming part of elementary school in the growing number of districts that treat the pre-K-3 years as a distinct learning period.

La Puente, Calif.

The wide-open field between the double-wide trailer that houses Baldwin Academy’s pre-K class and the rest of the school here is about the only thing separating prekindergartners from their K-5 peers in the main building.

On the whiteboard inside the portable classroom is a list of words beginning with the letter O. It is the same kind of letter-of-the-week lesson that Baldwin’s kindergarten teachers use. The two young boys wearing headphones and sitting in front of computer screens are working on the same early-reading program used in kindergarten.

Children’s predictions about what happens when the colors black and white are mixed are posted on the wall, next to the California early-learning guideline addressed by that activity—just as state academic standards are posted alongside student...