Transition classes allow children more time to grow

VIRGINIA BEACH

Bryce Burton, 6, is clear on what grade he's in.

"Primary," he said. "It's in the middle of kindergarten and first grade."

Bryce, who attends Baylake Pines, a private school on Shore Drive, is one of a small number of students in the region attending such a program, sometimes called a transition year.

Supporters say an extra grade before first can be a gift of time for certain students who aren't ready. But few schools offer it nowadays.

In the region, Baylake Pines and Cape Henry Collegiate School have long-standing transition classes that cost $7,865 and $13,185, respectively. Norfolk Collegiate offers a kindergarten class with some transitional elements.

Among public schools, 102 students were enrolled in transition first-grade classes in Virginia last fall. All but a few were in Campbell County Public Schools, near Lynchburg.

"It's not designed for every child," said P.J. Hamilton, director of elementary education for Campbell County schools. "It's designed for children who are developmentally young."

After more than 20 years, the classes aren't filling anymore, she said. The division's pre-kindergarten programs seem to be helping students come to kindergarten more prepared.

At Cape Henry, eight transition students share a classroom with six older kindergarten students. The students are close in age because transition students tend to have been among the youngest students in their kindergarten class.

"We get to do harder work in transition," said Braeden Shepheard, 6. "We're older."

While the kindergartners traced the letter "D" on a page, transition students, around a table, were describing pictures of puppies by writing key words like "soft" inside circles.

"I spelled 'happy' all by myself," Braeden said.

"Kindergarten wouldn't do this," teacher Karen Buchardt said of the activity.

Both Cape Henry's program and the one at Baylake Pines are an academic intermediate between kindergarten and first grade. The classes use some first-grade materials but progress more slowly.

Next door, in first grade, the students are writing journal entries up to a page long and reading short chapter books. Not every child is ready for that, educators say.

However, going to a program like transition isn't being held back.

"It's a promotion," Buchardt said. "It gives them an opportunity to move ahead academically while giving them an extra year of social growth."

Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, said there's not enough research on the programs to say whether they're effective.

But anytime a program is tailored to what children need, " that's a good thing to do," he said.

"It doesn't matter if it's pre-K, kindergarten, transition or first," Pianta said. "It matters if the classroom the child is placed in gives them opportunities to learn."

At both Baylake Pines and Cape Henry, administrators had stories of students who have gone from transition to the top of their classes and prestigious high schools and colleges. Many staff members have also sent their children to transition or primary.

Gina Olivieri, a Cape Henry parent, said her son Ethan, 8, was in transition two years ago.

"He feels like he's the best reader in his class," she said. "Before, he felt like the worst."

A sense of accomplishment also pervades Nancy Caton's primary classroom at Baylake Pines. Eleven students took turns reading from an eight-page phonics book called "Bike Hike " while two worked in another room.

Bryce carefully sounded out the words in a short sentence, pronouncing them all correctly. Then he sat back and beamed when Caton praised his efforts.

"Great reading!" she said.

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com