This is a picture of current kindergarten students taken from the JPA website. There are 60 kindergarten students at the school. By 2014 or 15, they will cut 30 of them. What was unclear to the teachers when they first began is that the Pritzkers and Jeanette Dibella want an elite group of students by the time they graduate. I'm not sure how they will decipher who is "elite" when they are five or six years old. Test scores? Yes, they take American standardized tests, for which the teachers prepare them during the entire year. A lot of fill in the bubble under the correct picture. Of course there isn't consideration of cultural differences, e.g. the name Lydia belongs to a girl and the name Jonathon belongs to a boy, so if you use a gender-specific pronoun in the oral question prompt, the kids are already confused even if they know the knowledge being tested.
However they do it, 30 of the students will be cut. This means that 30 students will suddenly no longer have doctor's visits, vaccinations, dentist visits, 3 nutritious meals a day, 8 sets of uniforms, a full American education. The school has so much promise, and promises so much, yet they make decisions like this. I guess many will just go back to their grass-thatched huts where there isn't electricity, and to the corrupt public schools where teachers ask for bribes and students sit on rickety benches to learn almost nothing.
Update: Word is, they will not be cutting students from kindergarten this year. Here's to hoping the Pritzkers and Jeanette had a change of heart about the students' worth and future. I highly doubt it. Steve did say (relayed from the Pritzkers, according to him) if the students weren't cut this year, they will be in first or second. By the time they get to middle school, JPA will have an elite group of students.
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