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<p>US News & World Report</p>
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<p>Welcome to First Grade Kindergarten</p>
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<p>Kindergarten is the new first grade. </p>
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<p>That's the big finding from researchers at the University of Virginia who compared kindergarten and first-grade classrooms between 1998 and 2010, and found that over the 12-year period, kindergarten classes have become startlingly like first grade...For
 example, teachers in 2010 were much more likely to believe academic instruction should begin before kindergarten, including a 33 percent increase in the number of teachers who believed students should know the alphabet and how to use a pencil before beginning
 kindergarten. </p>
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<p>Full story:<br>
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016/01/07/kindergarten-today-looks-like-first-grade-a-decade-ago?google_editors_picks=true">http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016/01/07/kindergarten-today-looks-like-first-grade-a-decade-ago?google_editors_picks=true</a></p>
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