Summary: Research related to universal all-day kindergarten supports the academic and social benefits of all-day programs over half-day options. Both cognitive and emotional gains are greater when best practices related to what is known about early childhood education are put into practice. More research is needed in areas related to the structure, instructional practices, curriculum, and how to make the most of the additional time.
Education Commission of the States - comprehensive resource
Full-Day Kindergarten: A Study of State Policies in the United States
This report provides a state policy overview of full-day kindergarten in the United States. It is intended, however, to accomplish more than simply describing current policies. Based on an Education Commission of the States' (ECS) review, the report identifies four key areas where states need to strengthen their full-day kindergarten policies. (Education Commission of the States, July 2005)
Kindergarten Policy Database
This 50-state database of state kindergarten policies will allow you to review and compare access, quality and funding of kindergarten in the states.
Access to Kindergarten: Age Issues in State Statutes
This StateNote documents how state lawmakers have addressed kindergarten-related age issues.
How States Fund Full-Day Kindergarten
This ECS StateNote shows how each state's funding formula addresses kindergarten.
State Statutes Regarding Kindergarten
This ECS StateNote includes information on each state's offering of full-day kindergarten, as well as policies for student attendance in kindergarten.
Education Resources Information Center study
There seem to be many positive learning and social/behavioral benefits for children in all-day kindergarten programs. At the same time, it is important to remember that what children are doing during the kindergarten day is more important than the length of the school day. Gullo (1990) and Olsen and Zigler (1989) warn educators and parents to resist the pressure to include more didactic academic instruction in all-day kindergarten programs. They contend that this type of instruction is inappropriate for young children. An all-day kindergarten program can provide children the opportunity to spend more time engaged in active, child-initiated, small-group activities. Teachers in all-day kindergarten classrooms often feel less stressed by time constraints and may have more time to get to know children and meet their needs.
National Center for Education Statistics on all-day K
This report describes public and private kindergarten in the United States. It includes information about the schools that offer full-day and half-day kindergarten and the children who attend these programs. The composition and structure of public school full-day and half-day kindergarten classes and the instructional practices used by teachers in these classes are described. The report concludes with an analysis of the cognitive gains of public school children who attend full-day and half-day programs.
Elicker, J., & Mathur, S. (1997). What do they do all day? Comprehensive evaluation of a full-day kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(4), 459-480.
Elicker and Mathur's two-year study of four full-day and eight half-day kindergarten classes in a middle-class suburb of Wisconsin found that children in full-day classrooms spent more time "engaged in child-initiated activities (especially learning centers), more time in teacher-directed individual work, and relatively less time in teacher-directed large groups.... Kindergarten report card progress and readiness for first grade were rated significantly higher for full-day children" (p. 459). Elicker mentions that this study employed a true experimental design as children were randomly selected for the class, and preexisting differences were statistically controlled (p. 6).
Nielsen, J., & Cooper-Martin, E. (2002). Evaluation of the Montgomery County Public Schools Assessment Program: Kindergarten and grade 1 reading report. Rockville, MD: Montgomery Public Schools, Office of Shared Accountability. Retrieved October 24, 2002, from www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/dea/pdf/Kinder2002.pdf (pdf file)
This study of Montgomery County, Maryland, Public Schools looked at the effects of the second year of the kindergarten initiative, which expanded full-day kindergarten, reduced class size, and revised the curriculum. These schools were selected because they had the highest concentration of disadvantaged and low-income students. The full-day schedule was enhanced by a strengthened kindergarten curriculum including the extended time for "balanced literacy instruction," a strengthened instructional program in other academic areas, with specific blocks of time for "sustained high quality teaching." The student-teacher ratio for full-day classes was also reduced to 15:1.
Weiss, A.M.D.G., & Offenberg, R.J. (2002, April). Enhancing urban children's early success in school: The power of full-day kindergarten. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
This study tracked 17,600 Philadelphia students from kindergarten into fourth grade. They found that students who had attended full-day kindergarten were 26 percent more likely than former half-day kindergartners to make it to third grade without repeating a grade. Full-day kindergarten students also had "significantly higher achievement scores in reading, math, and science, higher report card marks and better attendance" by third grade (p. 2), although by fourth grade they had higher achievement in science only, and higher attendance. The authors acknowledge that more research is needed on the content of the curriculum-how the additional time is used, and other variables-parent education levels, and pre-kindergarten education experience (p. 17).
Welsh, J. (November 13, 2002). Full-day kindergarten a plus. Pioneer Press. Minneapolis Public Schools (2002). All-day kindergarten narrows the gap in early literacy. [News release}. Retrieved November 14, 2002, from www.mpls.k12.mn.us/news/news_release/all_day_k.shtml.
Minneapolis Public Schools released a study showing that Native American, Hispanic, and African American full-day kindergarten students have made significant gains in literacy achievement compared with their peers in half-day programs. In particular, these full-day students had accelerated performance in vocabulary, rhyming, onset phonemes, oral comprehension, letter sounds, and print concepts. For example, gains in letter sounds were 30 percent higher than that for half-day students.
National All Day Kindergarten Network - This is an association of early childhood educators throughout the country who are actively involved in the all-day kindergarten movement. The purpose of the network is to provide guidance in decisions of policy and practice, to serve as a liaison with early childhood projects and professional organizations, and to be a resource for the identification of speakers and materials related to kindergarten. This site offers a bibliography of selected topics in kindergarten education, as well as a host of online resources.
National Kindergarten Alliance - This national alliance serves kindergarten teachers and focuses on identifying best practices in kindergarten curriculum, teacher preparation, assessment, class size, entrance age and length of school day. The Web site provides teacher resources, professional development information and links to state Kindergarten Alliance Web sites
Recent example of positive impact of ADK switch for
Middletown, Ohio, district