FULL-DAY OR HALF-DAY KINDERGARTEN,THAT IS THE QUESTION?
...sked the question, “Do you believe that kindergarten children are more able to cope with full-day kindergarten than in the past, because they have been to child care or preschool?” The teachers I interviewed agreed that students who have spent time being exposed to preschool situations or programs cope better in full-day kindergarten than those who do have not been exposed to pre-school type settings. Both teachers and parents believe that full-day kindergarten could and would build upon past preschool experiences, provide more time for those who need it, and assist parents in meeting the responsibilities of day-long arrangements for their children. There has been much debate about the appropriate length of time a student should be in a kindergarten class. Traditionally, it has been half that of other grades, or two-and-a-half to three hours in most states. Recent research has shown, however, that children who attend full-day kindergarten are better prepared to succeed in the first grade and beyond (Miller, 2001). According to “Success Outcomes of Full-Day Kindergarten: More Positive Behavior and Increased Achievement in the Years After” shows that education wise , having someone in school for six hours rather than three hours is a good thing,” (Cryan, 1992) In full-day kindergarten, they would be able to spend more time on quality rather than quantity. Time to challenge the students, time to really get to know the students on an individual basis, time to devote to the students who are struggling, time to integrate play and learning. To say that that the only real difference in half-day kindergarten and full-day kindergarten is time is actually pretty accurate. The curriculum is usually the same in both half-day and full-day kindergarten, except half-day might get a shortened version of the lesson where full-day can get the full lesson because there is more time to teach and more time for the students to actually understand the lesson. According to Barrett Marson of the Arizona Daily Star, in an article titled New Arizona for Kids (2004), Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano supports full-day kindergarten to the tune of $208 million a year when it’s phased in over the next five years. The initial cost will be $25.5 million dollars. She also agrees with Renee Hartje, an early education specialist at Child and Family Resources when she says that “full-day kindergarten gives students the opportunity to set the foundation for their career in school”, (Marson, 2004) Full-day kindergarten is one of the latest trends in education and one that continues to gather steam in small towns all over Arizona and nationwide. Designed to give kids a leg up on critical reading, writing, and math skills they'll need later in the classroom, the state of Arizona will now with the help of Governor Janet Napolitano offer some full-day kindergarten. But it runs into resistance on Capital Hill as well as some school districts here in Arizona. Parents are concerned about tiring out their children and whether the cost is too high. One Legislator was calling full-day kindergarten no more than “all-day baby sitting”; I would love to see how many kindergarten classes that they have been in! Let me assure our great state legislators that full-day kindergarten involves a full-day of instruction. Nationwide, full-day kindergarten seems to be shifting from a trend to the norm. . Advocates of full-day kindergarten say it gives kids more time to work on critical reading and writing skills that they'll rely on later in their education. It also gives teachers more instruction time and helps give kids a positive image of themselves as writers and readers. And for children from lower-income families or who speak English as a second language, experts say the extra instruction time is critical. Maryland found students in all-day kindergarten programs met more testing benchmarks than their peers in part-time programs. Low-income students and minority students showed some of the biggest gains. (Cryan, 1992) At least three studies in different school districts nationwide show kids in all-day programs, particularly kids from lower-income families, tend to perform better than kids in half-day programs. James Elicker, an associate professor of child development and family studies at Purdue University, spent three years in the early 1990s studying students in full-day and half-day kindergarten programs in a school district outside Green Bay, Wis. What he found, Elicker says, is that kids from the full-day program were better prepared for first grade than their half-day counterparts, even though the full-day program didn't seem to confer any significant academic advantage later on. Elicker also found that both teachers and students seemed less stressed in the all-day program because there wasn't the demand to cram the same amount of instruction into four hours. Half-day programs also tended to be much structured with teacher-led activities. "They were doing a lot of really structured activities to kind of cram all that contact into a 2 1/2 and 3 hour day," Elicker says. "When teachers shifted to a full-day, they could use that time for more child-controlled activities." ( Elicker & Mathur, 1997) So is full-day kindergarten more beneficial to kids than half-day? There are some who would say no. While doing research for this paper, I did come across those that felt full-day kindergarten was not in their child’s or districts best interest. Some of the cons of full-day kindergarten I heard were the following: One of the third grade teachers told me, said that full-day kindergarten was too long for most students, especially for children who have never attended school. A parent, who was dead set against full-day kindergarten, said that instead of changing the time frame to make improvements change the curriculum instead. According to a paraprofessional at a local school, where I observed, full-day kindergarten in; said full-day kindergarten in her opinion was nothing more than added seat work which, again in her opinion, is inappropriate in kindergarten to begin with. Others believe as a whole that we are putting too much pressure on our kindergarteners to begin with and to make them stay all day is in someway pushing education down their throats too soon. Others feel that children's shorter attention spans and interest levels are more suited to a half-day program. And finally you will hear from those that really have no more reason to go against full-day kindergarten other than it is changing things around and they hate change. There is a teacher in one district who will be retiring next year. As long as I have known her, everything has always been negative, negative, negative. When I asked her views on full-day kindergarten verses half-day kindergarten, she simply looked at me and said it is my understanding that research has mixed results as to how much a child benefits from a full-day kindergarten and walked away. Parents want a say. Several parents mentioned they would fight it tooth and nail because they have things exactly the way they want them. Full-day kindergarten would screw them up, half-day kindergarten is just fine. I have shared many pros of full-day kindergarten already. More pros emerged in response to the question: What is your view of full-day kindergarten over half-day kindergarten? Full-day kindergarten helps parents solve the problem of afternoon day care. It eliminates the need for schools to provide buses and crossing guards at mid-day. Kids have performed better socially, and have scored higher on standardized tests. A kindergarten teacher has more time to better prepare a child for first grade. Children with low economic status benefit greatly from an all-day program. Full-day programs provide more time for field trips, activity centers, projects, and free play. Students, who are at-risk for school problems due to delayed development, disabilities, or limited preschool experiences, and who attend rigorous and nurturing full-day programs, are more likely to have stronger achievement in basic skill areas and generally ...