Home > Human Services > Early Care & Education > Full-Day Kindergarten

A Review of the Literature and Evidence

A Summary of the Research on Full-Day Kindergarten

James Barnes, ENS Planning

I. Purpose of the Summary:

This summary attempts to provide a balanced picture of the status of the full-day Kindergarten movement in the United States, as well as a context for the audience for this document: staff members of the Mansfield Public Schools, the Mansfield Board of Education, parents, town officials, and members of the public interested in a significant initiative in American public education. The goal of the report is to provide the reader with a summary of over a decade of research, conducted during the period between 1990 to 2003, highlighting the impact of the full-day Kindergarten as it is being implemented in Connecticut and throughout the United States.

The report is organized into the following sections:

  1. A definition of key terms
  2. A brief history of the Kindergarten movement
  3. Transition to full-day programs
  4. Major findings
  5. Pedagogical Issues
  6. General Comments
  7. A Final Note

II. Definitions: Key Terms

Kindergarten:

The term Kindergarten has been applied in the United States to those programs offered by public and private schools for children on or about their fifth birthday. From about 1870 until 1946, full-day Kindergarten was the standard for most of the U.S. From 1946 until 1990, the predominant kindergarten program became the half-day, morning and afternoon design. Today over 60% of all children enrolled in kindergarten attend full-day programs. (U.S. Census Bureau September 2003; MacAuliffe 2003).1

Half-day Kindergarten:

Connecticut State Department of Education: "A half-day kindergarten program provides four hundred and fifty hours of actual schoolwork for a minimum of 180 days." (CT SDE web page 2003).2

United States Department of Education: a half-day kindergarten program is one in which the child attends school each weekday for 2.5 - 3 hours, either in the morning or the afternoon"(Miller in ERICECEE 2003).3

Extended-Day Kindergarten:

Connecticut State Department of Education: "An extended-day kindergarten program provides more than four hundred and fifty hours but less than nine hundred hours of actual schoolwork for a minimum of 180 days." (CT SDE web page 2003).4

United States Department of Education: "Kindergarten programs that afford more than the usual half-day program but less than the full day program." (ERICECEE 2003).5

Full-Day Kindergarten:

Connecticut State Department of Education: "A full-day kindergarten program provides nine hundred hours of actual schoolwork, for a minimum of 180 days." [Equal to a minimum of five hours per day} (CT SDE web page 2003].6

United States Department of Education: "A full-day kindergarten program is a program in which a child attends school each weekday for approximately six hours." (ERICECEE 2003).7

III. Early History of the Kindergarten Movement:

The word, “kindergarten,” comes from the German meaning "a child's garden". Friedrich Froebel (the "Father of Kindergarten") is credited with inventing kindergarten in the 1830s. His program was designed to teach young children about art, design, mathematics, and natural history. By 1872, kindergarten was compulsory throughout Central Europe for all children six years of age. Training in Froebel's approach was mandatory in all teacher-training institutions within the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Brosterman 1997; Smith 2003).8

In the United States, Susan Elizabeth Blow might be considered for the title of the "Mother of Public School Kindergarten", opening the first public school kindergarten in 1873 in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis eventually became a model for the nation. Almost all Kindergartens were full-day programs until World War II, when a shortage of qualified teachers, space, rapid growth in the birthrate, and a growing "feeling" that five-year-olds were not mature enough for a full-day program. The half-day program became increasingly popular following the conclusion of World War II. (MacAuliffe 2003; Watson 1997).9

In the United States, Kindergarten was historically viewed by educational professionals and the general public as a unique vehicle for addressing the compelling needs of "immigrant children and other children of the slums." During the late 1800s, prior to Ms. Blow's public school initiatives, free Kindergartens were established in (white) working-class neighborhoods across the nation, with the purpose of providing the "slum child" with the opportunity to "socialize" and learn "cleanliness and discipline, while their mothers were educated in Froebel's principles of child nurturing" (Watson 1997).10

IV. Transition to Full-Day Kindergarten

More recently, the seeds for the full-day Kindergarten were planted in the middle 1960s, through a variety of approaches undertaken in the Head Start program, a federally-funded early childhood education initiative. In its earlier stages, Head Start endorsed nine basic models for implementing programs (e.g., Bank Street College model, the Montessori model, and the University of Arizona's Roach Van Allan model) With the passage of time, Head Start projects became more localized and, significantly, tended to extend the preschool day to coincide with the needs of the parent population. The population became increasingly diverse, with different program designs aimed at specific populations: urban, rural, bilingual, and special needs (Barnes 1996)11

In most instances, Head Start remained outside the purview of local education agencies, permitting ample opportunity for experimentation, but mitigating against the application of traditional social science research procedures. The net result was the loss of substantive data regarding the overall impact of the various Head Start models. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did collect baseline data that still serves as a framework for preschool initiatives in the public forum.

The cumulative effect of the Head Start initiative was to highlight a need for new and more comprehensive models to preschool and early childhood education programs appropriate to child development. In addition, societal changes including reconfiguration of the family (dual-employment and single-parent households) are supported by data from the 2000 census; what began as a trend, became bone fide new categories of dual-employment and single parent households.

By the fall of 1998, about 4 million children attended kindergarten in the United States, approximately 95 percent of them for the first time. Of the children attending kindergarten, 85 percent were in public schools, 15 percent in private schools, 55 percent were in full-day programs and 45 percent were in half-day programs (West et al., Fall 1998, Updated 2002).12 In the fall of 2002, over 60% of the 3.9 million children attending kindergarten in the United States did so in full-day kindergartens (US Census Bureau September 2003).13

Full-day Kindergarten is a logical extension to comprehensive early childhood education models, an informed response to the very substantial changes in the configuration of family and society (Railsback and Brewster 2002)14 note: "Given adequate resources and support, and a high quality kindergarten curriculum, however, there are good arguments for offering students and parents the choice of all-day, everyday kindergarten."

While pointing out the very special advantages for low-income, second-language and educationally-disadvantaged students, researchers note that "for students who would otherwise make multiple transitions between home, childcare, and school each day, full-day kindergarten offers a more stable, less stressful, stimulating environment in which to learn and grow (Vecchiotti 2001).15

Given the rapid and sustained growth of the full-day Kindergarten program and its expansion from 15% of all American kindergarten students enrolled in full-day programs in 1974, to nearly 63% now enrolled in full-day programs, the movement seems to be inevitable for most of the nations schools (Natale 2001; US Census Bureau 2001).16

James Elicker identified three major reasons for the rapid growth of the movement to full-day programs:

  1. An increasing awareness among educators and parents about the importance of the early years for brain development:

    2. Early childhood educators, have become increasingly aware of the critical role that the early years play in developing a sound foundation for a child's life-long learning. While kindergarten teachers, along with a wide variety of early childhood educators have become interested in the emerging and potent findings of neuroscience to all stages of a child’s early development, they are also cautious. (Jacobson 2000; Saluja.G, 2003).However, as the scientific data increasingly supports the application of specific and focused findings (Shonkoff 2001;Wolfe 2001)18,such as the relationship of increased individualized attention for students and accelerated learning and skill acquisition, the reluctance of important scientific findings into classroom applications is reduced. (Halford 1998; Jacobs-Connell 2000).19

  2. Debates among educators about what constitutes developmentally-appropriate instruction in kindergarten:

    Equally important, is the increasing disparity in "learning readiness," becoming more pronounced among the annual new arrivals at kindergartens across the state and nation. (USDE, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2002; NASBE Policy Update 2002).20 The widening disparity in school readiness, coupled with a growing disparity in "socialization readiness," results in behavior problems for children whose preschool experience has been erratic. The "unlearning” of inappropriate behaviors subtract substantial amounts of instructional time from the kindergarten day. Full-day programs provide more opportunities to compensate for these disparities. Because these differences are now becoming more manifest, current research is focusing more seriously on this emerging problem and its implications for all kindergarten instruction ( Lonigan & Whitehurst 1998; NASBE 2003; ; Pianta 2002; West et al. 2000).21

  3. The increasing need of families for child-care services:

    Elicker's work brings together the research on full-day kindergarten prior to the year 2000. Since that time, the percent of five-year-olds going to full-day kindergarten has significantly increased and the demand by parents for expanded early-education options has increased as well. He notes that most children already have child-care experience outside the home, in addition to half-day kindergarten programs, and that most parents prefer a single source for this experience. He notes that, "Most parents of five-year-old children in the United States now work full-time outside the home. Parents desire high-quality educational programs for their kindergarten-age children." (Elicker, James 2000.)22

V. New Research Initiatives

"Unfortunately, drawing conclusions from the existing research on full-day kindergarten is not easy, in part because kindergarten practices and student populations vary so widely from school to school." (Railsback & Brewster 2002).23

This review of current research on full-day Kindergarten attempts to compensate for these variables by aggregating data rather than accepting individual studies at face value. There is a healthy skepticism regarding the widespread unevenness of the quality and quantity of research focusing on comparisons of full-day and half-day kindergarten (Clark 2000; Cryan et al. 1992; Elicker 2002; Gullo 1990 ; Karweit 1992; Railsback & Drew 2002; Rothenberg 1995).24

Beginning in 1998 researchers began to address the lack of comprehensive, systematic data on kindergarten. Noting that "given the significant differences of full-day kindergarten programs around the country, it is difficult to compare findings across studies, much less isolate the effects of curricula or teaching methods from the number of hours kindergarten students spend in class" (Railsback and Brewster, 2002).

The need for substantive research to assess the nature and impact of full-day Kindergarten is now spearheaded by the U. S. Department of Education. In its initial report of the first comprehensive study of kindergarten programs in the United States, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, it is noted that:

"Little information is available on kindergarten programs in the United States and on the nation's children as they move through the primary grades. Information about the entry status of the nations' kindergarteners can inform educational policy and practice, and especially the . . . to meet the needs of a diverse population of children entering kindergarten for the first time." (ECLS 2002)

The sources for the current research are very diverse; in the case of the full-day Kindergarten, research results should be viewed at this point as "early returns". (Rafoth 2003; NASBE 2003).25 The first national, in-depth study of full-day Kindergarten begun just last year in August, 2002 will produce its initial findings in late 2004. The Foundation for Child Development funded the Education Commission of the States to carry out this comprehensive study of full-day Kindergarten programs throughout the United States (ECS 2003).26 The US Department of Education's comprehensive initiative, the "Early Childhood Longitudinal Study will begin to report the initial results of this five-year study in 2005.

VI. PRELIMINARY RESEARCH FINDINGS:

A. Children

The findings from a review of current research were selected based on frequency as well as relevance, in the United States and Connecticut.

  1. Positive Experience:

    Full-day Kindergarten is well-documented as a positive experience for virtually all of the children with experience in the program (Miller in ERICECEE 2001, ECS 2003, National Mental Health and Education Center 2003;National Association of School Psychologists 2003; National Association for the Education Of Young Children 1998).27

  2. Meets Learning Ranges:

    Full-day Kindergarten provides superior options for students with different ranges of learning preparation or disabilities, to acquire the skills, information and mastery of those skills and information through the greater amount of time for students to develop their learning techniques (Miller in ERICECEE 2001; ECS 2003; National Mental Health and Education Center 2003; National Association of School Psychologists 2003;National Association for the Education Of Young Children 1998; Nielsen 2002; Author 2001)28

  3. Low-Income and Disadvantaged Children:

    There is significant research supporting full-day Kindergartens to insure greater school success for educationally disadvantaged children from low-income family backgrounds, giving teachers opportunities to provide additional attention to individual needs (Miller in ERICECEE 2001; ECS 2003; National Mental Health and Education Center 2003; National Association of School Psychologists 2003;National Association for the Education Of Young Children 1998; Rothenberg 2001; Downing 2002).29

  4. Behavioral Problems:

    Full-day Kindergarten provides the opportunity for students who, in spite of experiences in a variety of out-of-the-home child-care settings, bring significant behavioral problems with them to kindergarten. Extra time provides teachers with more opportunities to address the specific needs of a child with behavior issues, insuring that other children's individualized needs are met (Elicker 2000, Railsback 2002, Rafoth 2003).30

  5. Academic Achievement:

    Full-day Kindergarten, designed in many instances for specific groups such as urban, suburban, and rural populations, has been able to document solid improvement in academic achievement. It must be noted, that there is not yet enough longitudinal data to assess sustained academic success. Academic achievement improvement in grades 1 and 2 is reasonably well-documented. Until 2004, when the US Department of Education's Longitudinal Study of 22,000 children complete 5th grade, there are only isolated studies with conflicting findings above the second grade level. In short, the "returns on success in the middle grades, simply are not in yet." (Hildebrand in ERICECEE 2001; ECS 2003; National Mental Health and Education Center 2003; National Association of School Psychologists 2003;National Association for the Education Of Young Children 1998; Rothenberg 2001; Downing 2002; U.S. Department of Education, Center for Educational Statistics 2002).31

  6. Preparation for First Grade:

    No summary of the research as it affects children would be complete without acknowledging the concerns expressed by some that a full-day Kindergarten is too long for some children and that “kids need time to play.” (Rathforth 2003; Pascopella 2001; Natale 2001). Some have expressed concern that, as kindergartens expect more academically of children, preschools will adjust their curricula as well as, "pushing-down" more academics into their levels (Porch 2002; Edwards et. al., 2002; Egertson 1987); or that first-grade curricula will be shifted to kindergartens (Rothenberg 1995; Gullo 1990). However, there is general acknowledgment that successful, developmentally-appropriate programs have been, and can be, designed to provide a balance between academic needs and socializing play (Raforth 2003).

B. Teachers

  1. Instructional time:

    The critical benefit of full-day Kindergarten is more instructional time and the opportunity for teachers to design broader and more long-term lesson plans better aligned with their students specific needs (Miller in Railsbach 2002).33 The advantage of a full-day program includes more time with students, individually, and in small groups (Porch 2002; Rothenberg 2000)34 as well as more time to get to know and communicate with parents. (Vecchiotti 2001 in Railsback 2002).35

  2. Assessment time per child:

    More time to assess children and individualize instruction to their specific needs and interests (Zill, N. and West, J. 2001).36 "The results of richer assessments also provide a way to explain to parents how their children are faring and what they are gaining as a result of their participation." (NASBE 2002).37

  3. Smaller class sizes:

    An obvious benefit reduced the student/teacher ratio by half: "20--25 per year as compared to 40 to- 50, in two half day classrooms" (Elicker 2000 in Railsback, J. 2002; NAESP 2002).38

C. Parents

  1. Support:

    There is overwhelming positive support from parents for full-day Kindergarten programs. The reduction in the need to transport children from half-day kindergartens to complementing day-care arrangements is a major factor (Education Commission of the States 2003;USDE 2001; Parent Network 2003; DoDDS Education Services; Elicker 2000).39

  2. Need:

    The rapid growth in single-parent and dual-wage-earned families greatly increases the need for all-day, out-of-the-home care for young children. Other major factors, such as lack of a strong foundation in the English language as well as general literacy skills drive the expansion of full-day Kindergarten in specific regions of the nation. The move toward full-day kindergarten has not been without its skeptics, however. Elkind in Hildebrand, for example, has characterized full-day kindergarten as a 'good illustration of how a social problem--in this case, increased childcare needs--" gets misinterpreted and given an educational solution." (Elicker 2001; Rafoth 2003; Elkind in Hildebrand 2001).40

  3. Parental Assessment:

    Parents readily assess the positive nature of the full-day Kindergarten; increased time teachers devote to students, means increased time for parents and their concerns. More detailed communication is possible enabling parents to receive a more in-depth assessment of their children's progress (Downing 2002; Elicker & Mathur 1997; Rafoth 2002).41

  4. Reduction of Parental Stress:

    It is clear that some critics of full-day Kindergarten see this change as primarily to benefit working parents, as a babysitting service. However, overall stress reduction for parents by virtue of the fact that children do not have to make ongoing adjustments and readjustments to new environments because of complex and changing child-care arrangements (Drew and Law 1990; Downing 2002).42

  5. Parents and Academic Achievement:

    Parents have clear, academic achievement data supporting their decision to enroll their child in full-day Kindergarten. Any parent with a positive experience for their child in a full-day kindergarten is a potent source of both support and recruitment for the following classes (Chmelynski1998; Elicker 2000).43

VII. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATORS:

Full-day Kindergarten is more expensive: more facilities, staff, supplies and materials are needed and support is necessary to assure that programs that are initiated will continue to be supported by taxpayers (Porter 2003; Pascopella 2001: ERIC: Disadvantage of Full-Day Kindergarten 2000). In addition, there are important pedagogical implications for educators as they begin full-day programs for kindergarteners.

When a full-day program is begun, "Teachers, administrators, and parents should resist the temptation to provide full-day programs that are didactic rather than intellectually engaging in tone. Seat-work, worksheets, and early instruction in reading and other academic areas are largely inappropriate in kindergarten" (Rothenberg 1995; Rafoth 2003).44 In addition, the principal, must strongly resist pressure to produce testing results and efforts to incrementally ‘push down’ the first grade curriculum into the full day kindergarten with the misguided hope that the children will gain some academic, test-measured, achievement." (NAEYC 1998).45 Further, as Sara Vecchiotti writes in the conclusion for the Education Research Service's Informed Educator Series: Full-Day Kindergarten:

It is not the mere increase in school hours that leads to the positive benefits of full-day-school-day kindergarten. It is what children experience during the day-an educational environment with appropriate curriculum and teaching practices informed by research that promotes young children's exploration and learning (Vecchiotti 2001).46

Principals must be alert to the need to insure that the full-day kindergarten's program is "developmentally-appropriate" and that there is a realistic "fit" between teacher expectations for kindergarteners and the kindergarteners actual skills" (Zill and West 2001 in ERS 2002).47 "The results of richer assessments also provide a way to explain student progress to parents and what they are gaining as a result of their participation" (NASBE 2002).48

The key to the success of full-day kindergarten is low student-teacher ratio. Throughout the literature there is overwhelming agreement of the positive correlation of the kindergartener-teacher ratio (i.e., 1-20 positive; 1-25 tolerable) to all of the positive outcomes characteristics of the truly successful full-day kindergarten program (Fusaro 1997; Elicker 2001; Elicker and Mathur 1997; Gullo 1990).49

Finally, in the early stages implementation, it is critical that the concerns of the less supportive parents be understood and addressed equitably (Pascopella 2001).50

While parents, for the most part, are overwhelmingly in favor of full-day Kindergarten programs, there are still those who, for a variety of reasons, prefer the current kindergarten configuration. Several authors note that it was important to the ultimate success to any newly implemented full-day Kindergarten program, that these parents be listened to carefully and treated respectfully (ERS 2002).51 Maintaining strong communication with parents who have reservations about the full-day program eventually develops an authentic “sense of ownership” to the full-day program allowing the full-day program to prove itself. (Pennsylvannia Partnerships for Children 1999)53. Initial pockets of resistance is healthy for the open discussion of the merits of full-day programs (McMaken 2003).53

VIII. GENERAL COMMENTS:

  1. Developmentally-appropriate, full-day kindergarten can:
    • enhance the academic repertoire of all students, while ensuring students with additional needs have those needs addressed and their academic skills reinforced;
    • enhance the acquisition of basic skills for all children, increase academic achievement while reducing the probability that children will have to be retained in elementary grades;
    • insure that the children with exceptional challenges experience a solid, rigorous but nurturing kindergarten program based on their specific needs;
    • provide more time and attention for children who are at-risk for school problems due to delayed development disabilities, or limited preschool experience;
    • offer more opportunities for child-centered, creative activities;
    • offer more opportunities for developing social skills;
    • provide more time for activity centers in and out of the classroom;
    • provide more time for free play;
    • provide more time for field trips;
    • offer a more relaxed atmosphere (Rafoth 2003)54.
  2. Full-Day Kindergarten programs are typically associated with:
    • higher achievement for disadvantage and low-income children, and for those receiving Title I services, an almost a universal finding among those researching the academic aspects of full-day programs;
    • greater progress in social skills for disadvantaged and low-income children. (To these two groups, researchers recently have added two additional groups of youngsters. The first could be termed "no, or erratic preschool experience". The research points to an increasing number of children arriving at kindergarten with a wider array of behavioral problems than existed in previous generations. A second new group [ECLS 2001]55 concerns the more widespread existence of behavioral problems in rural and suburban kindergartens. These suburban/rural issues sometimes are not addressed when the "school/community self-image " precludes open discussion about these new challenges. [ECLS 1998 & 2002]56)
    • higher reading scores in the early grades (an almost universal finding among those researching the academic aspects of full-day programs.)
    • fewer grade retentions
    • higher test scores
    • more time spent on individualized diagnosis and instruction
    • access to nutritional breakfast and lunch
    • a more relaxed, less hurried school day with more varied experiences
    • no evidence of excessive fatigue or stress. (The absence of substantial numbers of complaints from parents, teachers, students and administrators, suggests this may be less of a problem than initially predicted.)
    • no evidence of substantive negative consequences, in general, regarding fully implemented full-day Kindergartens. (i.e., "no evidence of harm found").

A FINAL NOTE:

The business community is showing an increasing interest in full-day Kindergarten and early childhood education. For the past four years the prestigious Business Roundtable, a consortium of national business leaders, has made early childhood a priority item on their educational agenda (BRT 2003)57. Research findings documenting a return of seven dollars for every one invested in early childhood education are responsible for the Roundtable becoming interested in this educational issue. Specifically, their support is focused on brain research, some of which indicates that the development of a child’s brain is optimum before age five. (Wolfe 2001, Hagen 2003).58 The benefits of investment in the early years, including full-day kindergarten, is being followed closely by the business community with growing evidence that the commitment produces substantial academic and personal achievement (Strategies for Children 2003).59

CONCLUSION:

In 2004, the results of that United States Department of Education research study will be released. Preliminary results indicate that full-day kindergarten enhances a child’s learning and helps shape parents’ attitude and understanding of the need to balance the traditional kindergarten of socialization activities with more academically-oriented curriculum. Full-day programs allow children and teachers time to explore topics in greater depth, reduces the teacher-student ratio by half, and provides greater continuity and fewer transitions each day for students, many of whom are now placed in other half-day childcare settings. As long as instruction is play-based and developmentally appropriate, there is strong evidence that full-day programs are beneficial to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Additional data will be available later in 2004, from a study currently being undertaken by the United States Department of Education.

Click here to see the Findings from the Full-Day Kindergarten Survey.

Town of Mansfield · Audrey P Beck Municipal Building · 4 South Eagleville Road · Storrs-Mansfield, CT 06268 ·
Phone Directory