Is full better than half? Examining the longitudinal effects of full‐day kindergarten attendance

Abstract

Kindergarten policy varies widely both across and within states. Over the past decade, a number of states have instituted a full-day kindergarten requirement and others are considering it as a way to increase educational achievement. Many parents also support full-day kindergarten as a source of child care. This paper uses the Early Child Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 to evaluate the efficacy of this policy. In ordinary least squares, probit, county fixed effects, and instrumental variables models, we find that there are initial benefits for students and the mothers of students who attend full-day kindergarten, but that these differences largely evaporate by third grade. Contrary to claims by some advocates, attending full-day kindergarten is found to have no additional benefit for students in families with income below the poverty threshold. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

The effect of attending full‐day kindergarten on English learner students

“…Contrary to a previous study with national data (Cannon, Jacknowitz, & Painter, 2006), we find that attending full-day kindergarten for EL students in LAUSD reduces the likelihood of being retained in either kindergarten or first grade by 5.2 percentage points compared to half-day students (see Appendix Table 1 for full regression results). 19 We recognize that the magnitude of this finding is very large compared to the average retention rate of 5.1 percent over the 2001-2002 through 2003-2004 school years, when students were in half-day classes (1.4 percent in kindergarten and 19 We did not examine the effects of full-day kindergarten on retention at the end of kindergarten or first grade separately because a small percentage of students are retained in each grade.…”

“…One reason often cited for changing to full-day classes is that they will provide extra academic instruction for economically disadvantaged students who start school with lower academic skills. Yet studies find that attending a full-day kindergarten program does not yield long-term benefits for either lowincome students or their higher-income peers (Cannon, Jacknowitz, & Painter, 2006;DeCicca, 2007). Notable disadvantages for districts offering full-day kindergarten include the costs of extra personnel, facilities, and materials; depending on the objective, these additional resources may be better allocated to other early childhood programs.…”

“…Policy efforts to enhance educational experiences for young children are based on the belief that student achievement is cumulative (Pianta, Cox, & Snow, 2007); therefore, early school success can lead to an increased likelihood of staying in school through high school graduation. Many state and local school district decision makers are interested in policies that expand kindergarten from half day to full day because of perceived benefits for learning (Clark & Kirk, 2000;Kauerz, 2005;Walston & West, 2004).1 However, evidence to date on the actual benefits is limited to short-term gains and does not address how English learner (EL) students fare, which is the focus of this study (Cannon, Jacknowitz, & Painter, 2006;DeCicca, 2007;Le et al, 2006;Lee et al, 2006;Rathbun & West, 2004;Walston & West, 2004).The perceived benefits have led to dramatic growth in the number of students attending full-day kindergarten programs across the country over the past few decades. In 1970, only about 13 percent of children were in full-day kindergarten classes (Elicker & Mathur, 1997), but that number has increased significantly to Bank, 2008).…”

What differences a day can make: Quantile regression estimates of the distribution of daily learning gains

“…Particularly relevant to the current context is the distinction between half-day and full-day kindergarten programs, as some research suggests that full-day programs produce larger learning gains (Cannon et al, 2006;DeCicca, 2007;Gibbs, 2014). Then we might expect to see that time in full-day kindergarten programs has a larger impact on achievement than time in half-day programs.…”

A Developmental Perspective on Full‐ Versus Part‐Day Kindergarten and Children’s Academic Trajectories Through Fifth Grade

“…differences between children enrolled in full-versus part-day programs, more studies have documented significant benefits of full-day kindergarten for children's academic skills (for a review, see Lee et al, 2006). When compared to children attending part-day kindergarten, those attending full-day kindergarten tend to perform better on tests of reading, math, and science achievement, and have lower levels of special education placements and grade retention (Cannon et al, 2006;Clark & Kirk, 2000;Cryan, Sheehan, Wiechel, & Bandy-Hedden, 1992;Elicker & Mathur, 1997;Entwisle, Alexander, Cadigan, & Pallas 1987;Gullo, 2000;Gullo, Bersani, Clements, & Bayless, 1986;Kaplan, 2002;Karweit, 1992;Lee et al, 2006;Walston & West, 2004;Weiss & Offenberg, 2002). Overall, these advantages tend to be small to moderate.…”