Since 1990, many small studies have compared the academic progress of full-day kindergarten students to that of their half-day peers. In general, these studies were done by educators for educators and primarily focused on academic achievement in the first and second grade. Almost without exception, the results of these studies indicate that full-day kindergarten students have an academic advantage in the first and second grades. These studies have been compiled by groups such as the Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has a stated primary objective to influence state and national policy related to early childhood education. This group of studies has no doubt helped to fuel the current nationwide trend toward full-day kindergarten.
It is interesting to note that very few of the studies highlighted by ECAP are longitudinal studies that follow the students well beyond the second year. Fortunately, other studies clearly demonstrate that the academic advantage does not survive beyond 3rd grade. State testing in New York starts in grade 3 and the results are published annually in the New York Times. Unfortunately, (as pointed out by Steve below) the history of this data is not extensive enough to draw many conclusions about the districts in this area when one considers that most districts were half-day when the 3rd through 8th graders were in kindergarten. I had originally posted a quick survey of this data that seemed to indicate a strong advantage for half-day students academically in the 8th grade, but Steve's comment convinced me that my analysis was flawed and so I deleted it. For those interested in the long term impact of full-day kindergarten academically, please see the papers Steve refers to in his comment below.
There have been some nation-wide longitudinal studies on FDK vs HDK, and they also show that any academic gains disappear by 3rd grade (or at least, they don't show up on standardized tests).
ReplyDeleteHere's the first two sentences of the abstract from a 2010 analysis published in Review of Educational Research:
A meta-analysis found that attending full-day (or all-day) kindergarten had a positive association with academic achievement (compared to half-day kindergarten) equal to about one quarter standard deviation at the end of the kindergarten year. But the association disappeared by third grade.
If you'd like to see more research, here's a link to a search result for papers that cited a seminal (in my opinion) paper from 1989:
http://www.scopus.com/results/citedbyresults.url?sort=plf-f&cite=2-s2.0-38249023601&src=s&imp=t&sid=Xb-ez_l2ynGn5SFRSVyVv-S%3a30&sot=cite&sdt=a&sl=0&origin=inward&txGid=Xb-ez_l2ynGn5SFRSVyVv-S%3a2
Not one of them finds an effect that lasts through 3rd grade, many find that the effect is gone at the end of 1st grade.
Averill Park moved to FDK in 2003 (http://www.averillpark.k12.ny.us/apquestions/apquestions.html). Bethlehem, Guilderland, South Colonie, Scotia-Glenville, Waterford-Halfmoon, Schalmont and Rotterdam-Mohanasen switched last year in 2009 (http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Bell-ringing-for-full-day-kindergarten-546642.php). East Greenbush and Saratoga are proving harder to track down. Later than 1998, but I don't know any more detail than that. Ballston Spa (not on the list) moved more recently than 2005.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the type of analysis you did doesn't really apply here, since the eighth graders (and most of the third graders) in the "full-day" group actually went to half-day Kindergarten.
Thanks for looking that all up, Steve. When I have a bit more time, I will have to rerun the analysis with all these things accounted for. It looks like my conclusions may be affected quite a bit. I didn't realize so many districts had switched last year!
ReplyDelete