All-Day Kindergarten Overview

Definitive Studies
• U.S Department of Ed. Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998 (ECLS-K) 22,000 children at K entry, only data set of its kind
• Goldwater Institute’s Assessing Proposals for Preschool & Kindergartners: Essential Information for Parents, Taxpayers, & Policy Makers
• Kansas Report, by Dr. Sherrill Martinez and Lue Ann Snider with the Planning and Research Department, Kansas State Department of Education.
• Massachusetts district report to parents, “The empirical evidence on all-day, half-day, and alternate-day programs suggest that there are no clear differential effects of kindergarten schedules on both academic achievement and classroom social behaviors. Therefore, Medway can consider financial, philosophical, and other factors in deciding kindergarten schedules.”
• Rand Corporation
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Hoover Press

Tendency of Educators to Use Flawed Studies
• Not longitudinal hiding “Fade Out”. Problems with full-day kindergarten studies included the following: there was no comparison group, children were not followed past their kindergarten or first grade year, sample sizes were small.
• Who are doing the studies? Result Driven Studies Done by the School Districts

Hitting a Developmental Brick Wall
• Linda Plevyak, assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Cincinnati, said the pressure in the upper primary grades to perform well on standardized tests is trickling down to kindergarten and preschool. “Unfortunately, we’re challenging developmentally appropriate practice,'’ Plevyak said, “When we look at a child’s chronological age, they’re 5-year-olds and entering kindergarten. We can’t go beyond a certain level before hitting a brick wall.”

Historical Expansion of Early Childhood Programs Has Not Provided Results
• Andrew Coulson reports, “Student achievement has stagnated or fallen in most subjects since 1970…That is the verdict of the five most reliable sources of evidence: the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the International Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA), the Young Adult Literacy Survey (YALS), the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), and the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS).”

The Students Start Unprepared Myth
• 4th, 8th, & 12th grade international comparisons show 4th “A” students, 8th “C” students, & 12th “D” students. Longer in the system, the worse they perform. The problems are in the middle and high schools.

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