by Cara Mia DiMassa, Los
Angeles Times, March 29, 2004
When Maria Covarrubias talks about the benefits of full-day kindergarten,
she speaks from experience. Three of her children attended half-day
programs at Daniel Webster Elementary School in Pasadena, Calif. Now, her
youngest, Matthew, is enrolled in a pilot full-day kindergarten class
there.
Gone are the harried lunch hours used for shuttling children from school
to an afternoon baby-sitter. Matthew spends 6 1/2 hours in class each day,
and his mother, an administrative assistant at an accounting firm in
Monrovia, marvels at not being a midday chauffeur and not spending $100 a
week on child care.
“I really enjoy it,” she said. But more important, she has watched her son
blossom academically, an unexpected result of the longer program, she
said.
“He goes a little further than I think the girls did,” Covarrubias said.
“He has the clearest handwriting. You just have to see it. I think because
they write a lot more, that helps him. I think that’s what it is.”
Kindergarten — that bastion of ABCs, numbers and the three-hour school day
— is going full time. Spurred by demographic, academic and sometimes
economic factors, states and local school districts are embracing full-day
kindergarten at a rapid rate.
In 1969, most American kindergartners attended shortened, usually half-day
programs, the U.S. Census Bureau said. Only about 11 percent were in
programs considered full day — defined as more than four hours but usually
closer to six. By 2000, the percentage enrolled in full-day programs had
grown to 60 percent.
The Pasadena school board voted in October to provide full-day
kindergarten for 24 of its elementary schools in the fall — though some
pilot programs already have begun. Another 33 California districts are
piloting full-day programs.
Nationwide, school districts are realizing that offering full-day
kindergarten may be their best bet for attracting the children of working
parents, to fast-track children with limited English skills toward English
literacy and to keep students competitive. They hope that offering the
full-day program, they will bring more enrollment revenues from their
states.
The Maryland Legislature voted in 2002 to make all of its kindergartens
full-day by 2007. New Mexico has almost completed a five-year plan for all
districts statewide to offer it.
“Where it’s been implemented, we are getting such favorable results,” said
Karen Ehlert, New Mexico’s full-day kindergarten coordinator. “As kids
move into first grade, teachers are astonished at how much the
kindergartners can do in comparison to what they could do when there were
half-day kindergartens.”
Full-day kindergarten gives students, especially those considered at-risk,
more time in a structured setting and a better introduction to English
literacy, said Ellen Junn, a dean in the College of Human Development and
Community Service at California State University-Fullerton and the
president of the California Association for the Education of Young
Children.
Recent studies in Maryland and elsewhere have shown that children who
attend full-day kindergarten are better prepared for first grade than
their half-day counterparts and demonstrate a greater mastery of math,
reading and general learning skills.
Casondra Johnson has noticed similar gains among the 20 students in the
all-day kindergarten class she teaches at Webster Elementary, as part of
Pasadena’s pilot program to extend the day.
“We are getting to cover so much more,” Johnson said.
Johnson said she’s noticed differences in her students. They are, she
says, always a bit exhausted or a bit hyper by day’s end — despite the
requisite half-hour afternoon nap.
But the students also seem to be picking up concepts more quickly, and the
kindergartners who began the school year with what she characterized as
“absolutely limited English skills” are understanding and speaking English
better than she expected.
So far, say education experts, the major obstacles to moving to full-day
kindergarten have been cost and space.
For Covarrubias and her family, the switch to full-day kindergarten has
had a major effect. On a recent school day, she arrived at Matthew’s
classroom to pick him up early. She had planned it as a treat, she said;
Matthew’s response made a mother’s heart sing.
