Full-Day Kindergarten: Return on Ridgefield’s Investment
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- Details
- Category: Education
- Last Updated on Sunday, 22 May 2011 09:09
- Written by Terri Garlick
By Pat Michael, Assistant Superintendent and Mark Solomon, Principal – Scotland Elementary School
Why did Ridgefield’s educators encourage a full-day program for Ridgefield’s children? The simple answer is that, in an age of rigorous, “pressure-cooker” standards, a full day program allows young children the time to learn the way they are supposed to learn—through exploration, experimentation, and social interaction in a variety of settings.
Ridgefield’s full-day Kindergarten program was built on the following assumptions: A well-designed full-day program allows kindergarteners to experience a balanced day that includes both planned instruction and play experiences. In addition to the academic advantages provided by the increased instructional time, full-day programs provide more time for enrichment, activity centers, projects, and free play. The opportunities for child-centered, creative activities, as well as opportunities for developing social skills, contribute to children’s advances in verbalization, vocabulary, language comprehension, attention span, imagination, concentration, impulse control, curiosity, problem-solving strategies, cooperation, empathy, and group participation.
The program has been a resounding success, both educationally and as a long-term savings to the district in terms of avoiding the high cost of future interventions. District data indicates that by January, approximately 80% of our full-day K students had achieved what their half-day peers had achieved by June in previous years. In fact, many of this year’s kindergarteners have already achieved reading, writing, and math levels that their half-day peers are just now achieving in first grade.
This translates into long-term savings for the district. Why? Students, who are at-risk for school problems due to delayed development, disabilities, or limited preschool experiences, and who attend rigorous and nurturing full-day programs, are more likely to have stronger achievement in basic skill areas and generally better preparation for first grade. For all children, full-day kindergarten programs help increase academic achievement.
Parents who are new to the district, as well as parents who have experienced both the half and full day programs with their children, are enthusiastic about the program their children experience. In a series of separate interviews, comments reflected their high satisfaction with the program.
“Both my husband and I, feel that full day kindergarten has been a great benefit.” “With the expanded day, there is more time for the kindergarten curriculum.” “My current kindergartener is light-years ahead of where my other two children were who participated in half-day.” “I do see a big difference in the reading. My son is reading at a level that my daughter wasn’t reading at until the end of first grade.” “I’ve seen a lot more math than I saw in a half-day program.”
My full day kindergartener adores it. The biggest difference I’ve seen is the sense of community they’ve developed. In fact, my son says to “Tell everyone full day K is WAY better than half-day kindergarten!” “On Dr. Seuss’ birthday, my daughter came home and said ‘Guess What? Guess What? Something magical happened today…I can read!’”
Parent satisfaction and the success of our students demonstrate that Ridgefield’s investment in full day kindergarten has generated a huge return.
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