Extended Day Kindergarten Pilot

by Lynn K. McMullin

Over the past few years, we have worked diligently to improve reading at Cherry Brook Primary School.  Our focus has been on assessing the reading skills of our youngest students and differentiating instruction to meet the needs of our emerging readers.  In the process, we have successfully turned over a pyramid of support so that we now provide a great deal of tutoring support in kindergarten and require less support for third graders.
We have enjoyed solid, positive results!


Providing tutoring support to our kindergarteners, however, is complicated by the reality of our half-day Kindergarten schedule, which includes not only reading and writing instruction, but also math, science, art, music, computers, PE and Health.  Thus, was born the idea to pilot an extended day program, to collect some relevant data, and analyze whether or not taking extra time to develop background knowledge, foster print readiness, and focus on early reading and math skills makes a significant difference.  Our Extended Day Kindergarten Pilot is yet another effort to provide just the right support to our students at just the right time.


This pilot program is 100% funded by an Open Choice Academic and Social Support Grant which is designed to benefit Choice students and Canton students equally.  Currently, our Open Choice students attend one session of kindergarten in either the morning or the afternoon and spend the remainder of their day at a local daycare/preschool. In this pilot plan, our seven Choice students will remain with us at Cherry Brook for the full day, thus experiencing less time in buses and fewer transitions in their day.


The additional benefit to us is the opportunity to offer placement in this extended day class for seven or eight Canton students.  The composition of the class will be an even combination of students who are 'at goal' and 'below goal' in reading as determined by in-house assessments during the opening weeks of school.  Parents who are interested in this extended day opportunity are currently filling out an application, which requires some background information about their child and a commitment on their part to occasionally volunteer in the extended day classroom.  Additionally, they agree to attend three social gatherings for the extended day kindergarteners and their families and to participate in survey-like data collections.


All our Choice kindergarten students began Extended Day Kindergarten on the first day of school.  We are planning to have the Canton students placed by September 21st.


The extended day kindergarten program will offer the students our suite of intervention strategies, (including Lexia Reading, DIBELS, guided reading groups, interactive read-alouds, etc.); a strong hands-on component; individualized instruction; a focus on building background knowledge as an aid to comprehension; and a wealth of print-rich experiences.


The extended day kindergarten teacher, Ms. Jessica Papp, will also work in the morning, observing and assisting her 15 students in their regular kindergarten classrooms.  She will confer with their teachers, analyze the skills and gaps of her students, and plan for their needs regarding upcoming curriculum.  We’re thrilled that this provides an extra teacher in the morning kindergarten classes, which have larger enrollments than we’ve experienced in the past.


There is an abundance of research comparing half-day and full-day kindergarten programs and analyzing whether children benefit from developmentally appropriate, full-day programs.  Most research states that in terms of early academic achievement, full-day kindergarten gives students a better foundation for school success and helps prevent a future cycle of remediation and possibly grade retention.  Research focuses on primary-grade reading and math skills.


However, the seven studies (one each from 1988, one from 1991, and the rest coming after 1995) were specifically focused on the difference in achievement between full-day and half-day programs for disadvantaged students.  Students were considered disadvantaged based on criteria such as print-rich environments, non-English speaking homes, mother’s highest completed grade in school, and so on.  There is no research study which supports a difference in achievement between full-day and half-day kindergarten for students from print-rich, English-speaking environments, etc.


To that end, we’ll try to analyze our own data collection, by continuing to progress monitor the kindergarten students in reading and math and surveying the parents of these students, and to thereby evaluate the effectiveness of program.


As I mentioned earlier, this is a grant-funded pilot program with no cost to Canton.  Both the teacher’s and the tutor’s salary and benefits are funded by an Open Choice Academic and Social Support grant.